U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says • Hacker News Board

Re: U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says

#231

Post by CamelCaseName » Thu, Mar 07, 2019, 1:15 AM UTC

marssaxman wrote: post #59

bad_user wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instagram is almost unusable due to the ads. Every 3 or 4 posts you see an ad. The only way Instagram isn't obnoxious is on the desktop, in a browser, with an ad-blocker installed. I love WhatsApp, but they haven't found good ways to monetize it yet and one of these days they'll ruin it.

I found the instagram app to be unusable as you describe, but https://www.instagram.com works fine on my phone using firefox with an adblocker.

Interestingly enough, direct messaging is only available in app. A workaround had to be created by an ex-Instagram employee.

Re: U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says

#232

Post by stared » Thu, Mar 07, 2019, 1:16 AM UTC

12-35 is a huge age range (3x!). Either it is a really strange methodology (biding underage and adults? seriously?) or it is to distort the interpretation.

I bet the decline is not uniform - does anyone know which age ranges are down (or up)?

Re: U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says

#233

Post by nerdponx » Thu, Mar 07, 2019, 1:22 AM UTC

toomanybeersies wrote: post #182

I'm going to go against the grain here and say that I really like Facebook and think that overall it's a good platform with some flaws. Right now I'm messaging 2 different groups and about 5 different people, while organising an event that's happening in a few weeks, and organising supplies and camping for a festival on the weekend. After this festival in the weekend, I can post the photos I took on Facebook, where e…

The idea of Facebook was and remains great. This is a story of hubris, plain and simple.

Re: U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says

#234

Post by gerdesj » Thu, Mar 07, 2019, 1:26 AM UTC

I started reading some comments here and then fired up FB in another tab because I have been away from it for quite a long time. The first post is: "Add a phone number to your Facebook account"

No.

FB knows my number indirectly via friends anyway but I have not ever given it permission to actually admit to knowing it. I never will. To be fair, I have never received a call that I could attribute to FB abusing that chain of cough trust.

Re: U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says

#235

Post by pkulak » Thu, Mar 07, 2019, 1:28 AM UTC

gerdesj wrote: post #234

I started reading some comments here and then fired up FB in another tab because I have been away from it for quite a long time. The first post is: "Add a phone number to your Facebook account" No. FB knows my number indirectly via friends anyway but I have not ever given it permission to actually admit to knowing it. I never will. To be fair, I have never received a call that I could attribute to FB abusing that cha…

Careful not to cut yourself on that edge.

Re: U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says

#236

Post by marssaxman » Thu, Mar 07, 2019, 1:28 AM UTC

CamelCaseName wrote: post #231

marssaxman wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found the instagram app to be unusable as you describe, but https://www.instagram.com works fine on my phone using firefox with an adblocker.

Interestingly enough, direct messaging is only available in app. A workaround had to be created by an ex-Instagram employee.

I guess that explains why I don't think of Instagram as a messaging service. What is the workaround?

Re: U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says

#237

Post by maybelater » Thu, Mar 07, 2019, 1:28 AM UTC

gerdesj wrote: post #234

I started reading some comments here and then fired up FB in another tab because I have been away from it for quite a long time. The first post is: "Add a phone number to your Facebook account" No. FB knows my number indirectly via friends anyway but I have not ever given it permission to actually admit to knowing it. I never will. To be fair, I have never received a call that I could attribute to FB abusing that cha…

But what is your point? Facebook asked for your phone number, as many services do, and you declined. You assume they have your number already, but they don't use it, but they asked you.

I don't follow...

Re: U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says

#238

Post by elliekelly » Thu, Mar 07, 2019, 1:29 AM UTC

davnicwil wrote: post #154

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would gladly pay $5-$10 a month for something that didn't sell my data. Hmm. Facebook has something like 2 billion profiles. Of course, most of them wouldn't pay $5/month - say that only one percent would. 20 million profiles times $5/month = $100 million/month. It might be worth it for someone to try to build such a thing...

An anecdotal story about this - a couple of years ago I built a paid, ad-free privacy-focused social network, did several Show HNs for it and even here, in a community that seems quite receptive to the idea in principle, there was extremely low interest in it. I got probably 50 sign-ups over a few Show HNs, no more than 4/5 upvotes and comments on the most well-received Show HN, and those who came in just posted one…

For a few months now I've been toying with the idea of a "mutual data fund." A social network that collects & anonymizes user data, pools the data on behalf of all users (similar to how a mutual fund pools investor cash), and the data is "invested" (sold to advertisers) by a management company (like an investment adviser) with the data always under the ownership and control of an independent Board of Trustees (same as a mutual fund). Just like a mutual fund, the "returns" from the data would be used to pay the investment adviser for operating costs + some flat % and the rest of the returns would be allocated to users on a pro-rata basis. So the people who use the platform more or share higher-quality content get more "shares" (the investment kind, not the social media kind) of the ad revenue than those who aren't on the site often or share fake news or just annoy the crap out of everyone else.

Most users probably wouldn't make a whole lot of money on the platform but they'd have privacy and ownership of their data and they might end up with $5 or $10 after a year on the platform.

Re: U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says

#239

Post by Retric » Thu, Mar 07, 2019, 1:35 AM UTC

rconti wrote: post #99

kristopolous wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just like with twitter, it all depends on who you follow; Some content is dramatically better than others. And just like with twitter, most of the content is essentially garbage.

Agreed. And I think this is one reason I love FB and can't stand Twitter. I kept buying into the "follow important people on Twitter" and it's just crap. I don't care what a noted Icelandic volcanologist retweeted about canaries. I don't care what my favorite F1 driver retweeted about english football. I don't care. I don't follow "influencers" because I don't care what they think, but I thought at least getting thin…

Following interesting people generally has nothing to do with following celebrities.

People could post the same stuff on FB, Twitter, or email lists the hard part is finding stuff worth subscribing to. It’s really more about what platform creators use, and Twitter’s lightweight nature means a lot of interesting things end up on it.

Re: U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says

#240

Post by pandapower2 » Thu, Mar 07, 2019, 1:35 AM UTC

stcredzero wrote: post #81

kojackst wrote: post #10

Note: personal opinion bellow It seems to me that the overall interest in Facebook is decreasing. The social network hasn't had any interesting feature added to it in the last couple of years. It's becoming boring and boring, so that's why I believe people are leaving. Still, Instagram and WhatsApp are running strong with barely no competition. We don't see any news about their user base decreasing and news channels…

It's becoming boring and boring, so that's why I believe people are leaving. The problem with Facebook, is that either it's boring, or it's not boring, and in that case it's often far worse. Facebook latched onto the fact that outrage measures as "engagement" then other people latched onto that fact and started to use Facebook for their own outrage mongering purposes. Still, Instagram and WhatsApp are running strong…

>one app with three "skins" and three different brands, each a different level of "edginess."

They aren't a tech company as such but this reminded me of Coca Cola. There's Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Coke No Sugar plus whatever flavored variations they are currently doing. They are all slight variations on more or less the same product but it gives people the feeling that they are making a choice.