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Steve Wozniak Says People Should Get Off Facebook Permanently

gizmodo.com

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Re: Steve Wozniak Says People Should Get Off Facebook Permanently

#51

Post by javagram »

rhacker wrote: post #37
dbingham wrote: post #8

The thing that holds me to Facebook is that it's become the town square for my local community. It's where people go to discuss the community's political challenges. So many important dialogs about local issues happen on Facebook, and it's the only real way to be a part of those conversations. Things like zoning, planning, city and county budgeting, ordinances, and so on. If I leave, not only do I lose the ability to…

It seems like we are all royally screwed if policy is now being decided on and only through facebook. I have never had a FB account and will never have one. It seems extremely crazy to be required to go through a bunch of legal terms of service just to participate in government. In fact it may be illegal technically.

That seems extremely exaggerated. What’s illegal about private citizens choosing to use a service like Facebook to talk to each other?

If you want to “participate in government” nothing stops you from showing up to town or county council meetings, planning commissions, and so on, or from sending letters to your elected officials, or a phone call, or running for office yourself.

Re: Steve Wozniak Says People Should Get Off Facebook Permanently

#52

Post by cols »

I just passed my two year anniversary with no FB, Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat and I've never been happier. I convinced my wife to cut the cord about a year ago and she completely agrees. For me it was an addiction. I was compulsively checking FB many times an hour to stay caught up with people. This was after culling my friends list multiple times. Turns out, life goes on just fine without a constant water hose of relationship/political drama.

Ultimately, it is no more difficult to stay in touch with my real friends than it was with FB. I rely on text, phone calls, and emails. Occasionally, I will use LinkedIn to touch base with people, but primarily, I just text/call. And honestly, it's great.

I highly recommend cutting the cord.

Re: Steve Wozniak Says People Should Get Off Facebook Permanently

#53

Post by mxuribe »

carlob wrote: post #41
rhacker wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like we are all royally screwed if policy is now being decided on and only through facebook. I have never had a FB account and will never have one. It seems extremely crazy to be required to go through a bunch of legal terms of service just to participate in government. In fact it may be illegal technically.

I totally agree with you. And I'm very scared of the day a job, the school my kids go to or whatever important life activity will require me to have a facebook, whatsapp, linkedin, twitter or whatever account. We need something to replace these, possibly a federated, open standard, but I guess even the self hosted forums of yore were much better than this.

There are numerous alternatives that could (and hopeful should) replace FB - through what is referred to as the FediVerse - specifically via Pleroma, Mastodon, GnuSocial, etc. While admittedly mastodon is the platform that gets the most mindshare (and most users access the fediverse through it), it is not the only one...And much like email, users employing mastodon as "their tool" can communicate with other users who might employ other tools like pleroma, etc. Users have a choice! And, this federated universe is all aligning on open federated standards like ActivityPub [1]. So, yeah, there are options already in existence...and, the challenge is less technical, and more: "how do you get YOUR network of friends/family onto the fediverse?" Well, the migration has already begun, so it should only be a matter of time...

[1] https://www.w3.org/TR/activitypub/

Re: Steve Wozniak Says People Should Get Off Facebook Permanently

#54

Post by sjg007 »

rhacker wrote: post #37
dbingham wrote: post #8

The thing that holds me to Facebook is that it's become the town square for my local community. It's where people go to discuss the community's political challenges. So many important dialogs about local issues happen on Facebook, and it's the only real way to be a part of those conversations. Things like zoning, planning, city and county budgeting, ordinances, and so on. If I leave, not only do I lose the ability to…

It seems like we are all royally screwed if policy is now being decided on and only through facebook. I have never had a FB account and will never have one. It seems extremely crazy to be required to go through a bunch of legal terms of service just to participate in government. In fact it may be illegal technically.

You still need to have a city council meeting etc... my guess is that FB just helps get the conversation going. My problem with FB townhalls is that it just degenerates into politics, gun rights and trolls. You also get out of towners weighing in usually as trolls. I think the local newspaper is better forum.

Re: Steve Wozniak Says People Should Get Off Facebook Permanently

#55

Post by rv-de »

cols wrote: post #52

I just passed my two year anniversary with no FB, Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat and I've never been happier. I convinced my wife to cut the cord about a year ago and she completely agrees. For me it was an addiction. I was compulsively checking FB many times an hour to stay caught up with people. This was after culling my friends list multiple times. Turns out, life goes on just fine without a constant water hose o…

Congratulations! It's soon to be my first anniversary sans FaBIGWA.

(only exception was the Go I recently sold and the Quest I might get in near future)

Re: Steve Wozniak Says People Should Get Off Facebook Permanently

#56

Post by gadders »

Do people really care what Steve Wozniak has to say on anything these days? He did some excellent hardware work in his day, but not sure that carries much weight on Facebook usage in 2019. He just seems to be a reliable rent-a-quote for journalists to go to when up against a deadline.

Re: Steve Wozniak Says People Should Get Off Facebook Permanently

#57

Post by sailfast »

dbingham wrote: post #8

The thing that holds me to Facebook is that it's become the town square for my local community. It's where people go to discuss the community's political challenges. So many important dialogs about local issues happen on Facebook, and it's the only real way to be a part of those conversations. Things like zoning, planning, city and county budgeting, ordinances, and so on. If I leave, not only do I lose the ability to…

When I bought my new house, I got to join the neighborhood Facebook group. That’s where all the news happens. They used to have a listserv, but the on onboarding is better / easier on Facebook and you get more features than a listserv - because everyone is already there plus threaded comments.

I really wish it were somewhere else so I didn’t have to log on. I’m just not sure where else it would be and still see the same level of engagement.

Re: Steve Wozniak Says People Should Get Off Facebook Permanently

#58

Post by NetOpWibby »

rv-de wrote: post #55
cols wrote: post #52

I just passed my two year anniversary with no FB, Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat and I've never been happier. I convinced my wife to cut the cord about a year ago and she completely agrees. For me it was an addiction. I was compulsively checking FB many times an hour to stay caught up with people. This was after culling my friends list multiple times. Turns out, life goes on just fine without a constant water hose o…

Congratulations! It's soon to be my first anniversary sans FaBIGWA. (only exception was the Go I recently sold and the Quest I might get in near future)

If you or a loved one is suffering from FaBIGWA...

Ask your doctor if happiness is right for you.

Re: Steve Wozniak Says People Should Get Off Facebook Permanently

#59

Post by vikingcaffiene »

I respect Woz and his contributions to computer science. Tbh tho every time I see an article like this it makes me scratch my head. It’s always something along the lines of “Woz says you should do something that has been old news and most anyone who would care is already doing or agrees with”. It’s not that he’s wrong. It’s just... why is this news? He’s just making a very safe statement for the audience being targeted.

Re: Steve Wozniak Says People Should Get Off Facebook Permanently

#60

Post by hinkley »

ej12n wrote: post #27
dbingham wrote: post #8

The thing that holds me to Facebook is that it's become the town square for my local community. It's where people go to discuss the community's political challenges. So many important dialogs about local issues happen on Facebook, and it's the only real way to be a part of those conversations. Things like zoning, planning, city and county budgeting, ordinances, and so on. If I leave, not only do I lose the ability to…

Nextdoor comes to mind, but not necessarily a local online town square which I agree with your comment that a source like that is invaluable to keep up with local issues.

I've seen too many stories of people discovering their neighbors are racist/classist assholes on Nextdoor to want to participate. Leave me a few illusions about the inherent goodness of people.
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