31–40 of 76 posts
Facebook helps me stay in touch with people I might not otherwise stay in touch with. It brings value into my life.
Personally I think facebook, instagram, and WhatsApp should be broken apart.
By the same logic couldn’t you also blame cell phones and the internet? And the radio? And the printing press... and any technology that increases the dissemination rate of information?
No, because "dissemination of information" is not why Facebook is so problematic. Their core philosophy of "connecting the world" is itself fundamentally flawed. There's entire fields of psychology devoted to understanding how humans connect and interact (including e.g. Robin Dunbar), and Facebook hasn't listened or followed any of it, instead preferring to build a platform that, in the end, actually breaks our abili…
Personally I've been off of Facebook since 2008 but...don't hate the player, hate the game. Facebook makes big money serving ultra-targeted ads for their customers. But, it's not the only one: see Twitter, Google, etc. Penalizing Facebook without also changing the incentive structure (personalized advertising) is a short-term, short-sighted fix.
How about hating the player and the game? The game is shit, yeah. But so's this anyone who enthusiastically said "yes, I would like to find ways to monetize people's desire to talk with each other, and do not care in the least if this involves being paid to spread disinformation, or making ad view money off of pushing people towards insane viewpoints". Yes, this includes Google. This includes Twitter. This includes e…
This conversation has been had on HN a few dozen times now, so let me predict posts we'll see: > Framing of Facebook as just the next stage in the evolution of mass media. > Personal story about how Facebook helped someone find help or companionship in a tough time. > Admonitions about how Facebook's benefits are not worth the societal cost. > A call for regulation. > A call for a free-market solution. > A post from…
This conversation has been had on HN a few dozen times now, so let me predict posts we'll see: > Framing of Facebook as just the next stage in the evolution of mass media. > Personal story about how Facebook helped someone find help or companionship in a tough time. > Admonitions about how Facebook's benefits are not worth the societal cost. > A call for regulation. > A call for a free-market solution. > A post from…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How about hating the player and the game? The game is shit, yeah. But so's this anyone who enthusiastically said "yes, I would like to find ways to monetize people's desire to talk with each other, and do not care in the least if this involves being paid to spread disinformation, or making ad view money off of pushing people towards insane viewpoints". Yes, this includes Google. This includes Twitter. This includes e…
And how much exacy are you willing to pay per Google search?
I frankly think Zuckerberg started out as a “good” guy. When you think about connecting the world it sounded great at the time, what could be better than more contact with more people? Especially when you can make billions of dollars doing it. Then it turns out that people are horrible and that over-connecting them can be fatally destructive. To deal with his cognitive dissonance at building something of nuclear-weap…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're implicitly arguing that Facebook should be a censor. Censoring at scale is a fool's errand. Change the incentive structure. Make Facebook operate by subscription, make timelines linear, etc. You'll never stop people from spreading dumb shit online, but you can stop it being willfully propagated to maximize engagement.
But this is absurd. We can’t give them a free pass and believe the fact that they can’t moderate content. They want all benefits of being this global giant, but none of the responsibilities. If you can’t moderate and provide a clean environment, maybe we should break them up or restrict their power, because it’s obvious they can’t handle it.
This conversation has been had on HN a few dozen times now, so let me predict posts we'll see: > Framing of Facebook as just the next stage in the evolution of mass media. > Personal story about how Facebook helped someone find help or companionship in a tough time. > Admonitions about how Facebook's benefits are not worth the societal cost. > A call for regulation. > A call for a free-market solution. > A post from…
Facebook is being targeted by cancel culture because of their refusal to entirely ban republicans off their platform.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, because "dissemination of information" is not why Facebook is so problematic. Their core philosophy of "connecting the world" is itself fundamentally flawed. There's entire fields of psychology devoted to understanding how humans connect and interact (including e.g. Robin Dunbar), and Facebook hasn't listened or followed any of it, instead preferring to build a platform that, in the end, actually breaks our abili…
If Facebook had acted morally according to your definition, wouldn’t some other less moral company step in with their own version which would be more popular (I guess because it’s engineered to be maximally viral rather than promote... social well-being) because free market. Which following that train of logic to me implies that social media basically should be regulated. What do you think?
Or, to put it succinctly: it's a people problem, and people problems are hard.