The apps that Americans search to “delete” the most • Hacker News Board

Re: The apps that Americans search to “delete” the most

#51

Post by bmarquez » Wed, Mar 08, 2023, 5:09 PM UTC

dangerboysteve wrote: post #26

loeg wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possibly post-Musk Twitter. Half or more of the people I read left the platform and the app keeps getting worse.

I don't believe this for a second.

I think it's highly dependent on the user. A technically inclined HN user probably knows people who shifted to a tech Mastodon instance (like infosec.exchange).

As a personal anecdote, the people I know who cut back on Twitter did so long before Musk due to general social media burnout.

Re: The apps that Americans search to “delete” the most

#52

Post by ec_gv » Wed, Mar 08, 2023, 5:10 PM UTC

I made an Instagram account recently and within 10 minutes they banned my account for being suspicious, asking for a mobile number. I gave them my number and then the account got banned again for the same reason. I didn't post anything or do anything suspicious, is this common?

Re: The apps that Americans search to “delete” the most

#53

Post by bwi4 » Wed, Mar 08, 2023, 5:11 PM UTC

I don’t use FB or IG, but my partner is able to do amazing things with IG. She’s able to market her business and convert to sales. I’m pretty good at finding info but for local topics she frequently finds more up-to-date stuff from IG than I can find through public channels. She connects me to stories about nieces and nephews that aren’t posted elsewhere. I do catch her doing the glazed eye infinite scroll sometimes, but we all need downtime. If it seems excessive or stress inducing, I’ll gently point it out so she can self-moderate.

Re: The apps that Americans search to “delete” the most

#54

Post by ivanech » Wed, Mar 08, 2023, 5:11 PM UTC

I’ve had a very positive experience with instagram — it’s my favorite social media thing. My feed is friends, paintings, photos, bikes, and furniture.

I also used the shopping tab (never bought anything there though) because its recommendations were great for finding specific things with the aesthetic I was looking for. I wish it was still in the app.

Re: The apps that Americans search to “delete” the most

#55

Post by sureglymop » Wed, Mar 08, 2023, 5:12 PM UTC

nlh wrote: post #41

A personal anecdote: I use Instagram for my hobby/business (coin & paper money collecting & dealing). I have mercilessly curated my feed to be ONLY people who post content purely related to the numismatic world. No real-life friends, no travel posts from random semi-friends, no selfies, none of that garbage. If someone starts posting it, I unfollow them. And for the ads -- I click on ads related to cat toys and pet f…

What I hate is that even if you curate it that meticulously (gid forbid you click on the wrong thing and mess it all up), you still get fed so many random ads and "people you could follow". Just a completely whack user unfriendly platform in my experience.

Re: The apps that Americans search to “delete” the most

#56

Post by orwin » Wed, Mar 08, 2023, 5:12 PM UTC

dangerboysteve wrote: post #26

loeg wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possibly post-Musk Twitter. Half or more of the people I read left the platform and the app keeps getting worse.

I don't believe this for a second.

The vast majority of cybersec people I followed left, and tbh I only used the platform for them.

Re: The apps that Americans search to “delete” the most

#57

Post by lastLinkedList » Wed, Mar 08, 2023, 5:12 PM UTC

tristor wrote: post #43

My wife convinced me to install Instagram so she could send me videos of stuff. My experience was that at first it was annoying, then I found out I could follow some cool hobbyist folks working on cars, old computer systems, electronics, and of course all the mechanical keyboard content, as well as travel (I'm an extensive world traveler and used to post travel content on Instagram over 5 years ago) and I got sucked…

The thing I dislike the most about Instagram is it seems like at some point it will be like "I'm done showing you content from your feed, here is generically popular stuff". There's a divider and a little message, but if I'm casually scrolling I might miss it and I'm on my timeline, if I wanted to be on Discover I'd be on Discover.

Re: The apps that Americans search to “delete” the most

#58

Post by Aromasin » Wed, Mar 08, 2023, 5:13 PM UTC

Gualdrapo wrote: post #30

I guess I am too slow in that I opened a Facebook account for the first time ever in may 2012 and it was where everybody seemed to be at, only for a couple years later everybody started to open a parallel Instagram account - I never could understand why people would want to use another thing additional to a thing that could do the same? In those years you could notice Facebook became a wasteland, the Cambridge analyt…

The same way people handle Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote. They fulfill different functions to different people. I could do notes, make spreadsheets, or produce presentations in any one of those apps, but each task is more or less practical in each tool.

I haven't used social media in a while, but when I did they fulfilled these separate functions:

Facebook - Keeping up to data with family (or anyone over the age of 40). Communicating with Social groups/organizing events. Messaging friends and family with Messenger.

Instagram - Maintaining a photo diary of my life. Sharing what I'm doing currently with friends. Following celebrities. Messaging.

Twitter - Following celebrities, but textually rather than with video stories. Keeping up to date on current events and trends.

Snapchat - To be honest, Instagram stole SnapChats cake completely for me when they made Stories. Younger generations use it more from my experience. Used it largely for messaging without a paper trail.

TikTok - Entertainment and following social trends. It's like YouTube, but with a better recommendation algorithm and shorter form videos.

Re: The apps that Americans search to “delete” the most

#59

Post by sib » Wed, Mar 08, 2023, 5:14 PM UTC

The "analysis" doesn't seem to have been normalized by number of installs or MAU...

Re: The apps that Americans search to “delete” the most

#60

Post by donclark » Wed, Mar 08, 2023, 5:18 PM UTC

Where are we headed? What app should we use to share/communicate with others in a group setting without ads or having an option to have our data not to be mined or sold?

Is there a HN poll of a range of apps and how many is using each (and maybe a daily/weekly time usage of each)?

Some data to review below (*may be biased):