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Facebook 'boring'? 1 in 3 users are tuning it out

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Re: Facebook 'boring'? 1 in 3 users are tuning it out

#21

Post by jdminhbg »

simonsarris wrote: post #14

66% of users are tuning in? That's great! Every time a Facebook usage topic comes up there's the usual round of scorn usually backed up by a strange display of plumage involving the sentence, "I just deleted my facebook yesterday/last month/last year/never used it." And that's okay. But I want to point out to my fellow HN-goers why facebook is so wonderful. There's also a note about privacy at the bottom[1] since tha…

> These functions in times past were done with the laborous process of making a million letters or phone calls or in many cases (like my hometown page) scarcely made or not made at all.

Or with Geocities? FB hardly invented the concept of a page on the internet where events are listed. I'm sure it provides some nice functionality around calendaring and networking, but we didn't go from xeroxed fliers to Facebook with nothing in between.

Personally, I didn't delete my FB account because of privacy issues, I deleted it to make FB less useful to people who know me. Using the site was a constant exercise in using the site, rather than gaining utility out of it -- hiding apps, hiding people, keeping up with baby photos. Now that I don't have an account, nobody tries to message me or expects me to see something they posted; the social obligation's gone. I don't have to wade through 50 Farmville clone updates to get to an important message someone sent me. It's in my email now.

Re: Facebook 'boring'? 1 in 3 users are tuning it out

#22

Post by chaz »

The metric that continues to really impress me about Facebook: 58% of users log in each day (that's 526mm DAU out of 901mm MAU, according to its SEC filing). That's roughly the same percentage as it was in 2007, when I first heard that kind of stat.

I love customer surveys, but I don't think people are good at estimating how they actually spend their time or how frequently they do things.

Re: Facebook 'boring'? 1 in 3 users are tuning it out

#23

Post by evincarofautumn »

ph33r wrote: post #10

Just checked the list of apps I am 'hiding' from my News Feed... It's no wonder people are tuning it out: Angry Birds Friends, Battle Pirates, Bejeweled Blitz, Bingo Island, Budweiser King Club, Camelot: The Game, CastleVille Daily Horoscope, Family Feud, Games on Mindjolt, Happy Pets, Hidden Chronicles, Hockey Pool, Horoscopes, Light of Nova, Lucky Slots: Reno, Marvel: Avengers Alliance, Miner Speed, Mirrorball Slot…

The “Social Reader” applications are the worst. All I end up doing is Googling the article title.

Luckily, I don’t think Yahoo! and the Washington Post care an awful lot about the sort of people who log into Facebook at most once a week, and then mainly to use chat.

Re: Facebook 'boring'? 1 in 3 users are tuning it out

#24

Post by triathlete »

trebuch3t wrote: post #20
ajays wrote: post #5

My status updates have gone from about 1/day a couple of years ago, to about 1/week now. Even though I've blocked all apps, etc., I find FB to be too noisy. The only thing I like about FB is that I can keep track of friends' events, like babies, marriages, breakups, trips, etc.

Agreed. Facebook has turned into a stream of blabber and pictures of people's kids (no offence). What is NOT noisy is: * Path (just my close friends) * Pair (just my girlfriend) * Google+ (the "what's hot" news feed is actually pretty interesting)

Likewise agree. Too much freaking noise. Annoying interface and horrible ads. Im in the process of moving over to twitter.

Re: Facebook 'boring'? 1 in 3 users are tuning it out

#25

Post by snorkel »

its_so_on wrote: post #12

I think facebook should charge 75 cents per month to use it. This will weed out users who just don't care; it will give more information to advertisers as well. Oh and what's that? 75 cents per month actually ends up tripling their income! (if they now get $9 per year off the seventy-five cents, plus the same four in ad revenue.) Anyway if even 75 cents per month is too much, then they can go ahead and make OEM deals…

FB's golden goose is that is has the web's largest social audience and therby specific demographic data about everyone. FB shareholders would run screaming for the exits if ever a paid subscription were forced on its users.

FB's achilles heal is exactly this: it's getting boring.

Re: Facebook 'boring'? 1 in 3 users are tuning it out

#26

Post by edibrac »

simonsarris wrote: post #14

66% of users are tuning in? That's great! Every time a Facebook usage topic comes up there's the usual round of scorn usually backed up by a strange display of plumage involving the sentence, "I just deleted my facebook yesterday/last month/last year/never used it." And that's okay. But I want to point out to my fellow HN-goers why facebook is so wonderful. There's also a note about privacy at the bottom[1] since tha…

IMHO privacy alone IS enough to negate the utility of Facebook. Privacy is not about just your name, gender and address. Nor even about what movies, music and books you enjoy. It's down to how you express yourself in words and what can be inferred by them. Your pics might seen harmless, but there's plenty you can infer from them too.

Sure, there's controls on which groups of facebook friends can see things, but in the end, this all goes into a FB database somewhere, which who knows has access to it, or backups to it. Enjoy being harvested voluntarily. Might not matter to you in particular.

On the flip side perhaps, humans might not be easily categorized and predicated like bits of data. That we become ok with reading about things that weren't intended for our demographic profile. But if I were to bet money on it, I'd bet against that.

IMHO privacy alone IS enough to negate the utility of Facebook. Privacy is not about just your name, gender and address. Nor even about what movies, music and books you enjoy. It's down to how you express yourself in words and what can be inferred by them. Your pics might seen harmless, but there's plenty you can infer from them too.

Sure, there's controls on which groups of facebook friends can see things, but in the end, this all goes into a FB database somewhere, which who knows has access to it, or backups to it. Enjoy being harvested voluntarily. Might not matter to you in particular.

On the flip side, maybe from a philosophical point of view humans might not be easily categorized and predicated like bits of data. That we become ok with reading about things that weren't intended for our demographic profile. But if I were to bet money on it, I'd bet against that.

I guess, I can say this since I've never been a heavy FB user and I see little of the benefits from it. Maybe I need to upgrade my friends. They say that to many, FB is the internet to them -- we'll see how this lasts in the long run.

Re: Facebook 'boring'? 1 in 3 users are tuning it out

#27

Post by yashchandra »

For me, fb is useful only to keep an eye on what is going on with my family/friends specially for things such as cute pictures of their kids, marriage/birthday events etc. My wife uses her fb time to update me on those. So personally, I hardly login to fb anymore.

Re: Facebook 'boring'? 1 in 3 users are tuning it out

#28

Post by yashchandra »

ams6110 wrote: post #18
ryanmerket wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Long distant relationships. My family and close friends are mostly in Texas while I'm in the Bay Area. I like keeping track of their lives...

I use email to keep in touch with family and close friends. I don't see what Facebook would do to improve on that.

The definition of "keep in touch" varies for people. If you only use email, you are probably not sharing bulk pictures of family/friends events etc. Why would you use email for that ? I understand that you could get a picasa etc. link in emails but it is easier to use fb. Not to mention the funny comments on pictures.
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