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Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions

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Re: Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions

#101

Post by ryandrake »

Starman_Jones wrote: post #56
drnick1 wrote: post #46

Just stop using Meta products. It's really not as hard as it seems. Nobody needs FB to communicate with friends and family. Send texts or emails or use your phone.

The hardest part about not using Meta products is deciding not to use meta products. When I stopped using Facebook, I had resigned myself to spending a lot of time and effort to stay in touch with my friends and family. As it turns out, all I had to do was mention that I was using Signal, and the people closest to me, then pretty close to me, then kinda close to me all started using that too. The network effect cuts…

It’s amazing how strong the Meta FOMO is. I stopped using Facebook over 10 years ago and never even opened Instagram or WhatsApp, and I really am not missing out on anything in life. My actual friends know how to contact me and they do! And it’s really not that hard to say “Sorry I don’t have Whats App, just call me at xxx-xxx-xxxx.”

If someone is prepared to not be my friend because they only want to communicate via a Meta app, then I don’t see why I’d want them as a friend.

Re: Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions

#102

Post by ryandrake »

Loughla wrote: post #97
derwiki wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know about other places, but in SF, everything around schools is coordinated over WhatsApp—you’d be really doing your children a disservice to opt out. And I hate it. I had deactivated all my Meta accounts but reactivated WhatsApp because of school stuff.

Tell your school board to use a dedicated messaging platform built for schools. Cite privacy laws. That's what I did, and it worked. Unless you're talking about parent groups. Because then you're fucked. Every parent group everywhere uses Facebook or Whatsapp and don't care that not everybody uses it. You will be excluded.

I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of the philosophy: “you’re not missing out on anything worthwhile by being excluded by people who want to exclude you.” Don’t voluntarily interact with people who make “uses a particular app” a condition of that interaction.

Re: Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions

#103

Post by schubidubiduba »

apsurd wrote: post #79
pj_mukh wrote: post #11

I would pay $49.99/mo for an unlimited plan that brings me only my friends' status updates (not their hyper-political likes and comments), just their life updates. Daily stories are great too. But JUST that, no influencers, no ads. I realize Meta's data shows that our user revealed preferences tells them that we like all the dopamine hijacking garbage but that's like saying "Well users like drugs, so we gave them mor…

I don't believe for a second you'd pay $50 per month! Yeah you'd do it to prove a point. 6 months later, no way in hell.

I think I would pay it. The peace of mind knowing that my every move isn't tracked and being used to sell me stuff or engagement bait me is invaluable tbh

Re: Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions

#104

Post by pj_mukh »

apsurd wrote: post #79
pj_mukh wrote: post #11

I would pay $49.99/mo for an unlimited plan that brings me only my friends' status updates (not their hyper-political likes and comments), just their life updates. Daily stories are great too. But JUST that, no influencers, no ads. I realize Meta's data shows that our user revealed preferences tells them that we like all the dopamine hijacking garbage but that's like saying "Well users like drugs, so we gave them mor…

I don't believe for a second you'd pay $50 per month! Yeah you'd do it to prove a point. 6 months later, no way in hell.

I mean, I'm paying about that for Google to hold onto all my personal memories via Photos, and all that I could actually use self-hosting for.

Meanwhile, FB has all my network that I can't recreate or self-host so yes, I would pay that.

Re: Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions

#106

Post by f33d5173 »

x0x0 wrote: post #76
Animats wrote: post #8

"It's free and always will be" - Facebook

I'd bet good money this is mostly related to Europe's GDPR / DMA actions against Facebook. Ironically, I think Facebook would be in the clear to just charge everyone in Europe and dump ads altogether. :shrug:

I didn't see it mentioned that this hid ads. I would be surprised if it did, since facebook makes way more than $4/month off many of it's users, they would be leaving a ton of money on the table if they only charged that to remove ads.

Re: Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions

#107

Post by timpera »

fontain wrote: post #36
iLoveOncall wrote: post #17

It's insane that those subscriptions don't remove ads. That's the only thing I would even remotely consider paying for on any meta product. In the current state those subscriptions will just show your friends that you're a huge loser who's willing to pay for custom backgrounds.

Unfortunately, Meta’s ad business is so effective that they would need to charge hundreds of dollars per year for an ad free service just to keep revenue stable. I suspect anything less than $25 per month would be loss making for them.

They do offer a €8/month ad-free Instagram subscription in the EU. I'm subscribed, it's pretty cool.

Re: Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions

#108

Post by apsurd »

schubidubiduba wrote: post #103
apsurd wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't believe for a second you'd pay $50 per month! Yeah you'd do it to prove a point. 6 months later, no way in hell.

I think I would pay it. The peace of mind knowing that my every move isn't tracked and being used to sell me stuff or engagement bait me is invaluable tbh

I paid for youtube premium for a few months under the reasoning that I hate those auto playing make money ads so much. Certainly paying for peace is worthwhile.

Youtube legitimately has some quality content. But I ended my subscription because fundamentally, streamlining the path to more Youtube usage is self-enabling devil’s work.

Point being: Im not convinced paying money to these companies is ultimately going to result in a healthier, more safe more private experience, no matter what they claim.

Re: Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions

#109

Post by pertymcpert »

qqtt wrote: post #98

I'm going to go against the grain here and say this is probably a positive thing for Meta products, and honestly every other "free" service to provide these kinds of revenue avenues. How many times do we hear things like "if the product is free, you are the product" - well, the consequence of that is development resources tend to be pulled into directions that benefit advertisers. By having material subscription reve…

Agreed. Nothing wrong with charging for a product.

Re: Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions

#110

Post by kingstoned »

TFNA wrote: post #78
drnick1 wrote: post #46

Just stop using Meta products. It's really not as hard as it seems. Nobody needs FB to communicate with friends and family. Send texts or emails or use your phone.

You are years behind. It was in 2016 that, when traveling and wanting to exchange contacts with cool local people I met, I first began to get the response “My e-mail address? I don’t have email.” Already then many younger people were only on social media, and it was expected that you would exchange those contacts. And some countries never had the email moment at all, so even older people don’t use it. Ditto for phone…

How do they not have email when it's required to sign up for various sites, plus having android phones requires gmail, plus official documents, bank accounts, job applications etc. tend to ask for email; email is used for work as well...?
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