When will we stop using Facebook? • Hacker News Board

Re: When will we stop using Facebook?

#71

Post by logan5 » Thu, May 28, 2015, 12:27 PM UTC

snarfy wrote: post #67

The only thing Facebook was ever good for was finding those old friends. Now that you found them, now what? Do you need Facebook? The easy way out is to message all of them saying you are quitting Facebook and ask them for their email address. That's all you ever needed, but there was no index/search engine for it until Facebook. And once you have that part of the index you care about, you'll never need it again.

That is assuming you have found all your old friends that you wanted to find. Else, you can't leave.

Re: When will we stop using Facebook?

#72

Post by cristianpascu » Thu, May 28, 2015, 12:28 PM UTC

onewaystreet wrote: post #41

junto wrote: post #34

I stopped two years ago. As far as I am aware I'm not missing much. I did have a lot of old friends on FB, but I didn't stay in contact with them in real life. I was just lazily snooping on their lives, without giving anything in return. To be completely honest, I don't have space or time for them in my real life. It isn't because I didn't like them anymore, it was simply that I didn't have the time or energy to stay…

The fact that 1.5 billion people use Facebook kind of suggests that you are wrong.

(S)he's on the wrong side of history.

Re: When will we stop using Facebook?

#73

Post by dataker » Thu, May 28, 2015, 12:29 PM UTC

Facebook has too many elements of "poisonous Internet": ignorant rants, memes, political correctness, exaggerated display of public affection,...

Gradually, users find other websites to channel their interests and avoid biases, like Reddit, Pinterest, HN,...

It's a serious falacy to assume one will always need a network filled with friends and family.

Re: When will we stop using Facebook?

#74

Post by dataker » Thu, May 28, 2015, 12:29 PM UTC

Facebook has too many elements of "poisonous Internet": ignorant rants, memes, political correctness, exaggerated display of public affection,...

Gradually, users find other websites to channel their interests and avoid biases, like Reddit, Pinterest, HN,...

It's a serious falacy to assume one will always need a network filled with friends and family.

Re: When will we stop using Facebook?

#75

Post by logan5 » Thu, May 28, 2015, 12:32 PM UTC

dade_ wrote: post #49

junto wrote: post #34

I stopped two years ago. As far as I am aware I'm not missing much. I did have a lot of old friends on FB, but I didn't stay in contact with them in real life. I was just lazily snooping on their lives, without giving anything in return. To be completely honest, I don't have space or time for them in my real life. It isn't because I didn't like them anymore, it was simply that I didn't have the time or energy to stay…

It doesn't take a lot of effort to maintain contact with people that are important in our life today. The relationships that are important to us need to be nurtured, not followed. Facebook has created this (inadvertent) anti-social follow use case, and I think a lot of people have fallen into it.

Exactly. And if you keep seeing similar posts on a regular basis from the same set of people (close or distant), it gets repetitive and boring. How often do you need to know that x is doing y?

Re: When will we stop using Facebook?

#76

Post by aaron-lebo » Thu, May 28, 2015, 12:33 PM UTC

dataker wrote: post #73

Facebook has too many elements of "poisonous Internet": ignorant rants, memes, political correctness, exaggerated display of public affection,... Gradually, users find other websites to channel their interests and avoid biases, like Reddit, Pinterest, HN,... It's a serious falacy to assume one will always need a network filled with friends and family.

The same problems you list with Facebook exist on Reddit, too. Reddit is an echo chamber.

One of the great things about family (if you have a good one) is you have to put up with them no matter how much you disagree on the little things. Interest sites like Reddit let people form into their own ignorant cliques without serious personal effort.

It seems to be a fundamental problem of humanity.

Re: When will we stop using Facebook?

#77

Post by Svenstaro » Thu, May 28, 2015, 12:34 PM UTC

zz_m00 wrote: post #59

I have never used facebook and never will. The only real reason is because I have no interest in the type of community it promotes. The communities on facebook usually seem like a popularity contest. I've recently stopped using reddit for the same reason and I'm now using HN as my main/only source of social media.

Reddit is a gold mine for niche stuff. Don't stop using it for r/funny, r/politics, r/whatever. Those are shitholes. The small subreddits is what Reddit all about for me nowadays. The big subreddits are breeding grounds for young Redditors and to fend off those we don't want in smaller subreddits.

Re: When will we stop using Facebook?

#78

Post by pbhjpbhj » Thu, May 28, 2015, 12:34 PM UTC

shawabawa3 wrote: post #40

rollthehard6 wrote: post #30

Story today on the BBC, from analysis of 500 word stories written by UK kids between 5 and 13 for a competition 'Words including email, mobile and Facebook are in decline, it said.' http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-32902170 (Interesting that mobile is declining, suggests the distinction is lost in a world of tablet, laptop and phone use where desktops are a thing of the past domestically)

> (Interesting that mobile is declining, suggests the distinction is lost in a world of tablet, laptop and phone use where desktops are a thing of the past domestically) I would say that mobile is declining because land lines basically don't exist anymore, so we can just say phone instead of mobile phone.

>land lines basically don't exist anymore //

Everyone I know has access to a landline (UK).

True the only reason I have a landline really is that you can't get a broadband internet connection on its own that's cheaper than phone + broadband.

Re: When will we stop using Facebook?

#79

Post by adsr » Thu, May 28, 2015, 12:35 PM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #23

I really should flesh out my "why you can't have a good distributed social network" post some time. What does FB provide that you don't get with a combination of email/USENET/blogs/chat? Branding, janitors, and indexing. Branding is useful because these things are so scale-driven that you want to be on the one that everyone else is using. It's easier for the uninvolved to figure this out if it's the one with huge adv…

I don't really get the first point about scale and brand, because the examples you give like email are built on open protocols, so it's the protocol itself that is the brand. I don't need a particular brand of email client to send emails to someone.

Re: When will we stop using Facebook?

#80

Post by Thriptic » Thu, May 28, 2015, 12:35 PM UTC

junto wrote: post #34

I stopped two years ago. As far as I am aware I'm not missing much. I did have a lot of old friends on FB, but I didn't stay in contact with them in real life. I was just lazily snooping on their lives, without giving anything in return. To be completely honest, I don't have space or time for them in my real life. It isn't because I didn't like them anymore, it was simply that I didn't have the time or energy to stay…

I have trouble leaving Facebook because for better or worse it is how many of my friends and acquaintances communicate. I ended up finding a nice compromise: I installed an extension which hides all the content on news feed but still allows FB chat. When I couple this extension with ublock, the only thing I see when I go to Facebook is the chat interface, which is perfect for how I use the service.