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When will we stop using Facebook?

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Re: When will we stop using Facebook?

#211

Post by nosuchthing »

sveme wrote: post #146
Xeoncross wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, like twitter with more media and text options?

Yes, somewhat. Anything shareable. The major point would be the github-like financing model: It's not the individual users that pay for the service by enabling targeted ads but companies that want to get in contact with potential customers on their page. It seems like a minor difference but would have quite strong effects on user privacy - there would not be a need for ever more tracking of every online activity.

Ello recently tried this, and they're still making good progress

Re: When will we stop using Facebook?

#212

Post by wwweston »

Don't know if this will be popular here, but... I like Facebook. I like seeing people's pictures and updates. I like serendipitous moments where someone announces they're in town and I get a chance to see people I haven't seen in years. I like keeping track of social events with it. I like reading a lot of their articles. I like the conversations I get in (even some of the arguments). I think it complements and enhances my social life. I try not to let it replace it.

Sure, some of the acquaintances are obnoxious on FB. The mechanisms for focusing on what I like vs what I don't seem to work well enough.

I don't like the surveillance. I try to minimize it in a number of ways. I'm sure my measures have limited effectiveness and I'm leaking details about my whereabouts, reading habits, and other preferences anyway. If FB was the only place I was doing that -- if I wouldn't have to essentially give up mobile/internet communications to truly solve that problem -- I might think harder about whether the value I get out of FB was something I could trade for privacy.

Re: When will we stop using Facebook?

#213

Post by city41 »

Xeoncross wrote: post #142
sveme wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I stopped at about the same time as you, but I actually returned a couple of months ago. Without friending anyone. And the reason? I use Facebook as a very simple way to get news about really minor things of importance to me: + my climbing gym has some new routes! + a new video by K.I.Z, yeah! + oh, demonstration against some Nazis demonstrating in my neighbourhood, should definitely go there + Someone's looking for…

So, like twitter with more media and text options?

More like Facebook is to RSS what HTML email is to plaintext.

I don't find Twitter is at all useful for keeping on top of interests.

Re: When will we stop using Facebook?

#214

Post by andrewfong »

tracker1 wrote: post #18
ajkjk wrote: post #4

I hate Facebook, but I don't plan to stop using it anytime soon. Well - I don't hate everything about it, but I hate everything they're trying to do, so I agree with this article. But "hate"ing a company is odd, so I guess I really mean "I want to have nothing to do with". I'll switch when there's a dominating replacement. All I want, for the rest of my life, is: - a way to see updates from friends and acquaintances…

For me the dichotomy becomes which groups really see what... you have: - family & close friends - acquaintances & loose friends - school alum - social groups / clubs - those who you might work with/for - linked in, you failed this audience - interests beyond clubs, outside acquantances No social network does a good job at allowing a person to share with those groups as desired. What I share on twitter is far more tec…

I won't say it does a great job, but Facebook does allow you to categorize your friends by "close" vs" acquaintance" vs "alum" and so on. It's worked pretty well for me insofar that I get notifications whenever a close friend updates and when I want to share with everyone-but-X.

Not so good as a subject matter filter though. I can create a list of only tech people on FB, but if a tech friend wants to post about his puppy to everyone, not so much I can do about that.

Re: When will we stop using Facebook?

#215

Post by hellbanTHIS »

About the Coke analogy: everybody loves Coke A Cola, Santa Claus, polar bears, summertime, Perfect harmony, cans with your name on it, it's the greatest brand name in the world.

Facebook is creepy, most people hate it and hate themselves for using it. Everybody knows somebody who lost friends because of it, or who broke up or got divorced. It's supposedly cited in one out of seven divorce cases. In terms of branding it's pretty toxic.

I don't know how long it will be around, probably for a while (if you run Facebook and Snapchat through Google trends Snapchat barely registers) but brand loyalty isn't going to keep it afloat.

Re: When will we stop using Facebook?

#216

Post by jfuhrman »

madez wrote: post #118
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 also stopped using Facebook, shortly before the revelations of massive surveillance. At that time I was convinced I shouldn't be in the arms of companies, stopped using many services and started self-hosting stuff. People didn't understand me. Then, Edward Snowden revealed that the possible abstract threats I wanted to avoid can in fact become real. We are fortunate to have received this information. People still d…

I stopped using Facebook when a stalker mentioned to me about a post they saw that I thought was private which ended being creepy to me as it was quite personal.

I had set everything to private and FB helpfully shared it with everyone. I stopped posting from that day onwards.

Re: When will we stop using Facebook?

#217

Post by ctdonath »

geoelectric wrote: post #209
ctdonath wrote: post #173

I've been on various social media for about 30 years, starting with dial-up BBSes and Usenet (when small enough you could read _every_ message posted). Time and again, I've seen sites appear, grow, become definitively dominant, taper off, and largely disappear (never quite dying outright but gone from "everyone's on it!" to "who? what?"). High-profile lifespan is vaguely around 7 years. I've no question Facebook will…

I don't disagree, but the definition of "everybody" has gotten bigger and that counts too. AOL may have been the place to be in the 90s, but it was still a sharp subset of my friends and acquaintances that were there, vs. the almost complete set on Facebook. And USENET/dialup/etc were even more selective. It's only been very recently (relatively speaking) that a majority of people were online at all, never mind align…

I've seen way too many "too big to fail" services fail, to believe Facebook is that much harder to displace.

BTW: IBM just announced it's offering Apple computers to its employees.

Re: When will we stop using Facebook?

#218

Post by makeitsuckless »

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.

Guess that means I'm wrong too about reality tv, Justin Bieber, fast food and the importance of cars as a status symbol.

Oh, and let's not forget the believe in the existence of an omnipotent deity.

Re: When will we stop using Facebook?

#219

Post by ohw »

ajkjk wrote: post #4

I hate Facebook, but I don't plan to stop using it anytime soon. Well - I don't hate everything about it, but I hate everything they're trying to do, so I agree with this article. But "hate"ing a company is odd, so I guess I really mean "I want to have nothing to do with". I'll switch when there's a dominating replacement. All I want, for the rest of my life, is: - a way to see updates from friends and acquaintances…

What you described is exactly what WeChat is able to do and doing well. It has a half billion users (including every Chinese I know) yet comes with no social baggage. If you don't like the social features (called Moments) you can turn it off, or simply use WeChat as an IM and hardly notice the existence of all the other features (there are not many anyway)

So your enriched version of address book does exist, but only in China, and it is one of the few things I miss so much when living outside China.

Re: When will we stop using Facebook?

#220

Post by ajkjk »

ohw wrote: post #219
ajkjk wrote: post #4

I hate Facebook, but I don't plan to stop using it anytime soon. Well - I don't hate everything about it, but I hate everything they're trying to do, so I agree with this article. But "hate"ing a company is odd, so I guess I really mean "I want to have nothing to do with". I'll switch when there's a dominating replacement. All I want, for the rest of my life, is: - a way to see updates from friends and acquaintances…

What you described is exactly what WeChat is able to do and doing well. It has a half billion users (including every Chinese I know) yet comes with no social baggage. If you don't like the social features (called Moments) you can turn it off, or simply use WeChat as an IM and hardly notice the existence of all the other features (there are not many anyway) So your enriched version of address book does exist, but only…

Interesting. I've never even heard of it. Any perspective on why it hasn't caught on elsewhere? (besides just our not hearing of it?)

Though, I guess, as a tech person, I have the additional preference that whatever I use be fairly open (open-source somehow if possible) and not liable to doing things like selling user data or onboarding corporate partnerships in an attempt to monetize. Even though I know how silly it is to ask for an amazing product for free with no mechanism for generating revenue and a promise not to try to come up with one. Actually, I think I would pay for such a thing.

Actually, I know of Diaspora and Ello having tried this in some capacity, but neither caught on for various reasons.

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