Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says

marketplace.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 635 posts

Re: U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says

#141

Post by smacktoward »

kojackst wrote: post #10

Note: personal opinion bellow It seems to me that the overall interest in Facebook is decreasing. The social network hasn't had any interesting feature added to it in the last couple of years. It's becoming boring and boring, so that's why I believe people are leaving. Still, Instagram and WhatsApp are running strong with barely no competition. We don't see any news about their user base decreasing and news channels…

> It's becoming boring

Unless Facebook figures out a way to address this, it's the start of a death spiral. The only thing that makes Facebook interesting is the people it can connect you to. If a few of them leave, the place becomes a little more boring than it used to be... which leads a few more of them to get bored and leave, which makes the place a little more boring... which leads more people to get bored and leave, etc. What started as a few snowflakes turns into an avalanche.

It's kind of the photo-negative version of the positive feedback loop Facebook enjoyed on its way up. Back then, each new person who joined created an additional incentive for other people to join, which gave them tremendous upward velocity. But the same dynamic running in reverse could send them downward just as quickly.

Re: U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says

#142

Post by toomanybeersies »

socrates1998 wrote: post #27

Anecdotally, I work with teenagers and none of them have a Facebook pages. It's viewed as a place for old people and parents. For me personally, it's almost impossible to deal with. Way too many political posts from my friends and family. It's probably best use for me is local events and an occasional major event from a friend/family member. Still, I find myself going there less and less. From a small business standp…

I just started unfollowing (for people I actually interact with, or might need to) or unfriending (for people I will never see again, and don't want to) people who post overly political bullshit.

I don't mind a bit of politics, Australia is going to hell in a handcart and the least people can do is raise awareness. But I don't like inflammatory (and often completely fake) bullshit.

I can now scroll my newsfeed (which I don't actually do that often) without getting high blood pressure.

Re: U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says

#144

Post by throwaway5752 »

This has been up a while and has a lot of comments, and there is no mention of Cambridge Analytica? A lot of people talk about polarization on Facebook around 2016... that was the intended result of deliberate and concerted efforts. Whether or not user metadata disclosure was done intentionally, the data was then used to radicalize target populations on certain political issues https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook%E2%80%93Cambridge_Ana...

Of course people are leaving and don't trust them.

Re: U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says

#145

Post by toomanybeersies »

the_pwner224 wrote: post #33
Leace wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does your daughter use to connect with friends? Just curious.

Not parent, but I am a college student at a large university in the US. Instagram is just huge , for the entire [university] population here. Snapchat is still used but not as common - Instagram is eating up Snapchat's userbase. GroupMe is used by the entire population for group chatting, and many males (especially more 'nerdy' guys) use Discord as the preferred general chat application.

Snapchat is the most annoying platform I have ever experienced for messaging. Disappearing messages (with no option for them to stick around) is literally an anti-feature.

Instagram is just annoying, because it's an image sharing platform being used as a messaging platform. I actually get annoyed when people message me on Instagram, because it means that their messages to me are scattered over different platforms.

Re: U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says

#146

Post by [deleted] »

ryanianian wrote: post #74

I live in a somewhat large gated community that has a pretty active facebook group. The group is somewhat loosely moderated by the HOA (for better or worse) so in general people stay on-topic and neighborly. It's great for asking for recommended contractors, asking if somebody has a thing they can borrow, etc. This is one of the few things that keeps me on facebook. Of course facebook is a terrible venue for this gro…

[deleted]

Re: U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says

#147

Post by macintux »

socrates1998 wrote: post #27

Anecdotally, I work with teenagers and none of them have a Facebook pages. It's viewed as a place for old people and parents. For me personally, it's almost impossible to deal with. Way too many political posts from my friends and family. It's probably best use for me is local events and an occasional major event from a friend/family member. Still, I find myself going there less and less. From a small business standp…

> I really wish there was a paid social media service that everyone used. I would gladly pay $5-$10 a month for something that didn't sell my data.

There was App.net, which attempted to be a fee-based better Twitter, but of course not everyone used and eventually shut down.

The only way to have a social network that everyone uses and is fee-based, would be to take one of the free ones and start charging...but then everyone would leave.

Re: U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says

#148

Post by lancesells »

Chazprime wrote: post #131
kojackst wrote: post #10

Note: personal opinion bellow It seems to me that the overall interest in Facebook is decreasing. The social network hasn't had any interesting feature added to it in the last couple of years. It's becoming boring and boring, so that's why I believe people are leaving. Still, Instagram and WhatsApp are running strong with barely no competition. We don't see any news about their user base decreasing and news channels…

Agree on the lack of features front. I actually preferred the simpler design FB had back in 2013 or so before the big redesign. After that everything seemed to get busier and louder . Usability took a hit after that IMO.

I've not used Facebook in any personal capacity but the same thing happened to Twitter, especially in the speed department. Twitter is so slow now that I don't use it.

Re: U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says

#150

Post by leetcrew »

jordigh wrote: post #61
victor106 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note:- I have been off FB for the past 5 years or so. As much as I hate FB and its abhorrent privacy policies, there are a very large population who do not care about privacy. I have some in my household who don't and FB's latest financial results prove it.

Everyone cares about privacy. They just aren't keenly aware that they're losing it. If you meet someone who doesn't care about privacy, ask them, can I borrow your phone and browse through your contacts, your conversations, and your pictures? Almost nobody will say yes unless they are very close to and intimate with you. I think John Oliver did a pretty good job of framing the Snowden revelations in terms of "the NSA…

I don't think your analogy is very good. it's true that many (maybe even most) people have secrets that they would be embarrassed to share with their friends, family, or coworkers. if you asked them whether they would be okay with letting some stranger who they would never meet look through their phone, they might not do it for free, but I bet a lot of people would do it for $5-10.
Post reply on HN