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Facebook loses users for the first time

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Re: Facebook loses users for the first time

#161
post #58

Peak coffee consumption (per capita/US): 1946 Peak cigarette consumption (per capita/US): 1963 Peak oil production (global): unknown, maybe 2020-2030 Peak Facebook: ?? That's an incomplete peer group, but I find it interesting that at some point, society does start to unplug from addictive substances. The tapering off is quite slow, though. Unclear whether heavy users cut back, or new generations just don't develop t…

Facebook has been primarily displaced by Tiktok, which is considerably more addictive than FB. It's like zonking out in front of cable TV in the olden days, if the cable TV had access to an essentially unlimited content library of short-form dopamine hits, was capable of determining exactly what you like, and showing you exactly that forever.

With that description, I can't help but think of "the entertainment" from infinite jest.

Re: Facebook loses users for the first time

#162

Due to past behavior and FB's justification of that behavior, I quit using the company's services and products years ago. I remain unwilling to be a FB user of any kind. Good. Keep going. Facebook, doing harm at scale.

Same. In fact, I literally just abandoned it. I didn't try to delete it. I just deleted it off my phone and never logged back in again. Been like this for 4 months now. Feels great!

Re: Facebook loses users for the first time

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

reddit used to be great until they pulled their great bait & switch, then added all kinds of authoritarian features. A brief history of reddit: > We want to democratize the traditional model by giving editorial control to the people who use the site, not those who run it. — Reddit FAQ 2005 > We've always benefited from a policy of not censoring content — u/kn0thing 2008 > A bastion of free speech on the World Wide We…

Circa 2005 reddit was a forum for nerdy young tech people, talking about miscellaneous web links but mostly focused around nerdy tech stuff. Nobody I know who read reddit circa 2005 wanted it to become a white supremacist hate forum. When it started to attract large numbers of white supremacists who deposited their steaming piles of bullshit (hate speech, vicious personal attacks) all over the site, lots of people re…

I joined Reddit around 2007, and my perspective is completely the opposite of yours. Reddit was a place where you could create your own community, and moderate it as you see fit (as long as it's legal). It was a place where people respected free speech, and that you don't have to agree with someone but you'll defend their right to see it.

White supremacy or hate wasn't really a thing on reddit until the past few years. The controversial content on reddit were r/jailbait (which I'd say a majority of the community agreed with; although many did begrudge the shifting of the overton window on 'we host anything that is legal'), but then "social justice" became a thing and a new crowd of redditors seemed to want to de-platform people.

I don't have a time machine, but I suspect if you polled a majority of redditors in 2017 whether they'd support the de-platforming that is happening today, a majority would vehemently disagree.

Re: Facebook loses users for the first time

#164
post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But they use Instagram instead. Either way Zuck wins.

Facebook is for old people. Instagram is for moderately old people. Snapchat is for moderately young people. TikTok is for young people.

Hopefully soon Facebook won't even be for young people.

Re: Facebook loses users for the first time

#165

Literally all Zuckerberg has to do is not be the kind of person he is... his product itself did achieve success in that a huge number of people are using it, but then he had to prove himself to have no ethical standards

Why does it seem like I'm the only one who doesn't hate Zuckerberg?

I'm genuinely confused.

Can someone please explain this to me?

I want to understand better.

Re: Facebook loses users for the first time

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

reddit used to be great until they pulled their great bait & switch, then added all kinds of authoritarian features. A brief history of reddit: > We want to democratize the traditional model by giving editorial control to the people who use the site, not those who run it. — Reddit FAQ 2005 > We've always benefited from a policy of not censoring content — u/kn0thing 2008 > A bastion of free speech on the World Wide We…

Circa 2005 reddit was a forum for nerdy young tech people, talking about miscellaneous web links but mostly focused around nerdy tech stuff. Nobody I know who read reddit circa 2005 wanted it to become a white supremacist hate forum. When it started to attract large numbers of white supremacists who deposited their steaming piles of bullshit (hate speech, vicious personal attacks) all over the site, lots of people re…

it never attracted a large numbers of white supremacists

they're a tiny part of the population online and in real life

you can mute users and stick to your own subreddits because you only see what you choose to follow

you're feeding into the narrative and creating the problem of censoring everything

Re: Facebook loses users for the first time

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

reddit used to be great until they pulled their great bait & switch, then added all kinds of authoritarian features. A brief history of reddit: > We want to democratize the traditional model by giving editorial control to the people who use the site, not those who run it. — Reddit FAQ 2005 > We've always benefited from a policy of not censoring content — u/kn0thing 2008 > A bastion of free speech on the World Wide We…

Reddit should break off all political content into its own site, porn into another, and keep the rest in place. If a post is porn or political, mods can click a button to move it to the dedicated site. This would be similar to the “move topic” functionality from phpBB and vBulletin. This might solve a lot of problems, but it would create issues on the edge, like r/pics content that may not be overtly political but cl…

You're ignoring the way that subreddits like r/ChoosingBeggars are full of trivially faked texts that tick off every box to rile people up on political and social issues.

Re: Facebook loses users for the first time

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They finally monitized their products and customers to a breaking point. They run on engagement metrics without common sense or empathy to how fear and anger impact their user's wellbeing. I most definitely do not need or want a VR immersed version of that toxicity.

VR has nothing to do with facebook, at least at the moment. Just logging in with your facebook account doesn't mean its suddenly sucking all your life from you and piping it right to facebook. If you enjoy video games, its hands down the best way to game right now.

> Just logging in with your facebook account doesn't mean its suddenly sucking all your life from you and piping it right to facebook.

You don't have to login into Facebook to have it build a profile of you: https://www.vox.com/2018/4/20/17254312/facebook-shadow-profi...

Re: Facebook loses users for the first time

#169

I went back to my forums, find myself easily disengaging from Reddit (around the election, Reddit was nothing but stress), Check Twitter maybe 10 minutes a week, go to Instagram once a week because my kid posts his artwork there. But in general, ALL of the sticky sites aren’t…sticky anymore. I took 2 weeks off at the worst of it and it did an amazing job of breaking the feedback loop. Facebook tried to take over foru…

> Facebook tried to take over forums and mailing lists, their market was full of scams (which had me going round and round with Paypal and the bank when ‘Sally’ selling an iPad from Massachusetts sent a receipt with an email from a Guy in Turkey.

What blows my mind are all of the blatant scam replies on sponsored content. You'll get sponsored content from, say, Bloomberg or CNBC, and half of the replies are cryptocurrency scams. I've even seen top replies that were 'ads' for witch doctors that will cast spells for you if you send them money on Venmo.

It makes both Facebook/Meta and the sponsored brands look terrible.

Re: Facebook loses users for the first time

#170

My 16yo daughter says FB is for old people and nobody in her age group is using it.

But they use Instagram instead. Either way Zuck wins.

Actually TikTok is now the leader with teens. [0] And I don't believe the CCP would allow a sale to a US-based company, least of all Facebook/Meta.

[0] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/18/tiktok-usage-topped-instagra...

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