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Facebook's TikTok-like redesign marks sunset of social networking era

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Re: Facebook's TikTok-like redesign marks sunset of social networking era

#181

Post by civilized »

xwdv wrote: post #74

It’s crazy to think the social media era may finally be ending. There’s really no viable platform anymore where you can just go passively keep up with what friends and acquaintances are doing. Everything is about feeding you content you didn’t ask for but may be targeted enough to catch your attention. And for what? To show you some ads here and there? To collect data that can be used to… sell more ads and products?…

> …unless perhaps… we build a social network on the blockchain

Ah yes, the one thing that would be worse than the status quo.

Re: Facebook's TikTok-like redesign marks sunset of social networking era

#182

Post by fnordpiglet »

stevenjgarner wrote: post #158
owlninja wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotally I quit Facebook in 2016 but of my friends and family that still use it, I would say most simply use it for marketplace. They may still view the updates that people still post to see what's going on but it doesn't seem to be near as about keeping in touch (I'm in the US).

For those of us in families that are spread over the globe in a dozen time zones and separated in different countries, what other methods of connection even come close to social media? Facebook (and the rest) have provided a way for us to vicariously experience glimpses into each other's lives and in many cases reconnect with people who we never would have otherwise.

I would point out that email also serves here but with worse algorithms for displaying what you want to see :-)

Re: Facebook's TikTok-like redesign marks sunset of social networking era

#183

Post by imron »

Gunnerhead wrote: post #116
SamuelAdams wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ask a tik tok user to tell you even 10% of the videos they saw within the last hour. I'd be surprised if they could. Heck you could ask the same for any HN user as well :) Yes this is social media. Yes some of it is mindless time wasting. For me personally I sometimes get useful information that helps improve my work / profession. At least that’s how I justify it.

> Heck you could ask the same for any HN user as well I remember reading some article about the sunset of social media and TikTok and Facebook and stuff.

Link?

Re: Facebook's TikTok-like redesign marks sunset of social networking era

#184

Post by robswc »

nowherebeen wrote: post #36

I recently download the Facebook app to sell something in the marketplace. It has become so bloated and un-user friendly, I question why anyone would use it on a daily basis. The new feeds is a bunch of irrelevant posts I don’t care about. I guess it was bound to happen when you hire thousands of workers to work on one app. It’s been optimized into a deformed monster.

Exactly. I never really got it until I grew up and ditched the social media apps but when people say "its just nonsense" it truly is just nonsense. It's "news" for the sake of news. Do I need to know there was a robbery in some town a few states over? Do I need to know Selena Gomez celebrated her birthday in a pink brand dress? Do I need to know Trump recently returned to DC for the first time in a year?

(taken from just seeing front page of news site)

No, no and no. It's all nonsense. Yet to some degree, I will have to use energy to process and engage with it. If it "annoys me" I may comment, which wastes even more energy. (and yes, I do get the irony of complaining about this, lol)

I'm not saying all news is bad or to turn it all off... just that one has to realize so much of it is news for the sake of news and the world will still turn without your investment in it.

Re: Facebook's TikTok-like redesign marks sunset of social networking era

#185

Post by chrismarlow9 »

badcarbine wrote: post #166
SrslyJosh wrote: post #6

Nobody hates Facebook users more than Facebook, I guess. :-/ I've tried to type out several pithy comments, but the bottom line (to me) is that Facebook just doesn't respect its users or care about their needs. Can you imagine if brick-and-mortar businesses tried to do this? You go out for a Big Mac, but it's not on the menu anymore because Taco Bell had a few really good quarters, so McDonald's decided to pivot to t…

Poor comparison. McDonalds and Taco Bell are not as culturally divisive as Tik Tok and Facebook. Governments don't request nearly as much sensitive data from fast food chains as they do from modern IT companies. It's more like China having too much power over American citizens and Facebook desperately trying to overtake their market share, either for control or for a platform to fall back on once, or if, Tik Tok were…

Poor comparison was also my first thought. Taco bell and McDonald's fundamentally do different things (although they seem to be expanding into each other turf with things like nacho fries), but Facebook and TikTok really don't, neither does Twitter or Instagram or any other social network (even email for that matter, the oldest social network).

They're communication tools. On all of these platforms you can post video, images, and text either privately or publicly. I can use Facebook the same way someone might use Twitter. I can post only images to TikTok or Facebook and forget about Instagram. I cannot buy a hamburger and taco bell, or tacos and tostada's at McDonald's.

A better comparison would be saying that Chili's saw Applebee's have a great year and decided to make the inside decor and outside building look more like Applebee's. Both restaurants basically serve a bit of all types of food and the menus probably overlap heavily.

Re: Facebook's TikTok-like redesign marks sunset of social networking era

#186

Post by robswc »

agrajag wrote: post #179
antoineMoPa wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like the comparison with Wall-E, but I'm not sure TikTok is worse than watching/zapping television for an hour (regarding your 10% of last hour question). That's what a couple of generations of adults has been doing with their evenings already. Also, your 15 minutes timer seems like a good idea! I should try that.

With TikTok I do worry about the short form nature of it and impact on attention spans. TV is also very passive, but most content still requires thinking about a narrative for an extended period.

That's my worry too. I feel no matter what, you will retain less with tiktok vs any other "medium" out there.

Re: Facebook's TikTok-like redesign marks sunset of social networking era

#188

Post by jfim »

hiimshort wrote: post #176
jallen_dot_dev wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds awful, but it could be worse. At least the Facebook-managed McDonald's is trying to chase after what most people seem to want. A Google-managed McDonald's would just shut down, even though everyone loves McDonald's, because somebody at Google figured starting a new fast food chain is the best path to a promotion.

I've enjoyed the analogy so adding onto it: Google would open up 5 competing, different burger places next to each other and then close them all down a year later, confused that none of them did well enough. All to open a new Taco stand on the other side of town and claim it's got the same great food you liked before (it doesn't).

They'd also switch how one orders food every 18 months, and have them migrate to the new way of ordering food. Food ordering in gmail, food ordering as an app, food ordering using a kiosk, then back to an app, then merge it into the wallet app because why not.

Re: Facebook's TikTok-like redesign marks sunset of social networking era

#189

Post by astrange »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #146
ZephyrBlu wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Attention is zero-sum. If TikTok is winning, someone else is losing. TikTok now is what Facebook was 10 years ago.

Facebook is where my older relatives social network. As soon as it became a place where people over 40 went, it lost its appeal to the young people that Facebook is really after.

It's not just that the people over 40 are on it, it's that your grandmother comes and leaves confused comments about unrelated topics on your friend's posts.

Re: Facebook's TikTok-like redesign marks sunset of social networking era

#190

Post by kumarvvr »

xwdv wrote: post #74

It’s crazy to think the social media era may finally be ending. There’s really no viable platform anymore where you can just go passively keep up with what friends and acquaintances are doing. Everything is about feeding you content you didn’t ask for but may be targeted enough to catch your attention. And for what? To show you some ads here and there? To collect data that can be used to… sell more ads and products?…

> There’s really no viable platform anymore where you can just go passively keep up with what friends and acquaintances are doing.

Whatsapp, Telegram and Signal fill that place quite nicely.

I regularly check my Whatsapp contacts status messages. Most of them are filled with things from their daily lives.

I have a bunch of groups in Telegram, both personal and professional.

I feel FB style of "feed" thing has become a chore solely due to the mind-numbing complexity of the interface. WA is dead simple. I know what I am looking at, I can interact with the person who put the status message, I can block them or delete them or archive them.

SM has evolved itself into chat apps, which, funnily, was what we used FB for in the first place.

The likes of IG, TT, etc are a mixed broadcast medium, that are natural evolutions of the Twitter model.

Also, FB is finally evolving into a form that is close to how users use it.

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