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Facebook is just Craigslist now

theatlantic.com

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Re: Facebook is just Craigslist now

#21

Post by bsimpson »

mrkramer wrote: post #15

Facebook was awesome when it was the only social network; now we have Instagram for social image sharing, WhatsApp for messaging, Snapchat for ephemeral messaging, YouTube for social video and TikTok for social short video plus Discord and Twitch for social gaming. Even Facebook's social casual gaming moved to mobile gaming. Facebook wanted to be the everything social network just like Amazon is the everything store…

For ~a decade, Facebook replaced the address book. You wouldn't ask for a phone number; you'd add someone on Facebook.

They got greedy. Word got out about how they'd manipulate the algorithm to get you to spend hours per day there, how aggressively they mined and sold your data, etc. It became unfashionable to use. People who had spent a decade recording their lives and connecting with their friends walked away from their accounts.

In the midst of all that, they bought Instagram. I've recently moved to NYC; paradoxically, people here ask for your Instagram the way that people used to ask for your Facebook.

Social networking isn't quite as consolidated in Meta as dating is in IAC/Match, but it's close.

Re: Facebook is just Craigslist now

#23

Post by marcuskane2 »

DeathArrow wrote: post #20
criddell wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you surprised that an American publication with a mostly American audience would focus mostly on the experience of Americans?

Not at all. But Facebook is not used only by Usians. So the article might seem a bit misleading for people from different parts of the world.

"American" is the correct demonym for people from the United States of American.

Fun fact, there have been a dozen other countries which were "United States of X" throughout history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_that_include...

Re: Facebook is just Craigslist now

#24

Post by aacid »

While I agree that facebook is mostly obsolete outside marketplace, one thing I cannot find substite for is small communities mostly tied to specific location. If I go to facebook it is for marketplace (we have nice dedicated web in our country that works great) but for one or two groups created for our neighbourhood and the wider area around us.

Re: Facebook is just Craigslist now

#25

Post by outer_web »

aacid wrote: post #24

While I agree that facebook is mostly obsolete outside marketplace, one thing I cannot find substite for is small communities mostly tied to specific location. If I go to facebook it is for marketplace (we have nice dedicated web in our country that works great) but for one or two groups created for our neighbourhood and the wider area around us.

Isn't that what nextdoor is? I have no firsthand experience but hear it talked about.

Re: Facebook is just Craigslist now

#26

Post by mrkramer »

DeathArrow wrote: post #19
mrkramer wrote: post #15

Facebook was awesome when it was the only social network; now we have Instagram for social image sharing, WhatsApp for messaging, Snapchat for ephemeral messaging, YouTube for social video and TikTok for social short video plus Discord and Twitch for social gaming. Even Facebook's social casual gaming moved to mobile gaming. Facebook wanted to be the everything social network just like Amazon is the everything store…

> I honestly don't see appeal why anyone would use Facebook when you literally have better alternatives that are specialized for the particular niche you might be interested in e.g. images, videos, gaming etc. The particular niche I am into is staying connected to friends and people I like or have an interest in. And reading their posts. I like to mainly read posts, not watch short videos or see images without too mu…

You can use WhatsApp and/or Facebook Messenger for connecting with friends(they are both owned by Facebook) but using Facebook per se seems less and less appealing especially when it became bloated with non-friend content. Zuck is tho introducing or reintroducing "friends feed" so that might serve people better[0].

[0] https://www.theverge.com/news/637668/facebook-friends-only-f...

Re: Facebook is just Craigslist now

#27

Post by 42772827 »

outer_web wrote: post #25
aacid wrote: post #24

While I agree that facebook is mostly obsolete outside marketplace, one thing I cannot find substite for is small communities mostly tied to specific location. If I go to facebook it is for marketplace (we have nice dedicated web in our country that works great) but for one or two groups created for our neighbourhood and the wider area around us.

Isn't that what nextdoor is? I have no firsthand experience but hear it talked about.

Nextdoor has cornered the racist busybody market but nothing beyond that.

Re: Facebook is just Craigslist now

#28

Post by 42772827 »

ses1984 wrote: post #12
pelagic_sky wrote: post #3

All I ever hear about Facebook any more is just its marketplace. It's gotten to the point where I might make an account just so I can easily sell stuff locally.

I made an account to sell a cheap guitar. I listed it for $100 and used all my own original pictures. They said my listing was suspicious and needed to verify my identity, which meant sending them a picture of me holding my drivers license next to my face. I had a lot of other stuff to sell, so I obliged. They said that wasn’t enough and they required another photo, this time holding my passport by my head. I thought…

Facebook has entered this weird statistical zone where “if you don’t have a Facebook account by now you’re probably a scammer.” I deleted my facebook account in 2015 and then tried to sign up again also when I had stuff to sell, they couldn’t verify me either.

Re: Facebook is just Craigslist now

#30

Post by nyarlathotep_ »

bsimpson wrote: post #21
mrkramer wrote: post #15

Facebook was awesome when it was the only social network; now we have Instagram for social image sharing, WhatsApp for messaging, Snapchat for ephemeral messaging, YouTube for social video and TikTok for social short video plus Discord and Twitch for social gaming. Even Facebook's social casual gaming moved to mobile gaming. Facebook wanted to be the everything social network just like Amazon is the everything store…

For ~a decade, Facebook replaced the address book. You wouldn't ask for a phone number; you'd add someone on Facebook. They got greedy. Word got out about how they'd manipulate the algorithm to get you to spend hours per day there, how aggressively they mined and sold your data, etc. It became unfashionable to use. People who had spent a decade recording their lives and connecting with their friends walked away from…

It's hard to explain to Zoomers/younger people how cool Facebook was in the late 2000s to early 2010s.

It was the de facto digital means of communication for social events--the social world in your palm so you could see what everyone was up to, where the parties were, whatever.

I signed on recently (mostly to make sure my creds still worked after at least 7 years of no use) and now it's dreadfully slow and largely just ad slop. It's a remarkable decline in a platform that basically become a joke now.

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