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

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

#461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a seperate facebook@ mail address and I simply never check it. Did so before switching hosters last year and saw that about 8k mails had piled up since 2011. Crazy folks.

I wonder if you can still post to Facebook by email. Having this automatically loop would make me happy. I don’t have an account so can’t check and the instructions for doing it all seem dated.

Seems like that is discontinued: https://www.lifewire.com/post-updates-and-upload-photos-by-e...

Never knew that was an option, but shutting it down just seems logical when you see the aggressive lock-in they are doing.

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

#462

I deleted my Face&#*k account in 2010. But I can't remember exactly when I created the account. Based on my user ID (17502xxx), is it possible to determine roughly when I created my account? For the record, Facebook in the early days, when it was only colleges in the Northeast US, was wild, wild fun.

I tried joining when they added high schools and you needed a social proof to join. But I was homeschooled so they wouldnt let me on cause nobody knew me from the same school I was registered with. Good job Facebook.

I wish social media needed more social proofs to try and weed out certain types of problematic accounts. I only finally went back to Facebook once it was open for everybody. Deleted it a few times now keep it for family only. I dont go on it every waking day though.

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

#463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dear God I installed LinkedIn a couple months back and their endless bs notifications made me realize that I don't need it. It doesn't give me anything. Why is it sending me 2-3 notifications a day when I have 5 friends who's profiles arent even actively used? If it did something useful, like find me clients for the work I do then sure - I'll give them my attention. He'll, I'll pay good money for that! But I don't gi…

I also do not understand the Linked-in notifications at all. They send an e-mail like '5 job changes' which I actually find interesting to learn about. But when I click any of the links this information is nowhere to be found. So after a while I don't click on the links anymore and my engagement goes down. Seems like a lot of the decisions are focused based on quick-wins engagement instead of an long lasting useful e…

It definitely looks like the effects of Goodhart's law [0] operating internally, somewhere their KPIs are measuring just the clicks, views or e-mails sent instead of the spirit of those actions (engaging users, turning passive users into active ones, etc.).

LinkedIn turned into a place where I go to answer some messages that could be good opportunities in the future, and only when I don't feel overwhelmed by recruiters' contacts.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law

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

#464

Whenever the topic of Facebook gets brought up I see a lot of comments on how "the news feed sucks". That it's filled with hateful comments. Leaving facebook is great because it takes toxic people out of your lives! What seems to be missing from the conversation is that Facebook to a large extent is what you make it to be. _You_ decide who to follow, who to keep as your friend, whose post you want to see. There is no…

It's not that simple because imagine that you have a friend that's really cool but you can't talk with him about cars because he has unpopular opinions (or dumb) but really likes to argue for them.

If you have that friend on FB then, because he sometimes posts things about cars and it gets heated, that's what FB like try for you to engage with.

FB seeks and promotes "engagement" over "quality of experience" so it will always try to make you anger (it leads to more engagement) than to have a fulling experience.

If the algorithm can only work with chill people and very alike... it will still try to find what divides and "engages" that group of people.

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

#465
I thought FB will become something like family and friends sharing. Taking part in other lives but in an efficient way.

But it didn't happen. Very rarley are there any picture galleries. And lots of stuff other people share? Always the same.

So the realization set in that it isn't that interesting to have a social network.

I only need a chat and we replaced our family chat with whatsapp.

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

#466

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I opted out of all emails altogether - I only check my notifications once in a while. I've never missed anything of value.

Then why do you still check it?

I’m in the same boat as the GP: no emails allowed, notifications disabled. I also go back to check in the app about a couple times per week (and I’ve never missed anything of value, either). I guess it’s the residual concession to a very strong and deeply engrained habit, combined with the fact that there are some people I don’t have any other line of communication to/from, so it makes sense to maintain the toehold on the platform.

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

#467

By far the biggest factor that had me stopping checking Facebook, and indeed LinkedIn, is number of utterly fictitious notifications they generate. There was a time a few years back when that red dot made me drop everything to check FB, but these days it’ll be some completely bullshit message they’ve made a notification out of. Feels like they got greedy for my attention and killed the golden goose there. I check it…

> Feels like they got greedy for my attention

Bingo. Every time I check Facebook there's at least one "notification". It's always one of

* A page I own has x new views

* A friend or two is interested in an event (not even going to, interested in)

* You have memories on this day

Aside from Messenger for a few ongoing group convos my Facebooking time is mostly limited to interest groups at this point, and I'd happily jump ship with them if they moved to a self-hosted forum or mail list

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

#468

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really feels like some companies like Facebook are flying blind by using A/B testing everywhere and ignoring the long term effects of the changes they do.

Isn't A/B testing pretty much going to behave like a steepest ascent hill climbing? At each micro decision point you take what looks like the 'best' option but that means you can get stuck in local maxima?

Correct.

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

#470
post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they do actually care about privacy but are only ever offered illusion. The problem really is lack of choice.

No one wants choice either. Having 100 social media apps on your phone is not ideal. We want one choice that is also a good choice. That seems virtually impossible when companies are motivated only by profit and only kept in check by customers having a better choice or by government regulation. If facebook was driven purely by the motivation to help people stay in touch with their friends and to find events going on…

> That seems virtually impossible when companies are motivated only by profit and only kept in check by customers having a better choice or by government regulation.

Assume this in every situation and you'll never be disappointed ;)

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