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Facebook loses users for the first time

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Facebook loses users for the first time

#531

Post by antonioevans »

jl6 wrote: post #512
randomsearch wrote: post #504

This is how the narrative of Facebook looks to me: Zuckerberg got lucky and then executed brilliantly, transitioned from nerd hacker to CEO amazingly well. He deserves a lot of credit for that. Since then, Facebook have innovated very little. Zuckerberg recognised this, and bought Instagram and Whatsapp in lieu of building an innovative company. The latter is clearly really difficult to do. Without a stream of new id…

> … VR is a good play I find your analysis excellent apart from this bit. It’s really far from obvious to me that VR has any future outside a gaming niche.

The timeline for consumer level glasses with ar + vr will begin shipping 2023. "Apple" level ones 2025. These devices will be as ubiquitious as the smartphone or earbuds.

Re: Facebook loses users for the first time

#532

Post by bobthepanda »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #520
randomsearch wrote: post #504

This is how the narrative of Facebook looks to me: Zuckerberg got lucky and then executed brilliantly, transitioned from nerd hacker to CEO amazingly well. He deserves a lot of credit for that. Since then, Facebook have innovated very little. Zuckerberg recognised this, and bought Instagram and Whatsapp in lieu of building an innovative company. The latter is clearly really difficult to do. Without a stream of new id…

>Facebook have innovated very little. Zuckerberg recognised this, and bought Instagram and Whatsapp in lieu of building an innovative company. The latter is clearly really difficult to do. I can't remember who it was - maybe Stratechery - that theorized that Zuckerberg thanks to his experience running Facebook had a really good intuition for when Social media where going to go far and thus was able to make deals that…

The problem with accumulating ever more money is that it becomes ever harder to invest properly and try and beat the market.

Re: Facebook loses users for the first time

#533

Post by oska »

dash2 wrote: post #508
iamthemonster wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's so interesting how different people's Facebook feeds are so different. I do have excessive ads for products, that's fair enough, but I have absolutely nothing political. My only issue with Facebook is that it's poorly designed, actually very dated and cluttered, and none of my friends really use it for personal posts except me. I suspect that each Facebook user exists in a different bubble. Possibly they see som…

My FB isn't full of fury and hate speech. It's boring! Half of my friends like to post anodyne motivational quotes, "hilarious" forwarded jokes, pretty pictures of events they attended, and their own not-so-interesting musings. Unfortunately, that half is by far the most active on Facebook. The overall atmosphere is mawkish. The best aspect is seeing pics of people's kids. You can't fault that.

> The best aspect is seeing pics of people's kids. You can't fault that.

I can. I think it's unfair of parents to post their children's images on the web, which are then being stockpiled by FB in perpetuity.

Re: Facebook loses users for the first time

#534

Post by nabla9 »

AndrewTerry wrote: post #522
sujesh wrote: post #327

I deleted my FB a while ago and it truely helped my online mental health. The fb feed was full of false news and hate speech. I reported as much as I could but nothing happening. There wasn't any regulations and I felt more toxic on the contents. I am not gonna lie there was a positive side like knowing the news instantly but It's not worth it apparently.

You may think you've deleted your FB account, but its probably still there... I "deleted" my FB after they acquired FriendFeed (still the best social network I've ever come across) back in 2009. I was puzzled, then, to receive an email in November last year asking if I had tried to log in. "Impossible", I thought, "that account was deleted!". So, I visited Facebook, and because my old username/password were still in…

You just deactivated your FB account.

Deleting FB account is slightly more complicated. After you have deleted it, don't try to login for months to check out if it's gone.

To permanently delete your account:

1. From your main profile, click account in the top right of Facebook.

2. Select Settings & Privacy, then click Settings.

3. Click Your Facebook Information in the left column. If you have Facebook access to a page in the new Pages experience: Click Privacy, then click Your Facebook Information.

4. Click Deactivation and Deletion.

6. Choose Delete Account, then click Continue to Account Deletion.

7. Click Delete Account, enter your password and then click Continue.

Re: Facebook loses users for the first time

#535

Post by gman83 »

randomsearch wrote: post #504

This is how the narrative of Facebook looks to me: Zuckerberg got lucky and then executed brilliantly, transitioned from nerd hacker to CEO amazingly well. He deserves a lot of credit for that. Since then, Facebook have innovated very little. Zuckerberg recognised this, and bought Instagram and Whatsapp in lieu of building an innovative company. The latter is clearly really difficult to do. Without a stream of new id…

The acquisition strategy could have worked going forwards, seeing as there's not much anti-trust will in the U.S. against M&A, but the problem is that they missed the chance to buy musical.ly (bought for $1 billion by ByteDance in 2017) which became TikTok. If they had made this acquisition they would be in a very different position.

Looking at my teenage kids and their friends, they barely use Instagram (let alone Facebook), it's all about TikTok.

Re: Facebook loses users for the first time

#536

Post by jl6 »

antonioevans wrote: post #531
jl6 wrote: post #512

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> … VR is a good play I find your analysis excellent apart from this bit. It’s really far from obvious to me that VR has any future outside a gaming niche.

The timeline for consumer level glasses with ar + vr will begin shipping 2023. "Apple" level ones 2025. These devices will be as ubiquitious as the smartphone or earbuds.

What are you thinking makes them consumer level? Just cheaper? Because price isn’t the main problem.

Re: Facebook loses users for the first time

#537

Post by seniortaco »

antonioevans wrote: post #531
jl6 wrote: post #512

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> … VR is a good play I find your analysis excellent apart from this bit. It’s really far from obvious to me that VR has any future outside a gaming niche.

The timeline for consumer level glasses with ar + vr will begin shipping 2023. "Apple" level ones 2025. These devices will be as ubiquitious as the smartphone or earbuds.

And perhaps as ubiquitous as Google Glass.

Re: Facebook loses users for the first time

#538

Post by stingraycharles »

FullyFunctional wrote: post #526
davedx wrote: post #521

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with most of what you wrote up to this point: > He's a super smart and prescient thinker, so he can see VR is a good play He made a school yearbook on the internet and copied some features from existing social networks like MySpace. Facebook was just in the right place at the right time and executed well. The jury is very much still out on whether "VR is a good play", too. It might turn out to be a gigantic o…

Anyone remember that Next Big Thing was supposed to be 3D TVs? I think VR is similarly misguided (ie, will never go mainstream but will have a healthy niche).

VR seems more interactive and way stickier, I don’t think you can necessarily compare it to 3D TVs, in the same way a computer and TV are very different.

Having said that, I’m also skeptical of the whole metaverse thing, as we had that stuff a long time ago already (Second Life) and it was a flop. VR needs to become extremely ubiquitous and hassle-free for such a thing to work.

Re: Facebook loses users for the first time

#539

Post by jollybean »

kajaktum wrote: post #497
jollybean wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TikTok is very different and will probably turn your view of what drives engagement upside down. Try it for a bit, it's an alternate universe.

NO thanks, I am not planning on using yet another service that is trying to psychologically milk every ounce of my attention. Reddit and Hackernews is bad enough. I am also not interested in looking at lewd teenagers dancing to the latest tune or whatever the kids are doing these days.

"I don't understand this 'Internet' thing the kids are using, have no intention of trying it, and I already don't like the newspapers!"

"at lewd teenagers dancing to the latest tune or whatever the kids are doing these days." ... is a seriously dim view.

TikTok is literally the #1 app in the world, and for someone curious enough to read HackerNews but unwilling to even try app to understand the nature of its impact is a bit odd.

Personally, I despise Twitter, but I read it occasionally, and understand why it works, and what kind of content is on there. I would find it problematic to work in tech with someone who doesn't understand 'why people like Netflix' having never even bothered to stream a video before.

In particular, the feed algorithm is unlike anything else in tech and the content is definitely a lot less toxic.

You should definitely try it, that doesn't mean you have to like it.

Re: Facebook loses users for the first time

#540

Post by noduerme »

kumarvvr wrote: post #140
josefrichter wrote: post #131

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

I guess the business model of social media companies is coming to fore. FB has a captive audience, that is aging with facebook and will continue using it. It is clear why FB purchases IG / WA. They are paying money to capture audiences with money earned from FB. Going ahead, the cycle will repeat. Once the teens in IG grow into adults, FB will use money from that to buy / make another platform. In this context, the m…

You know how some people still think we can live in a world where covid is eradicated? I still think we can live in a world where major social media companies are eradicated. Or at least can't churn out new dangerous variants to re-infect the immunologically naive 14 year olds who think it's a brand new generational trend every year.

I've watched this marketing turnover at least three times now in the music industry, and I really think the killer antibody is exposure to history. The operative question for a 14 year old hearing a super "original" band isn't what does this say to you... because they know what it says to them but they don't know how easily they're being manipulated by the distillation of time-worn, shop-worn, lazy songwriting. The question is: Hey, do you realize who they're ripping off? You'll be a lot cooler if you know.

That's the pill every human needs when they encounter a new and addictive social media platform.

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