Facebook 'boring'? 1 in 3 users are tuning it out • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook 'boring'? 1 in 3 users are tuning it out

#81

Post by taligent » Tue, Jun 05, 2012, 8:34 PM UTC

gfosco wrote: post #41

simonsarris wrote: post #14

66% of users are tuning in? That's great! Every time a Facebook usage topic comes up there's the usual round of scorn usually backed up by a strange display of plumage involving the sentence, "I just deleted my facebook yesterday/last month/last year/never used it." And that's okay. But I want to point out to my fellow HN-goers why facebook is so wonderful. There's also a note about privacy at the bottom[1] since tha…

The privacy argument invariably turns to someone talking about their privacy settings being perfect.... The elephant in the room is that you have no privacy FROM FACEBOOK, and they OWN YOUR DATA. Soon enough, they'll be leveraging it in order to stay afloat....

They DO NOT OWN YOUR DATA. They have a license to it so they can use wherever they want during your site.

And pay close attention here: "Facebook only has access to information you give it". Think about that for a second.

Re: Facebook 'boring'? 1 in 3 users are tuning it out

#82

Post by fennecfoxen » Tue, Jun 05, 2012, 8:38 PM UTC

taligent wrote: post #81

gfosco wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The privacy argument invariably turns to someone talking about their privacy settings being perfect.... The elephant in the room is that you have no privacy FROM FACEBOOK, and they OWN YOUR DATA. Soon enough, they'll be leveraging it in order to stay afloat....

They DO NOT OWN YOUR DATA. They have a license to it so they can use wherever they want during your site. And pay close attention here: "Facebook only has access to information you give it". Think about that for a second.

Do they own the data they trick out of you, when your browser sends a request to Facebook for every page with a 'like' button or similar feature unless you're doing crazy-adblock?

Do they own any data your friends and relatives give them about you?

Re: Facebook 'boring'? 1 in 3 users are tuning it out

#83

Post by jquery » Tue, Jun 05, 2012, 8:39 PM UTC

CompiledCode wrote: post #33

evincarofautumn wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The “Social Reader” applications are the worst. All I end up doing is Googling the article title. Luckily, I don’t think Yahoo! and the Washington Post care an awful lot about the sort of people who log into Facebook at most once a week, and then mainly to use chat.

Agreed. Ads are ubiquitous (I just tune them out), but clicking a link and being told "you can't read this unless you give us your personal info and let us tell all of your friends that you read this" is wrong on so many levels. I think this sort of thing will add to the downfall of facebook. Non-savvy internet users love facebook, but it only takes one learning experience (such as seeing broadcast that you read a hi…

Social readers are worse than you think. Once you've opted in, even reading a Yahoo! article via a Google search may show up in your news feed. My boss potentially seeing me reading articles about "How to ask for a raise" being the epitome of this. Don't know if he saw or not, but it was a educational experience nonetheless. I was trying to be careful and I still got burned.

Re: Facebook 'boring'? 1 in 3 users are tuning it out

#84

Post by taligent » Tue, Jun 05, 2012, 8:39 PM UTC

infinitebeam wrote: post #64

and my feed is full of rage faces and memes.

Get better friends.

Re: Facebook 'boring'? 1 in 3 users are tuning it out

#85

Post by EricDeb » Tue, Jun 05, 2012, 8:41 PM UTC

I like facebook for its use in corresponding with people I normally would never contact. It gives me all the window I would ever want into their lives.

For my close friends, FB is essentially useless and actually encourages me to contact them via phone or face to face less than I should because I feel like I am keeping up with them through facebook.

Re: Facebook 'boring'? 1 in 3 users are tuning it out

#86

Post by demoo » Tue, Jun 05, 2012, 8:50 PM UTC

toemetoch wrote: post #54

mtgx wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, the "Facebook is boring" numbers starting showing up before the IPO. Now they are just getting more attention. The problem is a real one for Facebook, whether it gets in the press and on blogs or not.

They hit the ceiling, I would like to know how this little plot will develop over the next 2 quarters: http://www.google.com/trends/?q=facebook

The interesting part is the information below the graph: most searches in Turkey, Venezuela, Colombia, Malaysia, Italy, Croatia, Indonesia. Africa nowhere to be seen though.

Re: Facebook 'boring'? 1 in 3 users are tuning it out

#87

Post by theorique » Tue, Jun 05, 2012, 9:03 PM UTC

evincarofautumn wrote: post #23

ph33r wrote: post #10

Just checked the list of apps I am 'hiding' from my News Feed... It's no wonder people are tuning it out: Angry Birds Friends, Battle Pirates, Bejeweled Blitz, Bingo Island, Budweiser King Club, Camelot: The Game, CastleVille Daily Horoscope, Family Feud, Games on Mindjolt, Happy Pets, Hidden Chronicles, Hockey Pool, Horoscopes, Light of Nova, Lucky Slots: Reno, Marvel: Avengers Alliance, Miner Speed, Mirrorball Slot…

The “Social Reader” applications are the worst. All I end up doing is Googling the article title. Luckily, I don’t think Yahoo! and the Washington Post care an awful lot about the sort of people who log into Facebook at most once a week, and then mainly to use chat.

The “Social Reader” applications are the worst. All I end up doing is Googling the article title.

Amen to that. This is a pox on what should otherwise be a normal hyperlink.

Re: Facebook 'boring'? 1 in 3 users are tuning it out

#88

Post by sixothree » Tue, Jun 05, 2012, 9:04 PM UTC

ajays wrote: post #5

My status updates have gone from about 1/day a couple of years ago, to about 1/week now. Even though I've blocked all apps, etc., I find FB to be too noisy. The only thing I like about FB is that I can keep track of friends' events, like babies, marriages, breakups, trips, etc.

Everything I care about the most in my life isn't on facebook. Nobody I know in the real world has much interest in anything I find fascinating.

Point being - I have no reason to post anything on facebook.

Re: Facebook 'boring'? 1 in 3 users are tuning it out

#89

Post by aaronpeterson » Tue, Jun 05, 2012, 9:15 PM UTC

I fear for facebook long-term only because I can't imagine the things I said when I was 16 lingering around on my timeline forever. Fad or not, facebook's standing with teenagers today will not be a long-lasting one. High School you will eventually be abandoned by college you and then again by professional you. How will facebook synchronize with rites of passage? Maybe this is why the proponents of facebook are usually 30-somethings...already done morphing and, as such, don't get it.

Re: Facebook 'boring'? 1 in 3 users are tuning it out

#90

Post by gcr » Tue, Jun 05, 2012, 9:35 PM UTC

taligent wrote: post #74

jdminhbg wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> These functions in times past were done with the laborous process of making a million letters or phone calls or in many cases (like my hometown page) scarcely made or not made at all. Or with Geocities? FB hardly invented the concept of a page on the internet where events are listed. I'm sure it provides some nice functionality around calendaring and networking, but we didn't go from xeroxed fliers to Facebook with…

See this says more about you than Facebook. Nobody other than you is forcing you to use it. You don't have to do keep hiding apps, photos etc. You don't have to "keep up" with anything. The social obligation is all in your head. I have Facebook. I find it incredibly useful for keeping track of people. And yet I only use it when I feel the urge to.

Couldn't disagree more with this. The day I deleted my Facebook account was the day that I lost many real-life friends.

Those friends weren't willing to maintain those relationships with me outside of facebook.

Sure, they won't ever say that.

But I phrase it like that because they're so used to keeping up with their other friends on Facebook that keeping up with me was (comparatively) a chore, so I faded from that circle.

You see, Facebook has lowered the cost of keeping up with friends. The flipside is that people expect not to have to spend more effort to keep up with friends. Thus, it raises the (relative!) cost of connecting in meaningful ways (over the phone, in person, ...)

Many social circles start out treating Facebook as a tool. Then it becomes the norm, and they're less willing to take extra time to connect with anyone who does not use it.