5 ms·

> is anyone else sort of fatigued with social media trying it's hardest to do it all for you Yes, because they're not doing it for us, but for themselves, inv

by tdkl 10y ago

> is anyone else sort of fatigued with social media trying it's hardest to do it all for you Yes, because they're not doing it for us, but for themselves, investors and customers (advertisers) fueled by our data.

wmeredith 10y ago
This is the real problem. Zuck and co are a lot of things. Words like benevolent, disinterested, and unbiased aren't on that list of things.
renaudg 10y ago
Could Facebook be doing so well because this is actually a win-win situation for everyone involved ? That includes the people you mentioned yes, but also users who get to use a valuable tool for free. The whole "if it's free, you are the product" party line may resonate in HN circles, but you have to realize the public as a whole doesn't think it's a bad deal at all.
- rpgmaker 10y ago
  If those features had a negative impact on their bottom line they would never offer them for free to everyone so yes, they're doing it for themselves and it just so happens that some people find them useful.
- mbrock 10y ago
  People in the general public don't really have a clear idea about what Facebook, Google, and Amazon are doing. Still, most people I know are vaguely aware that there's something creepy going on. They aren't really comfortable with Facebook, Inc owning their digital social life, but they rely on it because of the obvious network effect. Try asking someone "hey, you know Facebook use a lot of state-of-the-art technology to algorithmically understand the meaning of everything you post and write, feeding this massive data set into their huge artificial intelligence program?" I don't think it's likely that many people will say "cool, that sounds like a great deal, because I love it when I get very specifically targetted ads."
  - _xzu 10y ago
    Or maybe Facebook is still doing fine since there is no good enough alternative. It seems like Facebook is getting worse all the time but since everybody's there and it's familiar people still uses it. Indicators are they are losing young people, who tend to adapt faster and have not yet build habit of use and more and more people are using other services for particular activities. Still there is nothing which could totally replace Facebook so old users are staying and baiting new users. It still has unique offer for large user base and very useful features so even if it's getting worse it can stand. People might be clicking their feed more but that's because they are so bored with content that they try if they can find something more interesting behind the links. Or they are scrolling down since trying to find something interesting, something different which is hard since algorithms just push same boring content all over again. But statistics look good. What's the magic of Facebook? If you could answer that and build the service people will flock out from Facebook.
    - alanwatts 10y ago
      The magic of Facebook is the billion+ users on it. Do those people use Facebook because it offers some unique service which no one else can or does, or because it went viral and everyone jumped on the bandwagon?
    - renaudg 10y ago
      The problem with your argument is that you admit "the statistics look good" but then present a bunch of unsubstantiated personal opinions ("getting worse all the time", "boring") that are just not supported by the available data.
  - renaudg 10y ago
    >People in the general public don't really have a clear idea about what Facebook, Google, and Amazon are doing. But neither do you really, right ? Sure, you may have a better idea than them of what's technically feasible, but the general HN consensus on the motives, values and internal decision-making process at these companies ("always assume the worst from them, they're optimizing for money!") is in my experience (of working at FB a few years ago) a simplistic view that's way, way off the mark. >"hey, you know Facebook use a lot of state-of-the-art technology to algorithmically understand the meaning of everything you post and write, feeding this massive data set into their huge artificial intelligence program?" I don't think it's likely that many people will say "cool, that sounds like a great deal, because I love it when I get very specifically targetted ads." I think this is again where nerd-bias is misleading you : 1) Many people would answer your question with "yeah ? is this the thing that enables translations, picture captions for the blind and suggests me events I might like ? Please, bring it on!" 2) people actually do prefer very specifically targeted ads, rather than annoying+irrelevant pop-up banners of the past. This is why FB is making a killing.

by tdkl 10y ago

wmeredith 10y ago

This is the real problem. Zuck and co are a lot of things. Words like benevolent, disinterested, and unbiased aren't on that list of things.

renaudg 10y ago

Could Facebook be doing so well because this is actually a win-win situation for everyone involved ? That includes the people you mentioned yes, but also users who get to use a valuable tool for free. The whole "if it's free, you are the product" party line may resonate in HN circles, but you have to realize the public as a whole doesn't think it's a bad deal at all.

rpgmaker 10y ago
If those features had a negative impact on their bottom line they would never offer them for free to everyone so yes, they're doing it for themselves and it just so happens that some people find them useful.
mbrock 10y ago
People in the general public don't really have a clear idea about what Facebook, Google, and Amazon are doing. Still, most people I know are vaguely aware that there's something creepy going on. They aren't really comfortable with Facebook, Inc owning their digital social life, but they rely on it because of the obvious network effect. Try asking someone "hey, you know Facebook use a lot of state-of-the-art technology to algorithmically understand the meaning of everything you post and write, feeding this massive data set into their huge artificial intelligence program?" I don't think it's likely that many people will say "cool, that sounds like a great deal, because I love it when I get very specifically targetted ads."
- _xzu 10y ago
  Or maybe Facebook is still doing fine since there is no good enough alternative. It seems like Facebook is getting worse all the time but since everybody's there and it's familiar people still uses it. Indicators are they are losing young people, who tend to adapt faster and have not yet build habit of use and more and more people are using other services for particular activities. Still there is nothing which could totally replace Facebook so old users are staying and baiting new users. It still has unique offer for large user base and very useful features so even if it's getting worse it can stand. People might be clicking their feed more but that's because they are so bored with content that they try if they can find something more interesting behind the links. Or they are scrolling down since trying to find something interesting, something different which is hard since algorithms just push same boring content all over again. But statistics look good. What's the magic of Facebook? If you could answer that and build the service people will flock out from Facebook.
  - alanwatts 10y ago
    The magic of Facebook is the billion+ users on it. Do those people use Facebook because it offers some unique service which no one else can or does, or because it went viral and everyone jumped on the bandwagon?
  - renaudg 10y ago
    The problem with your argument is that you admit "the statistics look good" but then present a bunch of unsubstantiated personal opinions ("getting worse all the time", "boring") that are just not supported by the available data.
- renaudg 10y ago
  >People in the general public don't really have a clear idea about what Facebook, Google, and Amazon are doing. But neither do you really, right ? Sure, you may have a better idea than them of what's technically feasible, but the general HN consensus on the motives, values and internal decision-making process at these companies ("always assume the worst from them, they're optimizing for money!") is in my experience (of working at FB a few years ago) a simplistic view that's way, way off the mark. >"hey, you know Facebook use a lot of state-of-the-art technology to algorithmically understand the meaning of everything you post and write, feeding this massive data set into their huge artificial intelligence program?" I don't think it's likely that many people will say "cool, that sounds like a great deal, because I love it when I get very specifically targetted ads." I think this is again where nerd-bias is misleading you : 1) Many people would answer your question with "yeah ? is this the thing that enables translations, picture captions for the blind and suggests me events I might like ? Please, bring it on!" 2) people actually do prefer very specifically targeted ads, rather than annoying+irrelevant pop-up banners of the past. This is why FB is making a killing.