6 ms·

Facebook isn't necessary

59 points by chrbutler 10y ago

ng12 10y ago
Facebook solves one stupidly important problem: it's an easy digital index of everyone I'll ever meet. I treat it more like the yellowpages than a social network and as a result never really have a reason to think about it.
0wl3x 10y ago
I logged out of facebook a few weeks ago with the intention of never going back. I got to say it's a deeply liberating feeling. Once you realize that people just go there to go there, breaking that loop is incredibly gratifying. On the other hand, I still use FB messenger as the main means of communication for almost all of my friends abroad.
- chrbutler 10y ago
  Totally agree. But I never used FB messenger, so it was probably easier for me to break off completely. On the subject of getting off FB, here's another piece (not by me) that handles the privacy issues very well: http://www.salimvirani.com/facebook/ http://www.salimvirani.com/facebook/
- cylinder 10y ago
  I unfollowed everyone so I don't have a news feed anymore. I'm not missing anything.
  - Markoff 10y ago
    done this too followed later by deleting account because what's the point after all as for never who want to contact me feel free to use signal, sms, email or calls, also running Skype Mingo for few other people
- kyle-rb 10y ago
  For anyone who isn't aware, Facebook messenger is available on https://messenger.com https://messenger.com with no advertisements.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
chetanahuja 10y ago
[Meta] I clicked the link. Saw just a white screen. May have had some light grey markings but my eyes couldn't tell what those markings could have meant.
- __derek__ 10y ago
  Likewise. The site has abysmal accessibility.
- rchaud 10y ago
  Serious accessibility concerns on that site. Unreadable on most mobile browsers. At least on desktop I have 'reading mode' and 'color invert' extensions. Plus, what is up with that incredibly thin font? I've only ever seen that use for a sub-headline on a product landing page. Never as the body text font.
- asarode 10y ago
  The text in the beginning has bad contrast, but it's only for the short quote in the intro. The body text is black.
nkkollaw 10y ago
Facebook is a great tool for many uses. The most empowering thing I can personally think of, it lets small organizations/businesses reach a lot of people without spenind any money. Anyone who can't afford a website can still put content out there and reach their audience. It's great for advertisers. While with AdWords from my experience clicks rarely convert, Facebook works generally well. Like Whatsapp, Messenger is an awesome free chat that most people will have already installed and that makes communicating with new people extremely easy. People who complain about Facebook seem to be those who use it improperly, such as not being able to ignore notifications for more than 30 seconds, or sharing private things irresponsibly.
- horsecaptin 10y ago
  Couldn't agree more. I think the advice here should be: if you have an addictive personality, then you should reevaluate your habits on a regular basis.
- dublinben 10y ago
  As an organization, you can't actually reach "your followers" on Facebook for free, because they aren't your followers. Facebook will lower and lower the reach of your posts until none of your audience actually sees them. They'll gladly show your posts to more of your audience for a fee though, which is where much of their advertising revenue comes from. Any small organization/business would be better off with an email list, so they can actually contact their audience.
  - nkkollaw 10y ago
    A small store or organization can tell their clients: "pictures of the products are on our Facebook page, check them out". I've been trying to adopt a dog, and all shelters have a Facebook page where you can see the dogs. They wouln't have the money for building and keeping a website updated.
- tdkl 10y ago
  We already had websites+rss, which actually does the same result, but isn't inside a Facebooks wet dream of being "The Internet".
nosuchthing 10y ago
Facebook UI and UX is comically bad, it's just that currently FB holds the "network effect" for a generic social platform on the web. And yet the site still functions like some relic of an AOL landing page. I can only assume most people must be uninspired, or unaware of how to seek out alternative forums on the web.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
kristianp 10y ago
Interesting point about the difficulty of removing fake news: >> On Wikipedia, you have the freedom to set up an account, log in, and edit any entry you like. You can change the name of George Washington to Billy-Bob Washypants if you like. You can say he’s still alive and sells insurance in New Jersey. You can say he has sixteen cats and has gone vegan. Whatever. Will your edits stick? No. That’s the point. The openness of Wikipedia is the outworking of a philosophy that truth, when crowdsourced, is just as strong — if not stronger — than when managed by a select few. Now, one too many bogus edits and you’ll be banned from Wikipedia, which is, again, in line with their philosophy. If your intent toward information is chaotic-evil, fine, but you’re not entitled to go about your trickster ways anywhere you like, and Wikipedia is entitled to kick you out. So how about Facebook? On Facebook, only the original creator of a post on Facebook can edit it. The crowd has no recourse but to complain to Facebook, and Facebook, of course, has already said that the content isn’t their problem.
- ue_ 10y ago
  >The openness of Wikipedia is the outworking of a philosophy that truth, when crowdsourced, is just as strong — if not stronger — than when managed by a select few. Unfortunately Wikipedia isn't like this in practice. There are several articles written in a quite biased way, with biased references, which are then locked at various thresholds. Wikipedia, just as the democracy it relies on, is no truth machine.
  - chrbutler 10y ago
    Interesting. I'd love to learn more about that. What do you mean by "locked"?
0xfaded 10y ago
This is extremely meta and only tangently on topic. I don't use Facebook and live in SV (Redwood City). I have lived in many places but have never had so much trouble maintaining meaningful connections as here. If someone local would like to meet up for coffee only on the basis that we both read HN and neither use Facebook, I would be interested to meet you and share stories. I've temporarily put my email in my profile.
mrmondo 10y ago
I found that Facebook lost all relevance and provided really... nothing to me, my life, my friends or my family around about 3 years ago. I'm not one of those elitist 'I quite facebook' people but, I did and my life did improve, and guess what? It wasn't social media or the distraction that was the problem - it was the medium. Since then my twitter usage has grown like crazy and I absolutely love it, I learn things, I laugh, I ignore some things but over all - I really love the platform.
ramgorur 10y ago
I have seen a couple of news on communal violence (resulted in death) originating from a facebook post, is there any statistics on that?
romanovcode 10y ago
I removed myself from FB around 2 months ago. It wasn't anything special, didn't notice anything lacking from my day-to-day life whatsoever. Also didn't notice any "liberated" feeling or anything like that as well.
fuzzfactor 10y ago
Obviously the quality of the internet as well as interpersonal communications was declining already before Facebook came along. Facebook isn't necessary for this decline to occur, but it does accelerate the process. disclaimer: didn't read the article

59 points by chrbutler 10y ago

ng12 10y ago

Facebook solves one stupidly important problem: it's an easy digital index of everyone I'll ever meet. I treat it more like the yellowpages than a social network and as a result never really have a reason to think about it.

0wl3x 10y ago

I logged out of facebook a few weeks ago with the intention of never going back. I got to say it's a deeply liberating feeling. Once you realize that people just go there to go there, breaking that loop is incredibly gratifying. On the other hand, I still use FB messenger as the main means of communication for almost all of my friends abroad.

chrbutler 10y ago
Totally agree. But I never used FB messenger, so it was probably easier for me to break off completely. On the subject of getting off FB, here's another piece (not by me) that handles the privacy issues very well: http://www.salimvirani.com/facebook/ http://www.salimvirani.com/facebook/
cylinder 10y ago
I unfollowed everyone so I don't have a news feed anymore. I'm not missing anything.
- Markoff 10y ago
  done this too followed later by deleting account because what's the point after all as for never who want to contact me feel free to use signal, sms, email or calls, also running Skype Mingo for few other people
kyle-rb 10y ago
For anyone who isn't aware, Facebook messenger is available on https://messenger.com https://messenger.com with no advertisements.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

chetanahuja 10y ago

[Meta] I clicked the link. Saw just a white screen. May have had some light grey markings but my eyes couldn't tell what those markings could have meant.

__derek__ 10y ago
Likewise. The site has abysmal accessibility.
rchaud 10y ago
Serious accessibility concerns on that site. Unreadable on most mobile browsers. At least on desktop I have 'reading mode' and 'color invert' extensions. Plus, what is up with that incredibly thin font? I've only ever seen that use for a sub-headline on a product landing page. Never as the body text font.
asarode 10y ago
The text in the beginning has bad contrast, but it's only for the short quote in the intro. The body text is black.

nkkollaw 10y ago

Facebook is a great tool for many uses. The most empowering thing I can personally think of, it lets small organizations/businesses reach a lot of people without spenind any money. Anyone who can't afford a website can still put content out there and reach their audience. It's great for advertisers. While with AdWords from my experience clicks rarely convert, Facebook works generally well. Like Whatsapp, Messenger is an awesome free chat that most people will have already installed and that makes communicating with new people extremely easy. People who complain about Facebook seem to be those who use it improperly, such as not being able to ignore notifications for more than 30 seconds, or sharing private things irresponsibly.

horsecaptin 10y ago
Couldn't agree more. I think the advice here should be: if you have an addictive personality, then you should reevaluate your habits on a regular basis.
dublinben 10y ago
As an organization, you can't actually reach "your followers" on Facebook for free, because they aren't your followers. Facebook will lower and lower the reach of your posts until none of your audience actually sees them. They'll gladly show your posts to more of your audience for a fee though, which is where much of their advertising revenue comes from. Any small organization/business would be better off with an email list, so they can actually contact their audience.
- nkkollaw 10y ago
  A small store or organization can tell their clients: "pictures of the products are on our Facebook page, check them out". I've been trying to adopt a dog, and all shelters have a Facebook page where you can see the dogs. They wouln't have the money for building and keeping a website updated.
tdkl 10y ago
We already had websites+rss, which actually does the same result, but isn't inside a Facebooks wet dream of being "The Internet".

nosuchthing 10y ago

Facebook UI and UX is comically bad, it's just that currently FB holds the "network effect" for a generic social platform on the web. And yet the site still functions like some relic of an AOL landing page. I can only assume most people must be uninspired, or unaware of how to seek out alternative forums on the web.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

kristianp 10y ago

Interesting point about the difficulty of removing fake news: >> On Wikipedia, you have the freedom to set up an account, log in, and edit any entry you like. You can change the name of George Washington to Billy-Bob Washypants if you like. You can say he’s still alive and sells insurance in New Jersey. You can say he has sixteen cats and has gone vegan. Whatever. Will your edits stick? No. That’s the point. The openness of Wikipedia is the outworking of a philosophy that truth, when crowdsourced, is just as strong — if not stronger — than when managed by a select few. Now, one too many bogus edits and you’ll be banned from Wikipedia, which is, again, in line with their philosophy. If your intent toward information is chaotic-evil, fine, but you’re not entitled to go about your trickster ways anywhere you like, and Wikipedia is entitled to kick you out. So how about Facebook? On Facebook, only the original creator of a post on Facebook can edit it. The crowd has no recourse but to complain to Facebook, and Facebook, of course, has already said that the content isn’t their problem.

ue_ 10y ago
>The openness of Wikipedia is the outworking of a philosophy that truth, when crowdsourced, is just as strong — if not stronger — than when managed by a select few. Unfortunately Wikipedia isn't like this in practice. There are several articles written in a quite biased way, with biased references, which are then locked at various thresholds. Wikipedia, just as the democracy it relies on, is no truth machine.
- chrbutler 10y ago
  Interesting. I'd love to learn more about that. What do you mean by "locked"?

0xfaded 10y ago

This is extremely meta and only tangently on topic. I don't use Facebook and live in SV (Redwood City). I have lived in many places but have never had so much trouble maintaining meaningful connections as here. If someone local would like to meet up for coffee only on the basis that we both read HN and neither use Facebook, I would be interested to meet you and share stories. I've temporarily put my email in my profile.

mrmondo 10y ago

I found that Facebook lost all relevance and provided really... nothing to me, my life, my friends or my family around about 3 years ago. I'm not one of those elitist 'I quite facebook' people but, I did and my life did improve, and guess what? It wasn't social media or the distraction that was the problem - it was the medium. Since then my twitter usage has grown like crazy and I absolutely love it, I learn things, I laugh, I ignore some things but over all - I really love the platform.

ramgorur 10y ago

I have seen a couple of news on communal violence (resulted in death) originating from a facebook post, is there any statistics on that?

romanovcode 10y ago

I removed myself from FB around 2 months ago. It wasn't anything special, didn't notice anything lacking from my day-to-day life whatsoever. Also didn't notice any "liberated" feeling or anything like that as well.

fuzzfactor 10y ago

Obviously the quality of the internet as well as interpersonal communications was declining already before Facebook came along. Facebook isn't necessary for this decline to occur, but it does accelerate the process. disclaimer: didn't read the article