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Have we reached peak Facebook yet? I started using Facebook quite early in my country and used it mostly as a social network, communicating and exchanging stuff
by sveme 10y ago
Have we reached peak Facebook yet? I started using Facebook quite early in my country and used it mostly as a social network, communicating and exchanging stuff with friends from all over the world. A couple years later I deleted my account, being disgusted by the potential abusive potential of all the information Facebook had. I came back years later as it became THE tool for ad hoc social initiatives and a way to follow news from things of importance to you, like the local climbing gym or a band I like. Though I did not use it as a social network, I nevertheless used it. That is currently changing and I experience Facebook fatigue.
The comment sections are either empty, used as a notifier for friends or are right-wing/left-wing troll battle fields. Everyone seems overly emotional to get the most likes and bubble to the top. I removed subscriptions for newspapers to not accidentally have to stumble upon the inanen comments, something I dreaded only with youtube comments so far. Have the social network aspects of Facebook (and youtube) been destroyed by fatigue, other ways (WhatsApp?) of exchanging stuff immediately and ideological troll battles?
- onewaystreet 10y ago> Have the social network aspects of Facebook been destroyed by fatigue Combating this is partly why Facebook bought WhatsApp and spun out Messenger into its own app.
- paulpauper 10y agoFacebook is so big it can just buy anything that competes with it ,but Whats App may be too big
- igniteflow 10y agoCorrect me if I'm wrong, but it owns WhatsApp
- kayoone 10y agoFB aquired WhatsApp in 2014 for 19Bn. WeChat however, could be too big for anyone of the US giants to swallow.
- RugnirViking 10y agoConsidering I have yet to hear of WeChat, I doubt that.
- paulpauper 10y agomeant snapchat is too big
- CodingGuy 10y agoIf Google Trends is somewhat right, we've definitely reached peak Facebook: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=Facebook https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=Facebook
- alehul 10y agoThis is likely more indicative of society: A. Becoming more computer-literate and going straight to sites as opposed to always Googling it before clicking, even once familiar with the URL, which won't correlate to usage B. Visiting the site enough for AutoFill to take effect, which is ever-so-slightly inverse in correlation in terms of search popularity to site popularity Here's a FB-related search term people will still use, even with AutoFill for Facebook, as some evidence. The rise is a similar pattern, but lacking the major drop: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=Facebook%20contact https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=Facebook...
- anxrn 10y agoAgree. Another factor is mobile usage. The % of users that use Facebook _exclusively_ as an app is likely trending up as well.
- nostrademons 10y ago[facebook] was the most common search query when I was at Google (roughly the period covered by this graph), and [facebook login] would alternate between #2 and #3. Neither of your options seem likely at all to me - over the time I was there, I witnessed people becoming more likely to navigate to sites via Googling them rather than clicking, not less. The trend is even more pronounced with mobile, where basically nobody types in a URL, they use voice search and speak the name of the site. I would bet on the Facebook mobile app being a major cause, though. Instead of hitting the web version at all, they're opening the mobile app.
- brockvond 10y agoI agree with this... also the rise of predictive searching in browsers and the omnibar etc.
- paulpauper 10y agohave we reached 'peak car' 'peak operating system' yet or 'peak computer'? I think Facebook is going to be with us for a very long time and will continue to thrive. Yeah, the comments and posts suck sometimes (I don't use it) but hundreds of millions are addicted to it.
- nosuchthing 10y agoUsers migrated to Facebook from other popular social networks.. it doesn't take much to gain critical mass
- paulpauper 10y agoSome migrated from Myspace and other networks, but Facebook was able to capture the invaluable older demographic who had never used social networking before and are less inclined to switch. Facebook was able revolutionize communication much in the same way the car did for transportation.
- dredmorbius 10y agoLargely by being "The Harvard Network". A point I've long made, and recently discoverd that dana boyd has hammered as well. Facebook is no longer Harvard.
- gaius 10y agoFacebook was able to capture the invaluable older demographic Yes and no. It captured people while they were 20-somethings and has so far managed to hold onto many of them into their 30s and even 40s via its networking effect. But the last thing the next generation want to use is something that the previous generation used. So it's a blessing and a curse.
- mtgx 10y agoFacebook is not an industry. It's a product in an industry. A similar question would read "Have we reached peak AOL?" or "Have we reached peak Windows?"
- darpa_escapee 10y agoToday's Facebook experience feels like the 1998 AOL silo if it had a 'Friends' keyword.
- brockvond 10y agoI unfollowed like 85% of my "friends" on facebook this past year... probably 75% of all the news sources I used to enjoy and left all the groups but the professional ones I still like and because I have FB Messenger... i don't miss any of it and people can message me. I have a youtube sub list and podcasts for "news" and if i wanna see my buddy's feed... i can just go look. It's a void; I'm enjoying meeting people for drinks or meals so much more now. Life is better.
- AznHisoka 10y agoI think one of the most perverse and increasingly popular reasons people are still stubbornly using FB is to look at images of their crushes. nothing more.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- return0 10y agoI am glad facebook exists, to keep all that garbage siloed and away from me. As a non-user, i enjoy a slightly cleaner web.
- enraged_camel 10y agoThe silo leaks quite a bit. Every other website has Facebook logins and Facebook comment threads, or screenshots of conversations from Facebook. It's pretty bad.
- routelastresort 10y agoCheck out Fanboy lists for uBlock Origin: https://www.fanboy.co.nz/ https://www.fanboy.co.nz/ Also, there are several extensions specifically for blocking social media tracking, which also block comment sections (and you can still go directly to Facebook)
- astrodust 10y agoWe can just call it the "alternate-web".
- westiseast 10y agoFake web.
- brilliantcode 10y agoIt's like being invited to a party you didn't want to go to because people were douchey and pleasantly finding out they ditched you to snort cocaine leaving you to enjoy the empty premise catering to your demand for solitude.
- puranjay 10y agoImagine memes on Hacker News.
- marchenko 10y agoUnfortunately, the silo leaks sentient radioactive waste that follows you home and rifles through your mail and personal effects for saleable data. And it may be making your neighbors in the silo slightly ill.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- MrDosu 10y agoI deleted my Facebook account when I started tracking my time for productivity reasons. For me it was a MASSIVE destruction of man hours just idling around reading nonsense. Against my worries meaningful social interactions haven't suffered and I still keep in touch with people all over the world...
- kristianc 10y agoIt's probably now worth thinking about Facebook more as a giant advertising VC house more than as 'Facebook.com'. Facebook's main asset is its social graph and cross device map, which only Google currently has anything comparable too. Any time a new type of app, ad unit or social trend becomes popular (group chat replacing FB groups for instance), they will buy it before it gets traction. Instagram has a much nicer ad unit format than Facebook, and appeals to a more upscale audience.
- nibs 10y agoAll my friends, immediate and extended family communicate over Signal. <50% use Facebook, login once a week and are horrified by the posts, log back out. We are probably not typical users of technology, but Signal is our core communication tool now.