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>The more I think of it, the more Facebook becomes the equivalent of an operating system for the average user. You can send/receive messages, do image editing,

by PJDK 10y ago

>The more I think of it, the more Facebook becomes the equivalent of an operating system for the average user. You can send/receive messages, do image editing, surf the web, but you have no choice of which software to use to do these tasks Once you're in FB ecosystem you're forced to use their array of services. This is an assertion I see relatively regularly, is it based on a gut feeling or is their some evidence to back it up? If so what does it really mean - surely all(?) users do some things outside of facebook (email, news websites and so on)? Are you saying that most users will not look anywhere beyond facebook for any service?

PeterisP 10y ago
There certainly are many people who use facebook but don't have an email account; and many people who use facebook but don't browse the web, especially mobile-only people in the developing world. Couldn't find good statistics quickly, but https://qz.com/333313/milliions-of-facebook-users-have-no-idea-theyre-using-the-internet/ https://qz.com/333313/milliions-of-facebook-users-have-no-id... is relevant.
- PJDK 10y ago
  Thanks, that's an interesting article. One big question it brings up for me does this just reflect that people don't know what "the internet" is at all? Like would you get a similar result if you asked "did you use Google?" or even "did you use Chrome?". Also I don't know about everyone else but a quick glance at my face book feed and the vast majority of stuff is people posting articles from various blogs and talking about them. Do those respondents really never click and visit anything outside the facebook eco-system?
  - PeterisP 10y ago
    The median visitor of HN should consider themselves not representative of the median worldwide internet user, we're a demographic that is very different than the majority in most aspects. This includes your friends and contacts - if you look at the people around you and observe that everyone does/has X, it's still quite likely that most people worldwide look to people around them and observe that everybody has/does not-X. For us, personal experience is not really representative of reality (coincidentally, this is a common problem for startups and their market understanding), we often have to intentionally go much beyond our normal circle of contacts to see how the majority of "normal" users actually behave. Blogs are a particular example - actually, for most of general public, there's such thing as independent blogs; and most content providers are available without leaving e.g. the facebook ecosystem, insomuch that a regular reader can be unaware that it's "not facebook". It's kind of similar to sociology/psychology, where studies often inadvertently are WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic) but the global average/median is very different from that.
  - daxelrod 10y ago
    the vast majority of stuff is people posting articles from various blogs and talking about them If a user were to only discover those articles via Facebook, and only see them within the Facebook app's browser, would they be savvy enough to know that these blogs aren't part of Facebook?

by PJDK 10y ago

PeterisP 10y ago

There certainly are many people who use facebook but don't have an email account; and many people who use facebook but don't browse the web, especially mobile-only people in the developing world. Couldn't find good statistics quickly, but https://qz.com/333313/milliions-of-facebook-users-have-no-idea-theyre-using-the-internet/ https://qz.com/333313/milliions-of-facebook-users-have-no-id... is relevant.

PJDK 10y ago
Thanks, that's an interesting article. One big question it brings up for me does this just reflect that people don't know what "the internet" is at all? Like would you get a similar result if you asked "did you use Google?" or even "did you use Chrome?". Also I don't know about everyone else but a quick glance at my face book feed and the vast majority of stuff is people posting articles from various blogs and talking about them. Do those respondents really never click and visit anything outside the facebook eco-system?
- PeterisP 10y ago
  The median visitor of HN should consider themselves not representative of the median worldwide internet user, we're a demographic that is very different than the majority in most aspects. This includes your friends and contacts - if you look at the people around you and observe that everyone does/has X, it's still quite likely that most people worldwide look to people around them and observe that everybody has/does not-X. For us, personal experience is not really representative of reality (coincidentally, this is a common problem for startups and their market understanding), we often have to intentionally go much beyond our normal circle of contacts to see how the majority of "normal" users actually behave. Blogs are a particular example - actually, for most of general public, there's such thing as independent blogs; and most content providers are available without leaving e.g. the facebook ecosystem, insomuch that a regular reader can be unaware that it's "not facebook". It's kind of similar to sociology/psychology, where studies often inadvertently are WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic) but the global average/median is very different from that.
- daxelrod 10y ago
  the vast majority of stuff is people posting articles from various blogs and talking about them If a user were to only discover those articles via Facebook, and only see them within the Facebook app's browser, would they be savvy enough to know that these blogs aren't part of Facebook?