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To me, Facebook was cool when I was in college... when it first came out. Was nice to link up with people I had classes with the previous semester but didn't s

To me, Facebook was cool when I was in college... when it first came out. Was nice to link up with people I had classes with the previous semester but didn't see much any more, look up cute girls from lectures, and learn stupid details like my friend Joe was into the same bands I was. But... it instantly lost all appeal once my parents and grandparents joined. I used it for a bit to keep up with friends after college, but then I decided I would de-friend anyone I hadn't actually spoken with in the last year... or didn't expect to ever really talk with again in the future. I did that every year for a few years... and eventually just shut down my account. For me, noise exceeded signal. Every time I got an alert it was some fake friend wanting to connect or share something I didn't care about. I keep in touch with friends I care about with text messages, and we have our own Slack channels... and that's good. The absolute last thing any of us want is this super-public, broadcasted-bullshit, boast-fest full of people we don't really care about. Some girl I thought was cute when I was in college... there's no reason I need to know when she has kids or what she is up to 15 years later... superficial friendships are just a time sink that take away from real friendships. Anyway yeah, 5+ years Facebook-free and no regrets on that. I like Snapchat (saying this as a nearly-40-year-old) because, like natural conversation, it's not some crapy thing that comes back to haunt you. Say what you want, and it's gone. (But... yeah, I HATE that it's stored on some server somewhere for the government or advertisers to use to track me.) Slack groups work really well for me and a few of my groups of friends. Because we know they are exclusive, and won't spam us, we actually value them. When someone has a message for the entire group... "I got engaged / married / had a kid / new job / moving to Singapore..." whatever... it's just information, not someone trying to milk fake internet points from strangers. Focus on real friends, focus on communication that mimics real life... you say things... and they're gone. Imagine if some asshole was walking around with a tape recorder and recording every conversation you had... that's how I see Facebook / Google+... The whole concept of these networks just makes me cringe.

ErikAugust 10y ago
Agreed. People that were in college in the 00s and used Facebook totally understand that the original value proposition. Facebook was actually an elitist social network - an experience not only devoid of parents, grandparents, but people who didn't go to college. And early on, people who didn't go to moderately "important" colleges. No "importantcollegehere.edu" email address - no Facebook account. You could use MySpace. Facebook kept people out - it's mission was definitely not to "connect everyone in the world" (or whatever). And there wasn't a news feed. An obvious use case was gathering intel on classmates you found attractive. Through thousands of small mutations, Facebook has evolved into what it is today. And people that think Facebook is true to its roots are wrong. Completely wrong.
- dbg31415 10y ago
  > No "importantcollegehere.edu" email address - no Facebook account. You could use MySpace. Yeah... you get it. (= I don't know that it was our goal to be elitist... but certainly it helped that we knew it was a small group of people who had access to what we posted online. It felt safe. And even after it expanded to other colleges, it still felt like a college thing. Many colleges still put out paper "face books" and so we had that connection. But once we graduated and realized it was suddenly for everyone, and all of our posts that we made to a small group were now visible to everyone... ugh it was just such a turn off. Seeing a parent or grandparent commenting on a status update or photo we shared from a party, "Oh shit, my mom can see this stuff?! How do I delete it?!" I bet there's some market for a school-wide system that only lets you communicate with people who would have been on campus the same time you were... so like pick 3-4 years in either direction. Try and mimic the first Facebook rollout... But I don't know, if anyone had the magic solution they'd have built it by now... personally -- as I said in the previous post -- this shit just all makes me cringe now. I can't even look at someone's Facebook feed without losing respect for everyone involved. It's all so smug and self-promotion of crap. "I'm going to say something, and all my friends will like it to affirm they are my friends!" Just creepy.
  - type0 10y ago
    > It's all so smug and self-promotion of crap. "I'm going to say something, and all my friends will like it to affirm they are my friends!" Just creepy. It's because FB rides the wave of recent narcissist epidemic, also it's good for gossips and bullying - closed groups you're not invited to can talk shit behind your back.
- rexpop 10y ago
  It what way is it desirable for a business to remain "true to its roots"? What value does your nostalgia — for an inorganic, venture-backed cash machine — serve you, your society or your species?
therealmarv 10y ago
Interesting to use Slack chats for that. I have the feeling that in Europe WhatsApp groups are way more popular (and easier to use because the chance is high they already use WhatsApp).
- dbg31415 10y ago
  Yeah... we debated this a bit in some of our groups. But most of us already had Slack running for work at this point. Ultimately it's the same thing as ICQ / AIM / IRC / Skype / you name it... literally all the same functionality from our perspective. Came down to just "What can we use that we like and that doesn't require us to have to install / monitor another blinking light on our computers?" People should use whatever they are most comfortable with.
  - MereKatMoves 10y ago
    'Yeah... we debated this a bit in some of our groups. But most of us already had Slack running for work at this point" so that makes Slack ok to start using it outside of business?
MereKatMoves 10y ago
"Slack groups work really well for me and a few of my groups of friends. Because we know they are exclusive, and won't spam us, we actually value them. When someone has a message for the entire group... "I got engaged / married / had a kid / new job / moving to Singapore..." whatever... it's just information, not someone trying to milk fake internet points from strangers." Your use case for Slack is not what Slack exists for... their MO is to get business information I used slack once then realised that it was just as bad, if not worse than facebook. It is worse because it lulls you into a false sense of security. Everything on Slack belongs to Slack. It is fundamentally more evil than FB because it pretends to be a 'confidential and secure' environment but the truth is they own every single byte you give them. Slack users are morons if they think that Slack has any agenda other than to parse data and exploit the connections. FB at least is "only social" whereas Slack gets company business data via the morons that use it. Businesses use Slack because they are too lazy to deliver an in house alternative. I pity anyone who thinks Slack is any better than FB . Stand by for Slack being acquired by FB in the very near future so that FB can fill in another slice of the control pie they are trying to bake
Markoff 10y ago
why not use disappearing messages in Signal instead of Snapchat if you don't want to give your data to some corporation?

ErikAugust 10y ago

Agreed. People that were in college in the 00s and used Facebook totally understand that the original value proposition. Facebook was actually an elitist social network - an experience not only devoid of parents, grandparents, but people who didn't go to college. And early on, people who didn't go to moderately "important" colleges. No "importantcollegehere.edu" email address - no Facebook account. You could use MySpace. Facebook kept people out - it's mission was definitely not to "connect everyone in the world" (or whatever). And there wasn't a news feed. An obvious use case was gathering intel on classmates you found attractive. Through thousands of small mutations, Facebook has evolved into what it is today. And people that think Facebook is true to its roots are wrong. Completely wrong.

dbg31415 10y ago
> No "importantcollegehere.edu" email address - no Facebook account. You could use MySpace. Yeah... you get it. (= I don't know that it was our goal to be elitist... but certainly it helped that we knew it was a small group of people who had access to what we posted online. It felt safe. And even after it expanded to other colleges, it still felt like a college thing. Many colleges still put out paper "face books" and so we had that connection. But once we graduated and realized it was suddenly for everyone, and all of our posts that we made to a small group were now visible to everyone... ugh it was just such a turn off. Seeing a parent or grandparent commenting on a status update or photo we shared from a party, "Oh shit, my mom can see this stuff?! How do I delete it?!" I bet there's some market for a school-wide system that only lets you communicate with people who would have been on campus the same time you were... so like pick 3-4 years in either direction. Try and mimic the first Facebook rollout... But I don't know, if anyone had the magic solution they'd have built it by now... personally -- as I said in the previous post -- this shit just all makes me cringe now. I can't even look at someone's Facebook feed without losing respect for everyone involved. It's all so smug and self-promotion of crap. "I'm going to say something, and all my friends will like it to affirm they are my friends!" Just creepy.
- type0 10y ago
  > It's all so smug and self-promotion of crap. "I'm going to say something, and all my friends will like it to affirm they are my friends!" Just creepy. It's because FB rides the wave of recent narcissist epidemic, also it's good for gossips and bullying - closed groups you're not invited to can talk shit behind your back.
rexpop 10y ago
It what way is it desirable for a business to remain "true to its roots"? What value does your nostalgia — for an inorganic, venture-backed cash machine — serve you, your society or your species?

therealmarv 10y ago

Interesting to use Slack chats for that. I have the feeling that in Europe WhatsApp groups are way more popular (and easier to use because the chance is high they already use WhatsApp).

dbg31415 10y ago
Yeah... we debated this a bit in some of our groups. But most of us already had Slack running for work at this point. Ultimately it's the same thing as ICQ / AIM / IRC / Skype / you name it... literally all the same functionality from our perspective. Came down to just "What can we use that we like and that doesn't require us to have to install / monitor another blinking light on our computers?" People should use whatever they are most comfortable with.
- MereKatMoves 10y ago
  'Yeah... we debated this a bit in some of our groups. But most of us already had Slack running for work at this point" so that makes Slack ok to start using it outside of business?

MereKatMoves 10y ago

"Slack groups work really well for me and a few of my groups of friends. Because we know they are exclusive, and won't spam us, we actually value them. When someone has a message for the entire group... "I got engaged / married / had a kid / new job / moving to Singapore..." whatever... it's just information, not someone trying to milk fake internet points from strangers." Your use case for Slack is not what Slack exists for... their MO is to get business information I used slack once then realised that it was just as bad, if not worse than facebook. It is worse because it lulls you into a false sense of security. Everything on Slack belongs to Slack. It is fundamentally more evil than FB because it pretends to be a 'confidential and secure' environment but the truth is they own every single byte you give them. Slack users are morons if they think that Slack has any agenda other than to parse data and exploit the connections. FB at least is "only social" whereas Slack gets company business data via the morons that use it. Businesses use Slack because they are too lazy to deliver an in house alternative. I pity anyone who thinks Slack is any better than FB . Stand by for Slack being acquired by FB in the very near future so that FB can fill in another slice of the control pie they are trying to bake

Markoff 10y ago

why not use disappearing messages in Signal instead of Snapchat if you don't want to give your data to some corporation?