8 ms·

I tried explaining my 20 year old cousin about FB. Her constant argument was "I don't share anything private on FB". She checks in on FB everywhere she goes.

I tried explaining my 20 year old cousin about FB. Her constant argument was "I don't share anything private on FB". She checks in on FB everywhere she goes. Posts her pics all the time. I could not instill any sense of concern for privacy. What I could conclude is that the appeal of social is too great to have any caution. Call me a pessimist, but I don't think FB is going anywhere. People will keep using it inspite of the risks. It's like a smoking addiction. It's bad but very difficult to give up.

panarky 9y ago
> It's like a smoking addiction It's awesome to watch massive shifts in values and priorities. Smoking used to be seen as cool, sexy, even healthy. Now it's widely seen as unhealthy and disgusting. Same thing with high-fructose carbonated beverages. I remember people using terms like "retarded" and "gyp" without hesitation. Today even people who hate political correctness don't talk like that in public. It wasn't long ago that men abusing women in the workplace was routine and unremarkable. Now it's outrageous and shameful. Things change, slowly at first, and then all at once. People are waking up and it will never be the same for Facebook.
- sidcool 9y ago
  That is a good point. What baffles me is it took so much evidence from the medical community to convince people about smoking. And many still do it! Adverse effects of technology/social in general wouls be even more difficult to prove. I see technology addicts' rehabilitation centres a reality in near future.
  - herbst 9y ago
    I am pretty certain most of the current younger smokers had a very good idea of the health implications. Anything that changed from a medical perspective since I am smoking is that we know by now that a 'smokers lung' is not actually that and most never get it. Otherwise all the risks are well known for 15+ years. Tldr: I don't think people actually care about dying earlier (or more cruel), at least in countries with working or cheap health care.
  - freeflight 9y ago
    > What baffles me is it took so much evidence from the medical community to convince people about smoking. That isn't really the issue, smokers have been aware of the negative consequences for quite a while. Many are okay with it due to the relief the smoking brings them from stress and other issues, it's a trade-off. Just like alcohol ain't that healthy for you but many people still chose to drink it. But on the other hand you have massive companies who've spent decades and billions of $ in making tobacco as addictive, and easy to smoke, as possible. So once the customers are hooked it's extremely difficult for them to kick the habit and even when they manage to kick it, many will still get cravings for years, if not decades, to come. Which could be explained by this: https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/01/11/schizophrenia-no-smoking-gun/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/01/11/schizophrenia-no-smoki...
    - thaumasiotes 9y ago
      For the effect on schizophrenia to explain the people who have difficulty quitting smoking, the population of people who have difficulty quitting smoking would have to be similar in size to (really, smaller than) the population of schizophrenics. But I would bet that it's much larger.
      - freeflight 9y ago
        Afaik schizophrenia is a spectrum, so some are bound to be affected worse than others. I also didn't say it was the only reason for people having trouble kicking the habit, only one of the factors for it, so there's still plenty of room for non-schizophrenics not being able to kick the habit due to tobacco (and the additives tobacco companies add to it) being highly addictive.
  - majewsky 9y ago
    What baffles me more is that a ton of people are vaping now, even those that haven't smoked before, because "it's, like, totally not like smoking".
- mpweiher 9y ago
  > men abusing women in the workplace was routine and unremarkable When was this?
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - oblio 9y ago
    Fully out in the open? Never, really. Even religion looks down on it. But covertly? It’s happening even now, all over the world.
  - JKCalhoun 9y ago
    Somewhat related: I was wandering YouTube the other day and stumbled upon an old T.V. segment with Hunter S. Thompson and a Hell's Angel sharing the program's stage. The amount of joking about wife beating (and audience approval of said joking) was frankly shocking to watch. Easy enough to search for, I'll leave off the link.
- tzakrajs 9y ago
  > I remember people using terms like "retarded" and "gyp" without hesitation. Today even people who hate political correctness don't talk like that in public. Wrong wrong wrong. They still do these a lot.
  - JKCalhoun 9y ago
    I prefer, "You sir, have negotiated with me as would a Gypsy. I am cross." Seriously though, kids used it all the time when I was growing up — I didn't even know "gyp" was derogatory until I was perhaps in my 30's. If I had to guess, young me would have suspected it was spelled "jip" anyway. We told Pollack jokes too and I didn't even know it meant someone from Poland. I was not very cosmopolitan as a kid.
- Spellchamp 9y ago
  What does "gyp" mean? I googled it but I feel like I'm missing something.
  - artimaeis 9y ago
    https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/12/30/242429836/why-being-gypped-hurts-the-roma-more-than-it-hurts-you https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/12/30/242429836... It's a slur against the Roma (gypsies).
  - MartinCron 9y ago
    Short for “Gypsy”. Many consider it to be a racial slur. Just as some people use “Jew” as a verb in a similar way (more obviously a slur).
  - thousandautumns 9y ago
    Have you ever heard someone say something like "I got gypped out of X" or "what a gyp!". It's slang for something like a scam or getting ripped off. It originally comes from the word "gypsy", which is an actual ethnicity of people in Europe, who have a negative stereotype of theft/dishonesty.
mikroskeem 9y ago
> Her constant argument was "I don't share anything private on FB" I've heard worse. Plain "I don't care" and "I like that people know what I do all the time". > It's like a smoking addiction I'd say that tt's more like a drug. Most people seem to seek for an attention (in a comments/likes form). I know few people who use even PhotoShop-like software to make themselves "more beautiful" to gather more attention; however they don't look even similiar to their pictures. (it's like drug addicts do weird shit to get their dose of their favourite drug)
- gaius 9y ago
  I'd say that tt's more like a drug It is literally like a drug, former FB execs have explained how they trigger dopamine responses in your brain
  - thaumasiotes 9y ago
    ...because former Facebook executives are authorities on the operation of drugs?
seanwilson 9y ago
> I tried explaining my 20 year old cousin about FB. Her constant argument was "I don't share anything private on FB". She checks in on FB everywhere she goes. Posts her pics all the time. I could not instill any sense of concern for privacy. If she's happy with this level of privacy though, what's the problem? Maybe she does fully understand the implications but has a different value system to you? I feel that when people on this site are talking about Facebook, there's this assumption their friends using Facebook are failing to understand what Facebook does in the background and if they could somehow get them to understand their friends would all leave. People can be fully aware of what Facebook is and simply choose a different balance between privacy and convenience to what you prefer.
- herbst 9y ago
  Usually when I creep these people out by confronting them with personal details of their life (which I simply snapped of public Facebook data) they actually are creeped out. So while yours is a interesting thought I highly doubt a lot of people Actually understand the full issue.
  - xiphias 9y ago
    It sounds interesting, can you give a concrete example?
    - herbst 9y ago
      I am thinking things like Wechat, Telegram (also Whatsapp to some degree but that's behind in functionality) but also things like discord and slack. So without a direct social graph, specialised interest groups, more direct connections, more 'privacy' at least in terms of how public the data is available.
      - xiphias 9y ago
        Ah, I was referring to how you're creeping people out using their Facebook :) Sounds like a fun thing to do
egfx 9y ago
People will use it but only for the necessary stuff, like birthdays and condolences. Facebook as a time wasting medium is dying. And dying spectacularly. In fact the same network effect that made Facebook what it is will work it's way in reverse order.
- 908087 9y ago
  Sending birthday wishes and condolences via Facebook seems more like an insult to me than "necessary stuff". If you give a fuck about someone, you'll make some kind of actual effort for such events. Doesn't Facebook "remind" people to wish their "friends" a happy birthday? That kind of changes the meaning of those birthday wishes from "these people were thinking about me" to "these people clicked a button because an advertising corporation told them to". As for condolences, the idea of deaths and other bad events increasing "engagement" (and therefore ad exposure and profit) for Facebook should make all involved feel dirty.
  - egfx 9y ago
    Death is big business. Legacy.com is totally dedicated to the idea. Why should anyone feel dirty about giving condolences? Actually, the general tone of your comment feels off and vindictive so I'll just stop here.
tomcooks 9y ago
Everytime you say, hear or read the word "Facebook" replace it with either "mom and dad" or "the creep". Works great.
- akkat 9y ago
  Except it doesn't. Situation a: Facebook knows what I did last night. Result: I get ads tailored to what I did. Situation b: Mom and Dad knows what I did last night. Result: I get grounded.
  - tomcooks 9y ago
    Guess what a teenager cares about more, coincidentally it's also the joke you just missed
  - sidcool 9y ago
    There is a high probability that you did something wrong last night. /s
JasonFruit 9y ago
Social is an adjective. I will die on this hill.
brandonmenc 9y ago
> It's like a smoking addiction. It's bad but very difficult to give up. Social media is socializing now, whether you like it or not, and whether you're along for the ride or not. In that light, it's strange when people say it's "addicting," like that's a bad thing. It's supposed to be - we're social creatures. Sharing things about your life with friends and family is not some horrible drug we need to curb.
- sidcool 9y ago
  The problem is that FB encourages a popularity contest online. This is not healthy. We are social creatures, but the internet based social does not cater to our social needs. It caters to our dopamine kick needs. Several studies have proven the ill effects of social network. So you are only partly correct.

panarky 9y ago

> It's like a smoking addiction It's awesome to watch massive shifts in values and priorities. Smoking used to be seen as cool, sexy, even healthy. Now it's widely seen as unhealthy and disgusting. Same thing with high-fructose carbonated beverages. I remember people using terms like "retarded" and "gyp" without hesitation. Today even people who hate political correctness don't talk like that in public. It wasn't long ago that men abusing women in the workplace was routine and unremarkable. Now it's outrageous and shameful. Things change, slowly at first, and then all at once. People are waking up and it will never be the same for Facebook.

sidcool 9y ago
That is a good point. What baffles me is it took so much evidence from the medical community to convince people about smoking. And many still do it! Adverse effects of technology/social in general wouls be even more difficult to prove. I see technology addicts' rehabilitation centres a reality in near future.
- herbst 9y ago
  I am pretty certain most of the current younger smokers had a very good idea of the health implications. Anything that changed from a medical perspective since I am smoking is that we know by now that a 'smokers lung' is not actually that and most never get it. Otherwise all the risks are well known for 15+ years. Tldr: I don't think people actually care about dying earlier (or more cruel), at least in countries with working or cheap health care.
- freeflight 9y ago
  > What baffles me is it took so much evidence from the medical community to convince people about smoking. That isn't really the issue, smokers have been aware of the negative consequences for quite a while. Many are okay with it due to the relief the smoking brings them from stress and other issues, it's a trade-off. Just like alcohol ain't that healthy for you but many people still chose to drink it. But on the other hand you have massive companies who've spent decades and billions of $ in making tobacco as addictive, and easy to smoke, as possible. So once the customers are hooked it's extremely difficult for them to kick the habit and even when they manage to kick it, many will still get cravings for years, if not decades, to come. Which could be explained by this: https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/01/11/schizophrenia-no-smoking-gun/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/01/11/schizophrenia-no-smoki...
  - thaumasiotes 9y ago
    For the effect on schizophrenia to explain the people who have difficulty quitting smoking, the population of people who have difficulty quitting smoking would have to be similar in size to (really, smaller than) the population of schizophrenics. But I would bet that it's much larger.
    - freeflight 9y ago
      Afaik schizophrenia is a spectrum, so some are bound to be affected worse than others. I also didn't say it was the only reason for people having trouble kicking the habit, only one of the factors for it, so there's still plenty of room for non-schizophrenics not being able to kick the habit due to tobacco (and the additives tobacco companies add to it) being highly addictive.
- majewsky 9y ago
  What baffles me more is that a ton of people are vaping now, even those that haven't smoked before, because "it's, like, totally not like smoking".
mpweiher 9y ago
> men abusing women in the workplace was routine and unremarkable When was this?
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- oblio 9y ago
  Fully out in the open? Never, really. Even religion looks down on it. But covertly? It’s happening even now, all over the world.
- JKCalhoun 9y ago
  Somewhat related: I was wandering YouTube the other day and stumbled upon an old T.V. segment with Hunter S. Thompson and a Hell's Angel sharing the program's stage. The amount of joking about wife beating (and audience approval of said joking) was frankly shocking to watch. Easy enough to search for, I'll leave off the link.
tzakrajs 9y ago
> I remember people using terms like "retarded" and "gyp" without hesitation. Today even people who hate political correctness don't talk like that in public. Wrong wrong wrong. They still do these a lot.
- JKCalhoun 9y ago
  I prefer, "You sir, have negotiated with me as would a Gypsy. I am cross." Seriously though, kids used it all the time when I was growing up — I didn't even know "gyp" was derogatory until I was perhaps in my 30's. If I had to guess, young me would have suspected it was spelled "jip" anyway. We told Pollack jokes too and I didn't even know it meant someone from Poland. I was not very cosmopolitan as a kid.
Spellchamp 9y ago
What does "gyp" mean? I googled it but I feel like I'm missing something.
- artimaeis 9y ago
  https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/12/30/242429836/why-being-gypped-hurts-the-roma-more-than-it-hurts-you https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/12/30/242429836... It's a slur against the Roma (gypsies).
- MartinCron 9y ago
  Short for “Gypsy”. Many consider it to be a racial slur. Just as some people use “Jew” as a verb in a similar way (more obviously a slur).
- thousandautumns 9y ago
  Have you ever heard someone say something like "I got gypped out of X" or "what a gyp!". It's slang for something like a scam or getting ripped off. It originally comes from the word "gypsy", which is an actual ethnicity of people in Europe, who have a negative stereotype of theft/dishonesty.

mikroskeem 9y ago

> Her constant argument was "I don't share anything private on FB" I've heard worse. Plain "I don't care" and "I like that people know what I do all the time". > It's like a smoking addiction I'd say that tt's more like a drug. Most people seem to seek for an attention (in a comments/likes form). I know few people who use even PhotoShop-like software to make themselves "more beautiful" to gather more attention; however they don't look even similiar to their pictures. (it's like drug addicts do weird shit to get their dose of their favourite drug)

gaius 9y ago
I'd say that tt's more like a drug It is literally like a drug, former FB execs have explained how they trigger dopamine responses in your brain
- thaumasiotes 9y ago
  ...because former Facebook executives are authorities on the operation of drugs?

seanwilson 9y ago

> I tried explaining my 20 year old cousin about FB. Her constant argument was "I don't share anything private on FB". She checks in on FB everywhere she goes. Posts her pics all the time. I could not instill any sense of concern for privacy. If she's happy with this level of privacy though, what's the problem? Maybe she does fully understand the implications but has a different value system to you? I feel that when people on this site are talking about Facebook, there's this assumption their friends using Facebook are failing to understand what Facebook does in the background and if they could somehow get them to understand their friends would all leave. People can be fully aware of what Facebook is and simply choose a different balance between privacy and convenience to what you prefer.

herbst 9y ago
Usually when I creep these people out by confronting them with personal details of their life (which I simply snapped of public Facebook data) they actually are creeped out. So while yours is a interesting thought I highly doubt a lot of people Actually understand the full issue.
- xiphias 9y ago
  It sounds interesting, can you give a concrete example?
  - herbst 9y ago
    I am thinking things like Wechat, Telegram (also Whatsapp to some degree but that's behind in functionality) but also things like discord and slack. So without a direct social graph, specialised interest groups, more direct connections, more 'privacy' at least in terms of how public the data is available.
    - xiphias 9y ago
      Ah, I was referring to how you're creeping people out using their Facebook :) Sounds like a fun thing to do

egfx 9y ago

People will use it but only for the necessary stuff, like birthdays and condolences. Facebook as a time wasting medium is dying. And dying spectacularly. In fact the same network effect that made Facebook what it is will work it's way in reverse order.

908087 9y ago
Sending birthday wishes and condolences via Facebook seems more like an insult to me than "necessary stuff". If you give a fuck about someone, you'll make some kind of actual effort for such events. Doesn't Facebook "remind" people to wish their "friends" a happy birthday? That kind of changes the meaning of those birthday wishes from "these people were thinking about me" to "these people clicked a button because an advertising corporation told them to". As for condolences, the idea of deaths and other bad events increasing "engagement" (and therefore ad exposure and profit) for Facebook should make all involved feel dirty.
- egfx 9y ago
  Death is big business. Legacy.com is totally dedicated to the idea. Why should anyone feel dirty about giving condolences? Actually, the general tone of your comment feels off and vindictive so I'll just stop here.

tomcooks 9y ago

Everytime you say, hear or read the word "Facebook" replace it with either "mom and dad" or "the creep". Works great.

akkat 9y ago
Except it doesn't. Situation a: Facebook knows what I did last night. Result: I get ads tailored to what I did. Situation b: Mom and Dad knows what I did last night. Result: I get grounded.
- tomcooks 9y ago
  Guess what a teenager cares about more, coincidentally it's also the joke you just missed
- sidcool 9y ago
  There is a high probability that you did something wrong last night. /s

JasonFruit 9y ago

Social is an adjective. I will die on this hill.

brandonmenc 9y ago

> It's like a smoking addiction. It's bad but very difficult to give up. Social media is socializing now, whether you like it or not, and whether you're along for the ride or not. In that light, it's strange when people say it's "addicting," like that's a bad thing. It's supposed to be - we're social creatures. Sharing things about your life with friends and family is not some horrible drug we need to curb.

sidcool 9y ago
The problem is that FB encourages a popularity contest online. This is not healthy. We are social creatures, but the internet based social does not cater to our social needs. It caters to our dopamine kick needs. Several studies have proven the ill effects of social network. So you are only partly correct.