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Hardly a novel analysis, or any new information. It has been written about for years how Facebook is weak in the under 13 demographic. That's why they not only

Hardly a novel analysis, or any new information. It has been written about for years how Facebook is weak in the under 13 demographic. That's why they not only bought Instagram, but also thoroughly copied Snapchat and crammed it into the Instagram app. Similarly, jokes have been out there for a while about how nobody is on Facebook anymore but your grandma. Personally, I did quit Facebook, after years of less rewarding interactions, and an increasing amount of friction with the site. Often the newsfeed's choices of content felt personally insulting. It's a habit to visit, even though it really doesn't offer much, like smoking. What I did is I change my password to something that I don't remember to break the habit. Then, in the time it would take to recover the password and sign in, I have already remembered that I don't want to. I haven't been there in a couple of weeks, and the last times I did, my notifications were quite dull. One thing that reinforces quitting is that not using the site for a while seems to greatly reduce the reach of posts when you return. When I post content and get no responses it feels humiliating, like I appear to have no friends who are interested in my content. In reality, Facebook is showing my content to very few people. I get about 10 times the response on Instagram, from basically the same group of people, and it was even more so before they partially ruined Instagram by making the feed more like Facebook.

mrspeaker 8y ago
I use your "choose a random password" trick for every site now. If I want to "like" or reply to anything then it's a real effort - so I have to be very motivated to do it, or have something actually useful to contribute. It's refreshing to get rid of that "must give my 2 cents on everything" urge. Except, you know, in this case. The "Me too!" urge was too strong so I reset my HN password ;)
aryehof 8y ago
> "Often the newsfeed's choices of content felt personally insulting" That sentence particularly resonated with me. I recently quit Quora, and it perfectly describes my recent experience there.
- handsomechad 8y ago
  Quora has become an absolute cess-pool of thinly veiled content marketing / spam and pseudo-intellectual self-help Ted-talky BS, in my experience at least. When it was first out there were a lot of smart writers posting thought-provoking content, a lot of (SV) insiders giving interesting anecdata, etc. It seems that it has devolved into a more yahoo answers meets TED / stevepavlina.com type community now, but maybe that's just my feed. I admit that I've hardly used it in the past few years so it could just be my shitty and uncurated list of topics and people i follow
  - wp381640 8y ago
    IMO Quora is one of the larger missed opportunities in recent tech history. The early community they built around the product was extraordinary, unique and rewarding as a user They had the foundations to build one of few reliable and high quality "expert" social graphs with a high bar of discussion but threw it all away when they chased expansion via search-engine marketing
    - allenz 8y ago
      Problem is, chasing the common denominator probably increased Quora's ad revenue. I think that Quora's high quality community was doomed as soon as Quora accepted venture funding.
gregknicholson 8y ago
> I appear to have no friends who are interested in my content. Are you a magazine journalist? If not, why do you have “content”? Maybe Facebook has trained you to believe you're playing a churnalism RPG, and that your ability to grind for Likes reflects your value as a person.
- code_duck 8y ago
  I think you're extrapolating that from my use of the term 'content', but I'm merely referring to whether anyone responds to my occasional posts about my work or life. I have thousands of connections on Facebook, but when I put up something, I'll get one like, from my dad. The same thing on Instagram, and I would get actual communication with the peer group that I was intending to communicate with. All I'm trying to is casually keep in touch with my friends and acquaintances. The like/heart/favorite serves as a register that someone read it and/or cared enough to send that signal.
LambdaComplex 8y ago
>thoroughly copied Snapchat and crammed it into the Instagram app. And the Facebook app. And WhatsApp, too, I think

mrspeaker 8y ago

I use your "choose a random password" trick for every site now. If I want to "like" or reply to anything then it's a real effort - so I have to be very motivated to do it, or have something actually useful to contribute. It's refreshing to get rid of that "must give my 2 cents on everything" urge. Except, you know, in this case. The "Me too!" urge was too strong so I reset my HN password ;)

aryehof 8y ago

> "Often the newsfeed's choices of content felt personally insulting" That sentence particularly resonated with me. I recently quit Quora, and it perfectly describes my recent experience there.

handsomechad 8y ago
Quora has become an absolute cess-pool of thinly veiled content marketing / spam and pseudo-intellectual self-help Ted-talky BS, in my experience at least. When it was first out there were a lot of smart writers posting thought-provoking content, a lot of (SV) insiders giving interesting anecdata, etc. It seems that it has devolved into a more yahoo answers meets TED / stevepavlina.com type community now, but maybe that's just my feed. I admit that I've hardly used it in the past few years so it could just be my shitty and uncurated list of topics and people i follow
- wp381640 8y ago
  IMO Quora is one of the larger missed opportunities in recent tech history. The early community they built around the product was extraordinary, unique and rewarding as a user They had the foundations to build one of few reliable and high quality "expert" social graphs with a high bar of discussion but threw it all away when they chased expansion via search-engine marketing
  - allenz 8y ago
    Problem is, chasing the common denominator probably increased Quora's ad revenue. I think that Quora's high quality community was doomed as soon as Quora accepted venture funding.

gregknicholson 8y ago

> I appear to have no friends who are interested in my content. Are you a magazine journalist? If not, why do you have “content”? Maybe Facebook has trained you to believe you're playing a churnalism RPG, and that your ability to grind for Likes reflects your value as a person.

code_duck 8y ago
I think you're extrapolating that from my use of the term 'content', but I'm merely referring to whether anyone responds to my occasional posts about my work or life. I have thousands of connections on Facebook, but when I put up something, I'll get one like, from my dad. The same thing on Instagram, and I would get actual communication with the peer group that I was intending to communicate with. All I'm trying to is casually keep in touch with my friends and acquaintances. The like/heart/favorite serves as a register that someone read it and/or cared enough to send that signal.

LambdaComplex 8y ago

>thoroughly copied Snapchat and crammed it into the Instagram app. And the Facebook app. And WhatsApp, too, I think