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Why is HN so eager to document the downfall of facebook? First, realize that for a large part of its demographics, facebook is the internet, and when they quit

Why is HN so eager to document the downfall of facebook? First, realize that for a large part of its demographics, facebook is the internet, and when they quit they 'll leave the internet altogether (provided that there 's not another new platform that absorbs them). Second, other social media are having far bigger leakages (snapchat) but that doesn't seem to concern anyone.

lostgame 8y ago
Because Facebook has a particular history of just...being evil, for lack of a better word. I heard about the SnapChat leak, but I seem to hear about privacy invasions from Facebook on a weekly, if not bi-daily basis. Also, it's not necessarily just Facebook HN likes to shit all over. From what I've seen it's Amazon, Facebook, Google and Apple. They all kind of get their time in HN's 'hate spotlight'. (Oh, and it's not as big of a company, but Magic Leap is up there, too. :P ) There is, if anything, a bias towards favouring Apple products, but it's not nearly as fanboy/fangirl-ish as it is on the rest of the 'net. It seems at least HN'ers, even those who favour Apple, are, for the most part, also willing to admit it's bad practices. And that's a pretty strong claim that Facebook is the internet for a lot of folks. What about YouTube? Google? Wikipedia? (Especially for students?) :/
- yesenadam 8y ago
  that's a pretty strong claim that Facebook is the internet for a lot of folks It's just reality. There's some deal people in a lot of less-wealthy countries get where they get free FB chat on their phones, but can't see FB pictures, don't have googling/internet etc. It's extremely common in many countries, I know about it because many of my friends around the world have that. Most of the comments on this page seem similarly to ignore/not be aware of what's happening in most of the world. Young people not caring about FB? Is that just in the US or something? I don't know, but in most of the world (Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America at least) people young and old are posting pics of themselves and their friends, commenting on each others pics, chatting, just like they ever did.
taurath 8y ago
For me its the general sense that Facebook + most mainstream social media has been having a negative effect on society, both in terms of socialization and unethical invasions of privacy. The fact that for a large part of the world that facebook is "the internet" is a rather negative thing in my mind - its a devil's bargain that the US and the west is grappling with, while the benefits are still outweighing the costs for developing areas.
- chronid 8y ago
  I fear we set that up with the "outrage" culture to trigger clicks for ads. Nuance disappeared from most public conversation on online newspapers, and things started getting black and white. It was downhill from there.
meritt 8y ago
Because HN has a lot of tech startup minded people who view the potential downfall of industry giants as a massive opportunity.
DoreenMichele 8y ago
I mostly don't read these articles, but some random observations: Facebook never clicked for me. I deleted it, went back, still couldn't make it work, deleted it again, started a new account and was banned. Whatevs. It seems to not click for a lot of folks inclined to hang in spaces like HN. Some folks who never really got it and perhaps felt left out that "everyone else was on it" may take glee in watching it fall and may feel some sense of vindication or the like. There are truly terrible things being fostered by Facebook in some parts of the world, such as some developing countries. If you care about human rights, it's not unreasonable to feel like Facebook is a pox upon humanity and deserves to die. (Complete 180 from the last point:) Facebook is a seemingly trivial thing. Taking glee in watching it burn can be good distraction from worse things happening in the world. Finding a "bad guy" to blame things on helps a lot of people feel better about their own life choices, whether that is reasonable or not. Humans just aren't monoliths. There is no single uniform answer here. There are around 5 million visitors a month to HN and however many of them are happy to see FB go down, each will have myriad different reasons for feeling that way.
- taurath 8y ago
  For the developing countries I know about (SE Asia in particular) it’s definitely still very much in the positive range - it’s adding real value. The downside has yet to hit I think.
  - DoreenMichele 8y ago
    Reality on the ground doesn't prevent folks who spend time on HN from having such negative impressions based on The News. (A thing I say a lot: It's not news unless it's bad news. We just don't trumpet quiet positives the way we do the click-baity negative events.)
  - abawany 8y ago
    I would call this a downside: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/myanmar-facebook-hate/ https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/myanmar-... , https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-45326928 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-45326928 .
r00fus 8y ago
> First, realize that for a large part of its demographics, facebook is the internet, and when they quit they 'll leave the internet altogether Isn't that hyperbole? Or rather, that might be a demographic they never lose. Might explain why they were big on "internet.org". Anyone with options seems to have found better places to hang out (shocking - even IRL). Maybe the better prediction is quitting FB is like quitting the soi-dissant "social" network thing. Is that a bad thing?

lostgame 8y ago

Because Facebook has a particular history of just...being evil, for lack of a better word. I heard about the SnapChat leak, but I seem to hear about privacy invasions from Facebook on a weekly, if not bi-daily basis. Also, it's not necessarily just Facebook HN likes to shit all over. From what I've seen it's Amazon, Facebook, Google and Apple. They all kind of get their time in HN's 'hate spotlight'. (Oh, and it's not as big of a company, but Magic Leap is up there, too. :P ) There is, if anything, a bias towards favouring Apple products, but it's not nearly as fanboy/fangirl-ish as it is on the rest of the 'net. It seems at least HN'ers, even those who favour Apple, are, for the most part, also willing to admit it's bad practices. And that's a pretty strong claim that Facebook is the internet for a lot of folks. What about YouTube? Google? Wikipedia? (Especially for students?) :/

yesenadam 8y ago
that's a pretty strong claim that Facebook is the internet for a lot of folks It's just reality. There's some deal people in a lot of less-wealthy countries get where they get free FB chat on their phones, but can't see FB pictures, don't have googling/internet etc. It's extremely common in many countries, I know about it because many of my friends around the world have that. Most of the comments on this page seem similarly to ignore/not be aware of what's happening in most of the world. Young people not caring about FB? Is that just in the US or something? I don't know, but in most of the world (Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America at least) people young and old are posting pics of themselves and their friends, commenting on each others pics, chatting, just like they ever did.

taurath 8y ago

For me its the general sense that Facebook + most mainstream social media has been having a negative effect on society, both in terms of socialization and unethical invasions of privacy. The fact that for a large part of the world that facebook is "the internet" is a rather negative thing in my mind - its a devil's bargain that the US and the west is grappling with, while the benefits are still outweighing the costs for developing areas.

chronid 8y ago
I fear we set that up with the "outrage" culture to trigger clicks for ads. Nuance disappeared from most public conversation on online newspapers, and things started getting black and white. It was downhill from there.

meritt 8y ago

Because HN has a lot of tech startup minded people who view the potential downfall of industry giants as a massive opportunity.

DoreenMichele 8y ago

I mostly don't read these articles, but some random observations: Facebook never clicked for me. I deleted it, went back, still couldn't make it work, deleted it again, started a new account and was banned. Whatevs. It seems to not click for a lot of folks inclined to hang in spaces like HN. Some folks who never really got it and perhaps felt left out that "everyone else was on it" may take glee in watching it fall and may feel some sense of vindication or the like. There are truly terrible things being fostered by Facebook in some parts of the world, such as some developing countries. If you care about human rights, it's not unreasonable to feel like Facebook is a pox upon humanity and deserves to die. (Complete 180 from the last point:) Facebook is a seemingly trivial thing. Taking glee in watching it burn can be good distraction from worse things happening in the world. Finding a "bad guy" to blame things on helps a lot of people feel better about their own life choices, whether that is reasonable or not. Humans just aren't monoliths. There is no single uniform answer here. There are around 5 million visitors a month to HN and however many of them are happy to see FB go down, each will have myriad different reasons for feeling that way.

taurath 8y ago
For the developing countries I know about (SE Asia in particular) it’s definitely still very much in the positive range - it’s adding real value. The downside has yet to hit I think.
- DoreenMichele 8y ago
  Reality on the ground doesn't prevent folks who spend time on HN from having such negative impressions based on The News. (A thing I say a lot: It's not news unless it's bad news. We just don't trumpet quiet positives the way we do the click-baity negative events.)
- abawany 8y ago
  I would call this a downside: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/myanmar-facebook-hate/ https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/myanmar-... , https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-45326928 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-45326928 .

r00fus 8y ago

> First, realize that for a large part of its demographics, facebook is the internet, and when they quit they 'll leave the internet altogether Isn't that hyperbole? Or rather, that might be a demographic they never lose. Might explain why they were big on "internet.org". Anyone with options seems to have found better places to hang out (shocking - even IRL). Maybe the better prediction is quitting FB is like quitting the soi-dissant "social" network thing. Is that a bad thing?