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Facebook is the new cigarettes
- owlninja 8y agoQuitting Facebook was 1000X easier than quitting cigarettes for me.
- stuaxo 8y agoWe can look forward to the same tactics cigarette and fossil fuel companies used being repeated, from funded papers being released, to the same law firms etc etc
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- johnchristopher 8y agoI am in my own bubble but I rarely see any papers that claims positive things about Facebook. Do you have any exanples ? edit: woops, I wasn't reading with enough attention and missed the "forward" word (you know what I am going to blame), sorry.
- majewsky 8y agoGrandparent said "we can look forward", so that's probably just a prediction.
- thrill 8y agoand AdBlock is the HEPA filter.
- dawhizkid 8y agoMore like the nicotine patch made and sold by big tobacco
- RickS 8y agoThis metaphor doesn't make any sense. Adblock is removal without substitution.
- SippinLean 8y agoMaybe they meant Adblock specifically (vs, say uBlock) https://medium.com/varanida/is-your-ad-blocker-selling-you-out-497b8db0761c https://medium.com/varanida/is-your-ad-blocker-selling-you-o...
- dawhizkid 8y agothey get a ton of money from Google
- intopieces 8y agoNot a good metaphor, since Nicotine itself is not harmful.
- czardoz 8y agoI wonder what the author thinks about WeChat (which he prominently mentions just below his name).
- intopieces 8y agoWeChat has low penetration in the US and also is not HQ’d there; thus, even if you think it ought to be regulated - probably outside the scope of the US government.
- alaskamiller 8y agoGood insight but way too old. In the 00's we already knew Facebook was the new cocaine. Us being the 20 somethings that spent all our lives online creating content in the UGC web 2.0 days. Everyone wanted to try it. Cool if you had it. Fun for parties. But then we got old. Now funny enough it's passed on to the old old (40, 50+ and the mainstream), and to them it's reality. It didn't get passed to the younger kids (18 and below), and the young folks (20-27's) are bored with it.
- greenspot 8y agoCould quit FB (took around 2-3 years and wasn't easy) but now I am super addicted to some Reddit subs such as r/mechanicalkeyboards. Addiction is higher than with FB but it doesn't make me feel miserable.
- antisthenes 8y agoI believe that's what is called a hobby.
- 0xdeadb00f 8y agoI wouldn't class looking at hobby subreddits a hobby. Actually building, replacing keys, fixing or taking photos of keyboards is the hobby part.
- e9 8y agoI have same problem with hacker news after I quit FB lol
- analyst74 8y agoMaybe contrary to the trend, but I've never hated facebook, it provides a utility for me to stay connected with friends, especially new ones I would have lost track of in my phone contact. I tried really hard to understand why some people hated it, and at least for some people I know, it seems to stem from the fact that they are trying very hard to impress everyone in their circle / follower, which takes a ton of time and can even be stressful. It seems there is no way Facebook or other social media can make those people happy, because they are drawn to the attentions they can get, but many eventually grown to hate the work they have to do to maintain it. Only if there is a way to stay popular without constant hard work!
- bobbygoodlatte 8y agoI'm not sure why Facebook is always singled out with these comparisons. If FB is the new cigarettes (which feels like an absurd comparison), then Twitter and Youtube are just as bad — and they've done even less to counter the negative externalities their engagement algorithms create. I think Twitter dodges this criticism mostly because of how popular the platform is with journalists.