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I remember the internet before Facebook, you probably do too. Being able to share your photos, whether it was on Myspace or something that required more effort

I remember the internet before Facebook, you probably do too. Being able to share your photos, whether it was on Myspace or something that required more effort like an earlier geocities-hosted site, was a fairly novel thing. People did feel more "connected" at that time. And I wouldn't say it was an invalid feeling. People wanted to carve out a piece of the internet and say, "Hey, I'm over here." Facebook rode that wave. So I don't think when it first became popular, I would put Zuckerberg at the center and say that he made the kool-aid. It was more like hundreds of thousands of people were saying, "We want kool-aid, we want kool-aid." And Facebook said, sure, we can do that, at least better than Myspace.

pdonis 8y ago
Lots of people wanted an easier way to share photos, message people, find friends, etc. Lots of people did not want their personal data sold, their private information compromised, their creepy exes given an easy way to stalk them, and general loss of ownership of their data and their online presence. But they got all those things anyway, because Zuckerberg built Facebook that way. He could have built it a different way. But he didn't.
britch 8y ago
I think a lot of what's wrong with modern Facebook follows directly from Zuckerberg's original vision and shortsightedness. It's possible to imagine a Facebook which stayed small scale, friends of friends, and served primarily as a photo-sharing/chat platform. Partly because of business pressure and partly because of Zuckerberg's vision they made this move to connect everyone. This is something they could do from a technical perspective, but they did not consider the societal consequences. They try to play the neutral platform, just giving people a chance to "share ideas" but they pick what's shown and to who. Even if it's obfuscated by an algorithm that was trained on user-data, they're still choosing. I think a lot of this stems from Zuckerberg's vision to "connect the world" without thinking through what that actually means, and what problems would come up.

pdonis 8y ago

Lots of people wanted an easier way to share photos, message people, find friends, etc. Lots of people did not want their personal data sold, their private information compromised, their creepy exes given an easy way to stalk them, and general loss of ownership of their data and their online presence. But they got all those things anyway, because Zuckerberg built Facebook that way. He could have built it a different way. But he didn't.

britch 8y ago

I think a lot of what's wrong with modern Facebook follows directly from Zuckerberg's original vision and shortsightedness. It's possible to imagine a Facebook which stayed small scale, friends of friends, and served primarily as a photo-sharing/chat platform. Partly because of business pressure and partly because of Zuckerberg's vision they made this move to connect everyone. This is something they could do from a technical perspective, but they did not consider the societal consequences. They try to play the neutral platform, just giving people a chance to "share ideas" but they pick what's shown and to who. Even if it's obfuscated by an algorithm that was trained on user-data, they're still choosing. I think a lot of this stems from Zuckerberg's vision to "connect the world" without thinking through what that actually means, and what problems would come up.