4 ms·

While obviously people use facebook, I just don't get it. Had a profile and deleted it years ago. What does it add? I see no value in it.

jonp888 8y ago
You might as well say "While obviously people use HackerNews, I just don't get it. Had a account and deleted it years ago. What does it add? I see no value in it." The same reason anyone does anything social. To discuss with friends and others topics of mutual interest, to find out about things that have happened to people and orgsnisations I care about. And sometimes to get validation by publicising things relevant to you personally and seeing the reaction. Quite why HN seems to have such a collective hatred of Facebook specifically, far above all other organisations running social/content sharing platforms I don't understand. It's worse than /. and MS back in the day.
- aabbcc1241 8y ago
  People can do those discussions and information sharing without Facebook. e.g. They would have their own blog and read feeds from friends from RSS reader. Maybe they think it's easier to do that with Facebook.
- JohnFen 8y ago
  > Quite why HN seems to have such a collective hatred of Facebook specifically, far above all other organisations running social/content sharing platforms I don't understand I cant' speak for anybody but me, but my personal animosity towards these organization is purely because they work so hard to spy on me.
thih9 8y ago
Facebook is in the ad business. If you pay, you can post ads. Its "free tier" gives the ability to exchange your time and personal network into visibility.
rm445 8y ago
It's a link to people I know from real life, by their real names. Family and friends. People I have some level of emotional connection to such that I have some level of interest in seeing pictures of what they do in their leisure time, how their kids are growing up and so on. Staying in touch with them by the many other forms of communication available would be such a pain, just because there are so many. I've spent a lot of time on pseudonymous online communities - slashdot, reddit, hacker news and others - and although there is always interesting discussion, I don't feel anything like the same interest in other posters as I do in say my housemate from 2003-2005. Don't get me wrong, Facebook-the-company and Facebook-the-algorithmically-generated-feed are fairly vile, but the USP, the network effect is something that has emotional worth to a lot of people.
sys_64738 8y ago
You get a windowed snapshot of the happiness in people's lives when you look at FB.

jonp888 8y ago

You might as well say "While obviously people use HackerNews, I just don't get it. Had a account and deleted it years ago. What does it add? I see no value in it." The same reason anyone does anything social. To discuss with friends and others topics of mutual interest, to find out about things that have happened to people and orgsnisations I care about. And sometimes to get validation by publicising things relevant to you personally and seeing the reaction. Quite why HN seems to have such a collective hatred of Facebook specifically, far above all other organisations running social/content sharing platforms I don't understand. It's worse than /. and MS back in the day.

aabbcc1241 8y ago
People can do those discussions and information sharing without Facebook. e.g. They would have their own blog and read feeds from friends from RSS reader. Maybe they think it's easier to do that with Facebook.
JohnFen 8y ago
> Quite why HN seems to have such a collective hatred of Facebook specifically, far above all other organisations running social/content sharing platforms I don't understand I cant' speak for anybody but me, but my personal animosity towards these organization is purely because they work so hard to spy on me.

thih9 8y ago

Facebook is in the ad business. If you pay, you can post ads. Its "free tier" gives the ability to exchange your time and personal network into visibility.

rm445 8y ago

It's a link to people I know from real life, by their real names. Family and friends. People I have some level of emotional connection to such that I have some level of interest in seeing pictures of what they do in their leisure time, how their kids are growing up and so on. Staying in touch with them by the many other forms of communication available would be such a pain, just because there are so many. I've spent a lot of time on pseudonymous online communities - slashdot, reddit, hacker news and others - and although there is always interesting discussion, I don't feel anything like the same interest in other posters as I do in say my housemate from 2003-2005. Don't get me wrong, Facebook-the-company and Facebook-the-algorithmically-generated-feed are fairly vile, but the USP, the network effect is something that has emotional worth to a lot of people.

sys_64738 8y ago

You get a windowed snapshot of the happiness in people's lives when you look at FB.