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A counterpoint...You can quit using Google, MSFT, Yahoo, and etc. But you can't quit your friends. Social networking is a winner take all. That is why i agree

by js3309 16y ago

A counterpoint...You can quit using Google, MSFT, Yahoo, and etc. But you can't quit your friends. Social networking is a winner take all. That is why i agree with the author that Facebook would have to shoot itself in the foot first.

greyman 16y ago
Why you mean by "quit your friends"? About 50% of my friends are not on the Facebook, and I communicate with them using phone, email, or directly meet them. The same with the folks who are on FB...I usually reach them by other means, anyway.
- whatusername 16y ago
  Really? For me it's down to <10% Friends. (Maybe 50% of family when you count aunties/uncles) And aside from 3 people I don't remember the last time I got an email from a friend. FB Messaging / wall posts own that space completely. Obviously sms still has it's place (ie- want a response in the next 10 minutes rather than the next 24 hours) and nothing can replace in-person communication -- but FB is doing a damn good job of replacing my electronic communication.
hasenj 16y ago
There was a point in time where we shared pictures on Flickr. We don't do that often anymore, and even though we're on facebook, we don't share pictures there that often anyway. You can quit facebook if there was a better way to connect to your friends.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
david927 16y ago
And no one would dump all the contacts and email they have in their Hotmail. In technology, the word never is a fool's word.
PakG1 16y ago
Back in the 90s, all my friends and I used ICQ. Then something weird happened. I can't explain why, but everyone started switching to MSN Messenger (this was in Canada, I understand that AIM was more popular in the US). It probably had to do with the nicer UI, but I can't be sure. Basically, ICQ became irrelevant, except in Russia. It's a perfect example of how all your friends can move somewhere else. The other great example: Friendster.
- zalew 16y ago
  in Poland ICQ was smashed by GaduGadu, a local IM raised from an SMS sending app, additionally it was the .com bubble times and when the web was raising crazy around here. Yet I remember that fellow nerds and I used ICQ for some time until it was full of spam, so I assume spam was what 'killed' it in most countries.
- netcan 16y ago
  Good point. Networks are good, but they aren't a total lock-in. However, Facebook has some things going for it that ICQ didn't. for example: Grandmothers - Facebook started with the early adopters just like everyone else. But they slowly moved (and are still moving) down the curve, past the 'what's a browser' middle and down to the users for whom email is a big challenge. People who basically don't use computers except for occasional tasks that someone else has shown them how to do and set everything up. These people don't switch easily.
  - Retric 16y ago
    Early adopters have already started to abandon Facebook. However, they come back because there is no better option. What's going to kill Facebook is something better. Less spam, better privacy, etc, but it still needs to be at least as good as Facebook to get anywhere. And that’s going to take a seriously long runway a great development team and awesome management. Look for a profitable nitch like LinkedIn that just keeps growing.
  - anthuswilliams 16y ago
    Even social sites with lock-in can still lose market share because you can socialize on multiple platforms. I still have a yahoo email address cos my grandmother likes to send me email forwards. But when I make new connections, or reconnect with old ones, I don't do it on yahoo. Grandmothers won't save Facebook. They'll allow Facebook to linger on like a maladapted dinosaur or the old VAX your IT department uses as shelf space. But in a post-Facebook world, just because we all keep Facebook accounts to maintain ossified relationships doesn't mean Zuck still has social relevance.
mechanical_fish 16y ago
you can't quit your friends My friend, for your sake I hope you never have to fully understand what I am about to say... But there are times when you not only will quit your friend, boyfriend, girlfriend, husband or wife, but you will have to. You can quit your family too. When I was twenty I had no comprehension of this, but having almost reached forty I can reel off examples. Most of which are not mine, fortunately, but some of which are so painful that they hurt even by proxy. Mental illness. Divorce. Physical abuse. Emotional abuse. Facebook, by the way, with its ridiculously naive conception of identity and privacy, is actually a lousy platform for conducting real-world relationships. It's like trying to compose a story out of the messages written on greeting cards.
- vegashacker 16y ago
  I really wanted to downvote you cause I thought your response was an intentional misunderstanding of the comment you were replying to, but then you go and write this gem: [Conducting relationships on Facebook is] like trying to compose a story out of the messages written on greeting cards. Insightful. Hilarious. Wow.
  - mechanical_fish 16y ago
    I thought your response was an intentional misunderstanding It might have been. Deliberate, experimental misinterpretation is an important essay-writing technique. Part of the goal of essays is to arrive at new thoughts. To get to someplace new you have to try some wrong turns. If you can't think of anything novel, write down the obvious. Then try deliberately misinterpreting what you just wrote. It's usually painfully easy to do.
- mbesto 16y ago
  "real-world relationships" - Quite the opposite actually. In my opinion, today real world relationships are now global. Maybe I'm just a small (and growing) portion of people who has friends and family all over the world, in different time-zones and cultures, but I find Facebook the perfect "base" platform for conducting such relationships. "Conducting relationships" is a multi-faceted concept in my opinion. It involves several layers of communication and Facebook is just one of those, not THE only one. Let me give you a concrete example of how Facebook has helped me conduct a relationship that I find rather meaningful in my life. I have an American friend living in Switzerland of who I've met some good friends of his. One is a British guy who just recently moved to Dubai from Switzerland for a short term project. Had it not been for Facebook I probably wouldn't have known he moved there and thus provoked me to book a trip to see him several weeks ago. (another form communication - physical presence) He's only there for a few more months and I'm afraid any other form of communication would have been too slow. Sorry to de-rail your original point but I always find the "Facebook haters" to be rather interesting. And to you're original point about quitting friends. I don't think he/she meant literally that you can't quit all of your friends. The point is that you will always have a social network of people in your life, whether you continually add or delete people. If you don't (and I would feel exceptionally bad for you) then you represent an extremely small percentage of the world's population.
brianpan 16y ago
You can quit facebook without quitting your friends.

by js3309 16y ago

greyman 16y ago

Why you mean by "quit your friends"? About 50% of my friends are not on the Facebook, and I communicate with them using phone, email, or directly meet them. The same with the folks who are on FB...I usually reach them by other means, anyway.

whatusername 16y ago
Really? For me it's down to <10% Friends. (Maybe 50% of family when you count aunties/uncles) And aside from 3 people I don't remember the last time I got an email from a friend. FB Messaging / wall posts own that space completely. Obviously sms still has it's place (ie- want a response in the next 10 minutes rather than the next 24 hours) and nothing can replace in-person communication -- but FB is doing a damn good job of replacing my electronic communication.

hasenj 16y ago

There was a point in time where we shared pictures on Flickr. We don't do that often anymore, and even though we're on facebook, we don't share pictures there that often anyway. You can quit facebook if there was a better way to connect to your friends.

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

david927 16y ago

And no one would dump all the contacts and email they have in their Hotmail. In technology, the word never is a fool's word.

PakG1 16y ago

Back in the 90s, all my friends and I used ICQ. Then something weird happened. I can't explain why, but everyone started switching to MSN Messenger (this was in Canada, I understand that AIM was more popular in the US). It probably had to do with the nicer UI, but I can't be sure. Basically, ICQ became irrelevant, except in Russia. It's a perfect example of how all your friends can move somewhere else. The other great example: Friendster.

zalew 16y ago
in Poland ICQ was smashed by GaduGadu, a local IM raised from an SMS sending app, additionally it was the .com bubble times and when the web was raising crazy around here. Yet I remember that fellow nerds and I used ICQ for some time until it was full of spam, so I assume spam was what 'killed' it in most countries.
netcan 16y ago
Good point. Networks are good, but they aren't a total lock-in. However, Facebook has some things going for it that ICQ didn't. for example: Grandmothers - Facebook started with the early adopters just like everyone else. But they slowly moved (and are still moving) down the curve, past the 'what's a browser' middle and down to the users for whom email is a big challenge. People who basically don't use computers except for occasional tasks that someone else has shown them how to do and set everything up. These people don't switch easily.
- Retric 16y ago
  Early adopters have already started to abandon Facebook. However, they come back because there is no better option. What's going to kill Facebook is something better. Less spam, better privacy, etc, but it still needs to be at least as good as Facebook to get anywhere. And that’s going to take a seriously long runway a great development team and awesome management. Look for a profitable nitch like LinkedIn that just keeps growing.
- anthuswilliams 16y ago
  Even social sites with lock-in can still lose market share because you can socialize on multiple platforms. I still have a yahoo email address cos my grandmother likes to send me email forwards. But when I make new connections, or reconnect with old ones, I don't do it on yahoo. Grandmothers won't save Facebook. They'll allow Facebook to linger on like a maladapted dinosaur or the old VAX your IT department uses as shelf space. But in a post-Facebook world, just because we all keep Facebook accounts to maintain ossified relationships doesn't mean Zuck still has social relevance.

mechanical_fish 16y ago

you can't quit your friends My friend, for your sake I hope you never have to fully understand what I am about to say... But there are times when you not only will quit your friend, boyfriend, girlfriend, husband or wife, but you will have to. You can quit your family too. When I was twenty I had no comprehension of this, but having almost reached forty I can reel off examples. Most of which are not mine, fortunately, but some of which are so painful that they hurt even by proxy. Mental illness. Divorce. Physical abuse. Emotional abuse. Facebook, by the way, with its ridiculously naive conception of identity and privacy, is actually a lousy platform for conducting real-world relationships. It's like trying to compose a story out of the messages written on greeting cards.

vegashacker 16y ago
I really wanted to downvote you cause I thought your response was an intentional misunderstanding of the comment you were replying to, but then you go and write this gem: [Conducting relationships on Facebook is] like trying to compose a story out of the messages written on greeting cards. Insightful. Hilarious. Wow.
- mechanical_fish 16y ago
  I thought your response was an intentional misunderstanding It might have been. Deliberate, experimental misinterpretation is an important essay-writing technique. Part of the goal of essays is to arrive at new thoughts. To get to someplace new you have to try some wrong turns. If you can't think of anything novel, write down the obvious. Then try deliberately misinterpreting what you just wrote. It's usually painfully easy to do.
mbesto 16y ago
"real-world relationships" - Quite the opposite actually. In my opinion, today real world relationships are now global. Maybe I'm just a small (and growing) portion of people who has friends and family all over the world, in different time-zones and cultures, but I find Facebook the perfect "base" platform for conducting such relationships. "Conducting relationships" is a multi-faceted concept in my opinion. It involves several layers of communication and Facebook is just one of those, not THE only one. Let me give you a concrete example of how Facebook has helped me conduct a relationship that I find rather meaningful in my life. I have an American friend living in Switzerland of who I've met some good friends of his. One is a British guy who just recently moved to Dubai from Switzerland for a short term project. Had it not been for Facebook I probably wouldn't have known he moved there and thus provoked me to book a trip to see him several weeks ago. (another form communication - physical presence) He's only there for a few more months and I'm afraid any other form of communication would have been too slow. Sorry to de-rail your original point but I always find the "Facebook haters" to be rather interesting. And to you're original point about quitting friends. I don't think he/she meant literally that you can't quit all of your friends. The point is that you will always have a social network of people in your life, whether you continually add or delete people. If you don't (and I would feel exceptionally bad for you) then you represent an extremely small percentage of the world's population.

brianpan 16y ago

You can quit facebook without quitting your friends.