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The vast majority of FB users use it for staying in touch with friends and family. The cynical framing we encounter on HN isn't actually representative of the

The vast majority of FB users use it for staying in touch with friends and family. The cynical framing we encounter on HN isn't actually representative of the experience of most FB users.

OpieCunningham 6y ago
Have you met my friends and family? Oy vey.
goatherders 6y ago
I disagree completely.
boplicity 6y ago
That gets to the heart of the problem, actually. People use Facebook to keep in touch with family and friends, yet Facebook still systematically pushes inflammatory content on them, despite that not being the "reason" people are there. And, eventually, it gets a surprisingly high percentage of people to respond to that inflammatory content, thus furthering the cycle.
- danlugo92 6y ago
  FWIW (and it might not be worth much much). I'm from Venezuela and most of my contacts are too. Most content that I would consider "bad" that comes up for people are just memes, and stupid top X/spammy-ish/clickbaity content or recipe videos. Maybe a different algorithm or just network effects?
  - jacobush 6y ago
    It could be any number of things - for one there may not be much advertisment spend in your region compared to the US.
  - loopz 6y ago
    Are you in a target group for voter ads using fake news messages?
- bromuro 6y ago
  Yeah they should just stop hosting public profiles and figures.
slantedview 6y ago
Just because you haven't been radicalized on FB doesn't mean it's not a real problem.
- chrisco255 6y ago
  Yeah, same goes for books. You know how many people have been indoctrinated and persuaded by books? Let's burn those while we're at it.
  - harikb 6y ago
    If the cost (monetary and one’s credibility) of publishing a Social post matched that of publishing a book, we wouldn’t be here discussing this. If we allow anyone with opposing thumbs to spew garbage online, platform have some responsibility to have some limits or require making source/author public
    - chrisco255 6y ago
      Yeah that's how freedom of speech works. Listen, you don't police private conversations among friends. Not in America. One man's trash is another man's treasure. I'm sure I could comb over your personal beliefs and find all sorts of garbage, including what you're saying now Corporate regulation of speech is a losing proposition for society. Period.
      - harikb 6y ago
        My only ask is that you see the difference between free-speech as intended in the constitution vs free-speech under an unverifiable and easily forged online pseudonym. You may not even be defending free speech of an American citizen/resident
        chrisco255 6y ago
        I believe free speech is a human right. Facebook itself is not built up around pseudonyms, that would be Twitter moreso. But the founding members of the U.S. regularly wrote in pseudonyms in the Federalist Papers. Ben Franklin also regularly wrote in pseudonyms. I don't like social media, as it exists today. I think it's a toxic form of communication. But I'd rather people just realize that and migrate off it and towards chat rooms, group chats, discussion forums, etc. I'd be fine with forcing social media companies to regularly warn users of addiction and to provide built in and highly visible tools for tuning it out.
claudeganon 6y ago
The idea that being barraged by insane politics is separate from staying in touch with friends and family is contrary to most people’s experience of national and religious holidays.
- koolba 6y ago
  Rather than shying from it, dreading Thanksgiving, or hiding behind an eggshell thin wall of group think, people should learn to grow a spine. Learn to defend your own opinions, stop getting overly agitated that someone has their own conflicting ones, and generally stop caring when people disagree with you. I’m no doctor but I’m fairly certain you’ll live longer.
  - hsitz 6y ago
    You seem to live in a different world than mine. In mine, social media would be much less of a problem if people tended to shy away from online confrontation. The online/social media problem is in large part one of people defending their own opinions too aggressively.
    - koolba 6y ago
      > You seem to live in a different world than mine. I liked the more inflammatory initial hot take of “What kind of world do you live in?” better. It goes better with my speak your mind and damn the consequences philosophy. I wasn’t talking about online. I meant in person communication. It’s likely even hard for people these days but once you get used to the idea that it’s okay to offend people, you realize you’re never really offended either. > In mine, social media would be much less of a problem if people tended to shy away from online confrontation. The online/social media problem is in large part one of people defending their own opinions too aggressively. Having any sort of personal accountability for social media defeats the purpose. It should be an outlet for the id. Be the craziest you and assume everyone else is as well.
nvrspyx 6y ago
The average number of friends that a Facebook user has is 338. Out of those, I'm sure there's quite a few in every person's group of "friends" that posts some pretty inflammatory content. I, for example, have over 800 friends, despite the fact that I haven't posted anything in about 10 years, I don't go on the site more than once every three months or so, and the only thing I use my Facebook account for is messaging my significant other because they mainly use Messenger to stay in contact with their friends. Yet, when I go on for my quarterly check-in because my SO wants me to like a photo, it's nothing but inflammatory posts. I quickly unfriend them and move on, but it still seems to mostly be those types of posts.
- autokad 6y ago
  i generally use the unfollow button for people who post a lot of stuff I don't like. I got to the point where its really stable, I mostly see what I want, funny memes, pictures of my friends doing things, etc. I use to have 800 friends, went on several purges to get it to 250 - much more managable
fzeroracer 6y ago
Really? Because my parents are probably among the most tech-illiterate people I know (love you, Mom) but I've had to talk with them multiple times because they asked me if such-and-such or so-and-so was true or real and it was the result of completely fake FB groups or accounts posting bullshit that they read on there. I'm lucky that I have such a good relationship with my family that they're willing to come to me as a source of truth for some of those things.
bryan_w 6y ago
Most people who complain about FB on HN, "deleted FB years ago"
- bitL 6y ago
  Yet our profiles are still alive and well, as our friends are telling us.
BLanen 6y ago
> The vast majority of FB users use it for staying in touch with friends and family. Out of personal experience it's the opposite. I even talked about a chrome plugin to get rid of everything but friends' activities and they said they primarily use it for just scrolling through news and memes and shit.

The vast majority of FB users use it for staying in touch with friends and family. The cynical framing we encounter on HN isn't actually representative of the experience of most FB users.

OpieCunningham 6y ago

Have you met my friends and family? Oy vey.

goatherders 6y ago

I disagree completely.

boplicity 6y ago

That gets to the heart of the problem, actually. People use Facebook to keep in touch with family and friends, yet Facebook still systematically pushes inflammatory content on them, despite that not being the "reason" people are there. And, eventually, it gets a surprisingly high percentage of people to respond to that inflammatory content, thus furthering the cycle.

danlugo92 6y ago
FWIW (and it might not be worth much much). I'm from Venezuela and most of my contacts are too. Most content that I would consider "bad" that comes up for people are just memes, and stupid top X/spammy-ish/clickbaity content or recipe videos. Maybe a different algorithm or just network effects?
- jacobush 6y ago
  It could be any number of things - for one there may not be much advertisment spend in your region compared to the US.
- loopz 6y ago
  Are you in a target group for voter ads using fake news messages?
bromuro 6y ago
Yeah they should just stop hosting public profiles and figures.

slantedview 6y ago

Just because you haven't been radicalized on FB doesn't mean it's not a real problem.

chrisco255 6y ago
Yeah, same goes for books. You know how many people have been indoctrinated and persuaded by books? Let's burn those while we're at it.
- harikb 6y ago
  If the cost (monetary and one’s credibility) of publishing a Social post matched that of publishing a book, we wouldn’t be here discussing this. If we allow anyone with opposing thumbs to spew garbage online, platform have some responsibility to have some limits or require making source/author public
  - chrisco255 6y ago
    Yeah that's how freedom of speech works. Listen, you don't police private conversations among friends. Not in America. One man's trash is another man's treasure. I'm sure I could comb over your personal beliefs and find all sorts of garbage, including what you're saying now Corporate regulation of speech is a losing proposition for society. Period.
    - harikb 6y ago
      My only ask is that you see the difference between free-speech as intended in the constitution vs free-speech under an unverifiable and easily forged online pseudonym. You may not even be defending free speech of an American citizen/resident
      - chrisco255 6y ago
        I believe free speech is a human right. Facebook itself is not built up around pseudonyms, that would be Twitter moreso. But the founding members of the U.S. regularly wrote in pseudonyms in the Federalist Papers. Ben Franklin also regularly wrote in pseudonyms. I don't like social media, as it exists today. I think it's a toxic form of communication. But I'd rather people just realize that and migrate off it and towards chat rooms, group chats, discussion forums, etc. I'd be fine with forcing social media companies to regularly warn users of addiction and to provide built in and highly visible tools for tuning it out.

claudeganon 6y ago

The idea that being barraged by insane politics is separate from staying in touch with friends and family is contrary to most people’s experience of national and religious holidays.

koolba 6y ago
Rather than shying from it, dreading Thanksgiving, or hiding behind an eggshell thin wall of group think, people should learn to grow a spine. Learn to defend your own opinions, stop getting overly agitated that someone has their own conflicting ones, and generally stop caring when people disagree with you. I’m no doctor but I’m fairly certain you’ll live longer.
- hsitz 6y ago
  You seem to live in a different world than mine. In mine, social media would be much less of a problem if people tended to shy away from online confrontation. The online/social media problem is in large part one of people defending their own opinions too aggressively.
  - koolba 6y ago
    > You seem to live in a different world than mine. I liked the more inflammatory initial hot take of “What kind of world do you live in?” better. It goes better with my speak your mind and damn the consequences philosophy. I wasn’t talking about online. I meant in person communication. It’s likely even hard for people these days but once you get used to the idea that it’s okay to offend people, you realize you’re never really offended either. > In mine, social media would be much less of a problem if people tended to shy away from online confrontation. The online/social media problem is in large part one of people defending their own opinions too aggressively. Having any sort of personal accountability for social media defeats the purpose. It should be an outlet for the id. Be the craziest you and assume everyone else is as well.

nvrspyx 6y ago

The average number of friends that a Facebook user has is 338. Out of those, I'm sure there's quite a few in every person's group of "friends" that posts some pretty inflammatory content. I, for example, have over 800 friends, despite the fact that I haven't posted anything in about 10 years, I don't go on the site more than once every three months or so, and the only thing I use my Facebook account for is messaging my significant other because they mainly use Messenger to stay in contact with their friends. Yet, when I go on for my quarterly check-in because my SO wants me to like a photo, it's nothing but inflammatory posts. I quickly unfriend them and move on, but it still seems to mostly be those types of posts.

autokad 6y ago
i generally use the unfollow button for people who post a lot of stuff I don't like. I got to the point where its really stable, I mostly see what I want, funny memes, pictures of my friends doing things, etc. I use to have 800 friends, went on several purges to get it to 250 - much more managable

fzeroracer 6y ago

Really? Because my parents are probably among the most tech-illiterate people I know (love you, Mom) but I've had to talk with them multiple times because they asked me if such-and-such or so-and-so was true or real and it was the result of completely fake FB groups or accounts posting bullshit that they read on there. I'm lucky that I have such a good relationship with my family that they're willing to come to me as a source of truth for some of those things.

bryan_w 6y ago

Most people who complain about FB on HN, "deleted FB years ago"

bitL 6y ago
Yet our profiles are still alive and well, as our friends are telling us.

BLanen 6y ago

> The vast majority of FB users use it for staying in touch with friends and family. Out of personal experience it's the opposite. I even talked about a chrome plugin to get rid of everything but friends' activities and they said they primarily use it for just scrolling through news and memes and shit.