3 ms·

My take is that FB lost its value when it started to become taken over by content that wasn't part of its initial offerings. Instead of photos and personal post

My take is that FB lost its value when it started to become taken over by content that wasn't part of its initial offerings. Instead of photos and personal posts, we mostly see news, political posts, ads, pages, groups, etc. It starts to become more like an aggregator of things we did not initially intend to follow, but we've chosen to follow bit-by-bit - maybe that speaks to the design of Facebook leading us down that road. Instagram was better for the longest time. I noticed a trend of friends using Facebook for events and nothing else, but they were still posting personal content on Instagram. But during this presidency, with everyone being politically charged and angry all the time, I noticed people were posting political content to leverage their Instagram followers, and now that too is overwhelmed by it. All that said, Twitter comes off to me as the biggest cesspool. Its entire format is built around short hot takes, sniping at others, "virality", and other societal dark patterns. Reddit is almost at the same degree of cesspoolery with their new designs. Both are also a lot more of an echo chamber than Facebook for me, although I do like that you can use them anonymously (without a real name). Personally, I really can't see why all this hatred is directed at Facebook when Twitter and Reddit are around. But this isn't a binary choice either. I do get the sense that society would be better off if everyone disengaged and de-escalated from social media in general. It's just hard because it's an effective way to spread one's (political) ideas and gain exposure, and so it's a bit like asking for mutual disarmament.

joshmanders 6y ago
> Personally, I really can't see why all this hatred is directed at Facebook when Twitter and Reddit are around. But this isn't a binary choice either. Can't speak for anyone else, but as OP my post isn't about deleting Facebook because social media is rampant cesspool of dopamine hits. But because Facebook, Inc is an evil company and we shouldn't use their products.
- throwawaysea 6y ago
  > But because Facebook, Inc is an evil company and we shouldn't use their products. Sincere question: what do you mean by this? I don't perceive them as "evil". That comes off as a vague and subjective accusation. What specifically are you referring to? What makes them worse than other organizations?
drcongo 6y ago
Facebook has shadow accounts, so even if you don't even have an account on Facebook, they know exactly who you are, where you live, what you browse on the web, who your friends are, what you buy and where you buy it from, what illnesses you've been looking up on WebMD, who your health insurance is with, and so much more. Twitter and Reddit aren't even playing the same game, let alone in the same league.
- throwawaysea 6y ago
  > Facebook has shadow accounts This is typical for every company to the extent that they have the data to do it. Reddit for example, can personalize your feed without needing an account, because they are able to track your behavior based on IP address. Google does the same thing across all their properties, such as YouTube, and arguably their presence is more pervasive than Facebook's.

joshmanders 6y ago

> Personally, I really can't see why all this hatred is directed at Facebook when Twitter and Reddit are around. But this isn't a binary choice either. Can't speak for anyone else, but as OP my post isn't about deleting Facebook because social media is rampant cesspool of dopamine hits. But because Facebook, Inc is an evil company and we shouldn't use their products.

throwawaysea 6y ago
> But because Facebook, Inc is an evil company and we shouldn't use their products. Sincere question: what do you mean by this? I don't perceive them as "evil". That comes off as a vague and subjective accusation. What specifically are you referring to? What makes them worse than other organizations?

drcongo 6y ago

Facebook has shadow accounts, so even if you don't even have an account on Facebook, they know exactly who you are, where you live, what you browse on the web, who your friends are, what you buy and where you buy it from, what illnesses you've been looking up on WebMD, who your health insurance is with, and so much more. Twitter and Reddit aren't even playing the same game, let alone in the same league.

throwawaysea 6y ago
> Facebook has shadow accounts This is typical for every company to the extent that they have the data to do it. Reddit for example, can personalize your feed without needing an account, because they are able to track your behavior based on IP address. Google does the same thing across all their properties, such as YouTube, and arguably their presence is more pervasive than Facebook's.