8 ms·

I think you are right, let’s just blame the users and all our problems are over. “Hey, I just sell guns! Guns don’t kill people, people do!”

achenet 5y ago
well... There is some truth to that, honestly. If I sell guns to someone living in the middle of Alaska, those guns help keep them safe from bear attacks, and hunt to find food. If I sell guns to bank robbers in NYC, those guns are used to hurt people. Similarly, Facebook helps people from across the world keep in touch with each other. It also helps people say very mean things to a wide audience. Nudging your users to use the tool you created only for good is not easy.
- JAlexoid 5y ago
  Facebook doesn't "help people from across the world keep in touch". In it's quest to "be the internet" it has become a stream of trash, that actively hinders keeping in tout with other people. If it focused on user interaction and personal connections - we'd have a different conversation about Facebook
  - filoleg 5y ago
    > Facebook doesn't "help people from across the world keep in touch". Well, that's exactly my personal use case for FB, as well as that of many people I personally know irl. It genuinely does help me and my friends to stay in touch. We don't browse the feed for hours or anything (I open FB maybe twice a week for 20-30 mins tops, and that's only because I am also checking up on a few hobby-related FB groups I am in). Could it be the case that this is NOT how most FB users use the service? I mean, sure. Still would be wrong to say that it doesn't "help people from across the world keep in touch," because there is a non-insignificant number of people who use FB for this exact stated purpose, me included.
    - VRay 5y ago
      Facebook makes it hard for me to keep in touch with people, since I have to manually pick through a mountain of bullshit to find any posts that are actually from my friends and actually about their lives At first I could set up a list of “Actual Friends” and see all their posts, but now it’ll only show a couple days’ worth, so I have to manually click each profile and check them one by one If they had RSS-enabled blogs or kept up with an email chain or used a shared subreddit, there’d be no problem
    - JAlexoid 5y ago
      I mean... They are actively trying to make you follow the common practice of following news sources, favorite teams, groups, etc. I have less than 200 "friends", Reuters, Economist, DeWalt and a few local groups on my profile. And it's a stream of complete garbage.... Because I get served the article posts, where my friends comment on(that's default) or interact with. That's the normal use case for Facebook, to get you dragged into the cesspool. My sister is paranoid and it was facebook's desire to get more interaction out of her that literally resulted in her becoming a paranoid COVID anti-vaxxer. Which is infinitely infuriating... At this point even Reddit is better than Facebook.
Tenoke 5y ago
It would indeed seem odd to me to not assign at least some blame to the people doing the actual shooting.

achenet 5y ago

well... There is some truth to that, honestly. If I sell guns to someone living in the middle of Alaska, those guns help keep them safe from bear attacks, and hunt to find food. If I sell guns to bank robbers in NYC, those guns are used to hurt people. Similarly, Facebook helps people from across the world keep in touch with each other. It also helps people say very mean things to a wide audience. Nudging your users to use the tool you created only for good is not easy.

JAlexoid 5y ago
Facebook doesn't "help people from across the world keep in touch". In it's quest to "be the internet" it has become a stream of trash, that actively hinders keeping in tout with other people. If it focused on user interaction and personal connections - we'd have a different conversation about Facebook
- filoleg 5y ago
  > Facebook doesn't "help people from across the world keep in touch". Well, that's exactly my personal use case for FB, as well as that of many people I personally know irl. It genuinely does help me and my friends to stay in touch. We don't browse the feed for hours or anything (I open FB maybe twice a week for 20-30 mins tops, and that's only because I am also checking up on a few hobby-related FB groups I am in). Could it be the case that this is NOT how most FB users use the service? I mean, sure. Still would be wrong to say that it doesn't "help people from across the world keep in touch," because there is a non-insignificant number of people who use FB for this exact stated purpose, me included.
  - VRay 5y ago
    Facebook makes it hard for me to keep in touch with people, since I have to manually pick through a mountain of bullshit to find any posts that are actually from my friends and actually about their lives At first I could set up a list of “Actual Friends” and see all their posts, but now it’ll only show a couple days’ worth, so I have to manually click each profile and check them one by one If they had RSS-enabled blogs or kept up with an email chain or used a shared subreddit, there’d be no problem
  - JAlexoid 5y ago
    I mean... They are actively trying to make you follow the common practice of following news sources, favorite teams, groups, etc. I have less than 200 "friends", Reuters, Economist, DeWalt and a few local groups on my profile. And it's a stream of complete garbage.... Because I get served the article posts, where my friends comment on(that's default) or interact with. That's the normal use case for Facebook, to get you dragged into the cesspool. My sister is paranoid and it was facebook's desire to get more interaction out of her that literally resulted in her becoming a paranoid COVID anti-vaxxer. Which is infinitely infuriating... At this point even Reddit is better than Facebook.

Tenoke 5y ago

It would indeed seem odd to me to not assign at least some blame to the people doing the actual shooting.