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The majority of the public has a negative view on Facebook: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/poll-americans-give-social-media-clear-thumbs-down-n

The majority of the public has a negative view on Facebook: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/poll-americans-give-social-media-clear-thumbs-down-n991086#embed-20190403-polling-social-media-time https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/poll-america... This was from 2019 and their public image has definitely not been improving. So to say it’s “only tech nerds” is a straight up lie.

dylan604 5y ago
It's not a lie. People can have a negative view of something and continue to do that something. They can also have that negative view without truly understanding why they have that view. People are actively trying to mislead polls with answers they think the poll is looking for, or just false info to skew numbers. FB is in the news with negative stories, so they repeat those when asked even without thinking about why. If you asked someone about a teacher or some other adult trying to manipulate a kid, they'd obviously say that it is bad. Telling them FB is doing it with what posts they see, they don't respond the same way. They just don't get how an "al-go-rythym" can be so bad. They don't truly understand the ramifications of the hoovering up all of the data they do. They shrug their shoulders and say things like they are okay with it as long as it's not real money. So, I stand by my stance saying it is only tech nerds that truly get what is going on here.
- lost-found 5y ago
  That’s not what you said, you said “tech nerds are really the only ones upset about anything that FB has done/is doing” which the article I provided proves that’s not accurate. Move the goalposts all you want, I don’t care, but it is certainly not only “tech nerds” that disprove of what FB is doing.
  - dylan604 5y ago
    Maybe. Wasn't my intent, but let's allow the conversation to move past that. The mass populace is not stopping their use of FB regardless of what's in the news or what these polls say about their views of FB. From the evidence, one can only surmise that people don't truly care what FB does. Most addicts don't care what their drug dealer does as long as they can get their fix when they need it.
buitreVirtual 5y ago
The parallels with the tobacco industry continue to amaze me. People viewed that industry very negatively but continued to smoke even after all revelations about their lobbying and its health consequences came to light. It has taken decades for the number of smokers to decline substantially. I imagine that FB will similarly die a very slow death over the next 10-20 years, and even then it won't die completely (but it will be replaced by other toxic social media corporations).
- rightbyte 5y ago
  I guess the point is that both are addictive?
Liquix 5y ago
Does the majority of the public know that Instagram == Facebook, though? Genuinely curious - non-tech folks do seem to love talking about how awful Facebook is and how they don't use it anymore, but then comes the scrolling through Instagram for 6 hours..
- takeda 5y ago
  They started putting their brand on other products and last week they realized that maybe it wasn't a good idea, so they renamed to Meta. So now we will have Instagram by Meta, WhatsApp by Meta, Occulus (actually Metaverse) by Meta Ignorance is bliss.
mattmcknight 5y ago
Are you spreading misinformation on social media (assuming HN qualifies)? https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5794861-19093-NBCWSJ-March-Poll-4-5-19-Release.html https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5794861-19093-NBCWSJ... Look at the poll yourself, linked at the bottom of the article. Facebook 36% positive, 33% negative. Of course their public image has not been improving, as there is high frequency campaign from newspapers and TV news to attack their competition. CNN in particularly has wanted to deflect blame to Facebook for all of the free airtime CNN gave Trump in 2016. However, it seems to be quite a stretch to extrapolate from 2019 survey that listed 33% negatives for Facebook.

dylan604 5y ago

It's not a lie. People can have a negative view of something and continue to do that something. They can also have that negative view without truly understanding why they have that view. People are actively trying to mislead polls with answers they think the poll is looking for, or just false info to skew numbers. FB is in the news with negative stories, so they repeat those when asked even without thinking about why. If you asked someone about a teacher or some other adult trying to manipulate a kid, they'd obviously say that it is bad. Telling them FB is doing it with what posts they see, they don't respond the same way. They just don't get how an "al-go-rythym" can be so bad. They don't truly understand the ramifications of the hoovering up all of the data they do. They shrug their shoulders and say things like they are okay with it as long as it's not real money. So, I stand by my stance saying it is only tech nerds that truly get what is going on here.

lost-found 5y ago
That’s not what you said, you said “tech nerds are really the only ones upset about anything that FB has done/is doing” which the article I provided proves that’s not accurate. Move the goalposts all you want, I don’t care, but it is certainly not only “tech nerds” that disprove of what FB is doing.
- dylan604 5y ago
  Maybe. Wasn't my intent, but let's allow the conversation to move past that. The mass populace is not stopping their use of FB regardless of what's in the news or what these polls say about their views of FB. From the evidence, one can only surmise that people don't truly care what FB does. Most addicts don't care what their drug dealer does as long as they can get their fix when they need it.

buitreVirtual 5y ago

The parallels with the tobacco industry continue to amaze me. People viewed that industry very negatively but continued to smoke even after all revelations about their lobbying and its health consequences came to light. It has taken decades for the number of smokers to decline substantially. I imagine that FB will similarly die a very slow death over the next 10-20 years, and even then it won't die completely (but it will be replaced by other toxic social media corporations).

rightbyte 5y ago
I guess the point is that both are addictive?

Liquix 5y ago

Does the majority of the public know that Instagram == Facebook, though? Genuinely curious - non-tech folks do seem to love talking about how awful Facebook is and how they don't use it anymore, but then comes the scrolling through Instagram for 6 hours..

takeda 5y ago
They started putting their brand on other products and last week they realized that maybe it wasn't a good idea, so they renamed to Meta. So now we will have Instagram by Meta, WhatsApp by Meta, Occulus (actually Metaverse) by Meta Ignorance is bliss.

mattmcknight 5y ago

Are you spreading misinformation on social media (assuming HN qualifies)? https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5794861-19093-NBCWSJ-March-Poll-4-5-19-Release.html https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5794861-19093-NBCWSJ... Look at the poll yourself, linked at the bottom of the article. Facebook 36% positive, 33% negative. Of course their public image has not been improving, as there is high frequency campaign from newspapers and TV news to attack their competition. CNN in particularly has wanted to deflect blame to Facebook for all of the free airtime CNN gave Trump in 2016. However, it seems to be quite a stretch to extrapolate from 2019 survey that listed 33% negatives for Facebook.