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Ask HN: How do you feel about the way we use the Internet these days?
Most of us here were probably introduced to the Internet as a tool for finding information. These days, however, the first thing( and sometimes the only thing) people use on the Internet is Facebook. How do you feel about this change?
Do you think social media sites hinders the intellectual growth of the Internet? Or do, you think it actually helps create more information?
- madhouse 15y agoPersonally, I find most of facebook and the rest of its ilk nothing more than noise. Nevertheless, I don't mind their existence: its users usually yell their noises within the boundaries of these sites, which in turn decreases noise elsewhere. And THAT is a good thing: I can find information easier. And there always were, and always will be hubs for various topics, that are relatively low on noise, and as more people discover the internet, more will find it, even if they spend some time yapping about on pure-noise sites first. And that is also a good thing.
- samrat 15y agoits users usually yell their noises within the boundaries of these sites, which in turn decreases noise elsewhere -- Interesting observation, but that just applies for Facebook right? Not all other similar sites _wall_ their content.
- tatsuke95 15y agoThe "internet" (browser I guess?), then Google, now Facebook are all trying to work into the same position: that is the gateway to finding information on the web. Anecdote: myself (and I'm sure many users here) type URLs in the address bar of the browser. My father, who adopted the internet later, types everything in Google. My mother, who adopted it even later, never really leaves Facebook. To her, it's the internet. She doesn't even know to go to Google to search for things. In fact, Facebook is the only thing she really uses the computer for. That's powerful. So, I guess I'm saying that I don't really think that the internet's usage has swayed too far from being a way to seek information. What's changed is how we get to the information.
- samrat 15y agoYeah, I've seen lots of users who won't even leave Facebook. In fact that's what prompted me to post this question here.