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>There is no reason why a social media company needs to exist as such. It should be easy to make a personal html/css based website You're misunderstanding the

by jasode 5y ago

>There is no reason why a social media company needs to exist as such. It should be easy to make a personal html/css based website You're misunderstanding the true sticky feature of Facebook for the billions of normal non-geek users. It's not html/css authoring; it's the real names database. In other words, the so-called "social graph" of known identities rather than something like HN/reddit which have mostly anonymous or pseudonymous ids. I tried to explain the "Rolodex of real names" aspect in a previous comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18728061 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18728061

jvanderbot 5y ago
this is very insightful. I realize I don't have socials because I want to present content, I have it to receive chronologically sorted updates on people I know in real life. Except now it's not chronological, and so I'm disinterested
- sdoering 5y ago
  It shouldn't, but as network effect shows it works. It is easy. It provides some (felt) value for the people using it. A cigarette does the same. It provides value the moment it is lit and the first drag enters the lung. I quit smoking a little more than 9 years ago. There are still quite a few moments I miss this felt value. I quit Facebook about a year ago. I still keep the account but removed everything I ever posted there. Still as I recently started to do genealogy my SO showed me the groups she uses for that on Facebook (it is the only thing she does there). So probably I will start using FB again once I dig deeper into my ancestors as these groups are really helpful and provide value. If these groups were some other place I would gladly be there. Sadly they are not.
carapace 5y ago
That may well be true (and FWIW I agree with you) but that just kicks the can down the road. It just raises the question of why this incredibly valuable "Rolodex of real names" should be the owned property of a single private corporation? They are our names and relationships, after all.
rvense 5y ago
I grew up, to a large extent, on various message boards in the 00's, and I remember when many of us got blogs and it was great. But this was the major change with Facebook, and that's really what made it mainstream to put your thoughts and feelings on the internet. Suddenly you were the same self on the internet as off it.

by jasode 5y ago

jvanderbot 5y ago

this is very insightful. I realize I don't have socials because I want to present content, I have it to receive chronologically sorted updates on people I know in real life. Except now it's not chronological, and so I'm disinterested

sdoering 5y ago
It shouldn't, but as network effect shows it works. It is easy. It provides some (felt) value for the people using it. A cigarette does the same. It provides value the moment it is lit and the first drag enters the lung. I quit smoking a little more than 9 years ago. There are still quite a few moments I miss this felt value. I quit Facebook about a year ago. I still keep the account but removed everything I ever posted there. Still as I recently started to do genealogy my SO showed me the groups she uses for that on Facebook (it is the only thing she does there). So probably I will start using FB again once I dig deeper into my ancestors as these groups are really helpful and provide value. If these groups were some other place I would gladly be there. Sadly they are not.

carapace 5y ago

That may well be true (and FWIW I agree with you) but that just kicks the can down the road. It just raises the question of why this incredibly valuable "Rolodex of real names" should be the owned property of a single private corporation? They are our names and relationships, after all.

rvense 5y ago

I grew up, to a large extent, on various message boards in the 00's, and I remember when many of us got blogs and it was great. But this was the major change with Facebook, and that's really what made it mainstream to put your thoughts and feelings on the internet. Suddenly you were the same self on the internet as off it.