4 ms·

If you have a pebble in your shoe and it's bothering you, is it not good advice to remove the pebble and go about your day (as opposed to trying to make the peb

If you have a pebble in your shoe and it's bothering you, is it not good advice to remove the pebble and go about your day (as opposed to trying to make the pebble become less uncomfortable)?

zinekeller 4y ago
Because in this case your analogy is not perfect. There are many reasons why a user is forced to use Facebook. As a user pointed out, if your society has basically mandated using Facebook to interact with basic life, the suggestion to remove Facebook without sugesting replacements for the whole society is just being plainly obtuse.
- trombone5000 4y ago
  Why is anyone forced to use Facebook? I, for one, get along great without it.
  - zinekeller 4y ago
    Your anecdote, while I presume is true, doesn't address the main point. You should probably read Gualdrapo's experience (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32576061 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32576061), and I find it true on large swaths of Latin America and Asia.
  - baby 4y ago
    I, for one, would lose contact to a lot of my friends if I deleted facebook (and already have lost contact with some of them because they selfishly deleted their fb)
- branon 4y ago
  You've commented twice here to the effect that there are many reasons why a person might be forced to use Facebook. Care to elaborate? I can't think of any. If the society in which one lives is backwards to the point of mandating a Facebook account to interact on a basic level... it might be time to turn on, tune in, drop out. Gualdrapo's post doesn't actually say anything about why he _needs_ to use Facebook. Neighboorhood groups and FB marketplace are not necessary to live. I think we might be conflating needs and wants here. Being accustomed to doing things in specific ways is not a need.
  - zinekeller 4y ago
    > If the society in which you live is backwards to the point of mandating a Facebook account to interact on a basic level... it might be time to turn on, tune in, drop out. That's why it's de facto forced on to you. Ministries (Americans: Departments, not religious ministries) are usually only reachable either on Facebook or by physically traveling hours to their office. Facebook groups are the communication platform for any community point-of-contact, and most are set to only be accessible by having a Facebook account. As a society, is it avoidable? Yes. As an individual? Good luck convincing others. It might be hard to wrap your head around it if you were not living in such an area, so thank your government that you have a say on your communication.
    - branon 4y ago
      I understand this. It seems like this situation would be avoidable by an individual, but not by society at large because most individuals would take the path of least resistance. Could you send mail through the post? Call on a telephone?
      - zinekeller 4y ago
        > Could you send mail through the post? Technically? But in my experience as a foreigner that have lived in Thailand, mail services are atrocious. It's unlike in Singapore or UK where it's excellent. It's even weirder considering parcels on the Amazon-equivalent (Lazada and Shopee) are faster on this one. > Call on a telephone? Mobile-to-telephone charges are obscene to the point that it's cheaper to use an international VoIP service to call (just to remind you that most people here are those who would skip and never experienced any telephones altogether) and unsurprisingly these are the kinds of government to ban unapproved VoIP to its citizens. I have used Thailand here, but it's the same in Brazil (or from what I heard nowadays, was, but they still apparently used Meta's services extensively) except for the citizen-legal VoIP loophole.
    - andsoitis 4y ago
      > Ministries (Americans: Departments, not religious ministries) are usually only reachable either on Facebook or by physically traveling hours to their office. Can you give one example? A link to their website or FB page would suffice.

If you have a pebble in your shoe and it's bothering you, is it not good advice to remove the pebble and go about your day (as opposed to trying to make the pebble become less uncomfortable)?

zinekeller 4y ago

Because in this case your analogy is not perfect. There are many reasons why a user is forced to use Facebook. As a user pointed out, if your society has basically mandated using Facebook to interact with basic life, the suggestion to remove Facebook without sugesting replacements for the whole society is just being plainly obtuse.

trombone5000 4y ago
Why is anyone forced to use Facebook? I, for one, get along great without it.
- zinekeller 4y ago
  Your anecdote, while I presume is true, doesn't address the main point. You should probably read Gualdrapo's experience (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32576061 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32576061), and I find it true on large swaths of Latin America and Asia.
- baby 4y ago
  I, for one, would lose contact to a lot of my friends if I deleted facebook (and already have lost contact with some of them because they selfishly deleted their fb)
branon 4y ago
You've commented twice here to the effect that there are many reasons why a person might be forced to use Facebook. Care to elaborate? I can't think of any. If the society in which one lives is backwards to the point of mandating a Facebook account to interact on a basic level... it might be time to turn on, tune in, drop out. Gualdrapo's post doesn't actually say anything about why he _needs_ to use Facebook. Neighboorhood groups and FB marketplace are not necessary to live. I think we might be conflating needs and wants here. Being accustomed to doing things in specific ways is not a need.
- zinekeller 4y ago
  > If the society in which you live is backwards to the point of mandating a Facebook account to interact on a basic level... it might be time to turn on, tune in, drop out. That's why it's de facto forced on to you. Ministries (Americans: Departments, not religious ministries) are usually only reachable either on Facebook or by physically traveling hours to their office. Facebook groups are the communication platform for any community point-of-contact, and most are set to only be accessible by having a Facebook account. As a society, is it avoidable? Yes. As an individual? Good luck convincing others. It might be hard to wrap your head around it if you were not living in such an area, so thank your government that you have a say on your communication.
  - branon 4y ago
    I understand this. It seems like this situation would be avoidable by an individual, but not by society at large because most individuals would take the path of least resistance. Could you send mail through the post? Call on a telephone?
    - zinekeller 4y ago
      > Could you send mail through the post? Technically? But in my experience as a foreigner that have lived in Thailand, mail services are atrocious. It's unlike in Singapore or UK where it's excellent. It's even weirder considering parcels on the Amazon-equivalent (Lazada and Shopee) are faster on this one. > Call on a telephone? Mobile-to-telephone charges are obscene to the point that it's cheaper to use an international VoIP service to call (just to remind you that most people here are those who would skip and never experienced any telephones altogether) and unsurprisingly these are the kinds of government to ban unapproved VoIP to its citizens. I have used Thailand here, but it's the same in Brazil (or from what I heard nowadays, was, but they still apparently used Meta's services extensively) except for the citizen-legal VoIP loophole.
  - andsoitis 4y ago
    > Ministries (Americans: Departments, not religious ministries) are usually only reachable either on Facebook or by physically traveling hours to their office. Can you give one example? A link to their website or FB page would suffice.