4 ms·

> They will tell you that Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are pretty important to them. Agreed. If someone’s mental model of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp

> They will tell you that Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are pretty important to them. Agreed. If someone’s mental model of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp doesn’t extend beyond “scroll through bad posts from distant relatives” then they don’t really understand how those products are used by the general public. A lot of people in the tech world never really got engaged with social media, stopped visiting (or deleted their accounts), and have anchored their mental models to their personal experience a decade ago. Meanwhile, the world has changed massively and Meta has a lot of users for a reason.

Retric 4y ago
At least 3/4th of people don’t uses Facebook and their average user makes 1 posts per week. So it’s really not important to most people. It’s numbers are heavily influenced by people who use it because someone or some organization happens to use it.
- pwinnski 4y ago
  I deleted my Facebook account years ago, and don't use it ever. But that's a really bad way to determine the important of Facebook, for two reasons. 1. You've assumed that the only purpose of Facebook is posting, so a user making an average of one post per week isn't finding it valuable. Bad assumption. 2. You're counting a bizarre measure of market penetration, a standard that only air and food and water would meet. Many, many people don't use cars, and people who do often only use them five days a week. If you think that means cars aren't important to many people, try taking one away!
  - pc86 4y ago
    I really like the car analogy for this. I will frequently go 2-3 days a week without using my car. On the days I use it, there's a roughly 75% chance I am going to drive 5-6 miles to the gym and back, and nothing else. However, a car is a necessity for me. If my car disappeared into the ether tomorrow, I would have a new one in my garage by the end of the day.
    - tomcam 4y ago
      > If my car disappeared into the ether tomorrow, I would have a new one in my garage by the end of the day. And that’s the difference between us. If my car disappeared into the ether, I would immediately launch a series of ether-disappearing experiments, systematically trying larger and larger items and video recording the results. I would post these to HN, admittedly in the hopes of going viral while also doing my best to move science forward. But you? Noooo, just pop over to your insurance company and get a new minivan, leaving the rest of us in the dark about your amazing ether disposal system.
- PragmaticPulp 4y ago
  > At least 3/4th of people don’t uses Facebook 1/4th of all people is a staggeringly large number. Also, Meta is more than Facebook and they don’t need to post to be using the platform. They have about 3.7 billion monthly active users. I really don’t understand this knee-jerk drive to try to downplay the scale of a company that has half of the planet as their active user base.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- kleinsch 4y ago
  You’re missing the point of the parent comment. News Feed and FB posts are a small fraction of activity in the FB family of apps. Messaging is massively important to billions of people worldwide. WhatsApp or Messenger usage is greater than SMS is some countries.
  - el-salvador 4y ago
    I have kept my Facebook account mostly to interact with business. Most of them, especially small ones, keep their FB pages more updated than their websites. Facebook Marketplace is a whole world of its own. It's become like the Etsy/Ebay/Craigslist in Central America. Payments are confirmed by sending screenshots of bank transfers, and deliveries handed by private post or an informal network of couriers that visit towns and neighborhoods on specific days of the week.

Retric 4y ago

At least 3/4th of people don’t uses Facebook and their average user makes 1 posts per week. So it’s really not important to most people. It’s numbers are heavily influenced by people who use it because someone or some organization happens to use it.

pwinnski 4y ago
I deleted my Facebook account years ago, and don't use it ever. But that's a really bad way to determine the important of Facebook, for two reasons. 1. You've assumed that the only purpose of Facebook is posting, so a user making an average of one post per week isn't finding it valuable. Bad assumption. 2. You're counting a bizarre measure of market penetration, a standard that only air and food and water would meet. Many, many people don't use cars, and people who do often only use them five days a week. If you think that means cars aren't important to many people, try taking one away!
- pc86 4y ago
  I really like the car analogy for this. I will frequently go 2-3 days a week without using my car. On the days I use it, there's a roughly 75% chance I am going to drive 5-6 miles to the gym and back, and nothing else. However, a car is a necessity for me. If my car disappeared into the ether tomorrow, I would have a new one in my garage by the end of the day.
  - tomcam 4y ago
    > If my car disappeared into the ether tomorrow, I would have a new one in my garage by the end of the day. And that’s the difference between us. If my car disappeared into the ether, I would immediately launch a series of ether-disappearing experiments, systematically trying larger and larger items and video recording the results. I would post these to HN, admittedly in the hopes of going viral while also doing my best to move science forward. But you? Noooo, just pop over to your insurance company and get a new minivan, leaving the rest of us in the dark about your amazing ether disposal system.
PragmaticPulp 4y ago
> At least 3/4th of people don’t uses Facebook 1/4th of all people is a staggeringly large number. Also, Meta is more than Facebook and they don’t need to post to be using the platform. They have about 3.7 billion monthly active users. I really don’t understand this knee-jerk drive to try to downplay the scale of a company that has half of the planet as their active user base.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
kleinsch 4y ago
You’re missing the point of the parent comment. News Feed and FB posts are a small fraction of activity in the FB family of apps. Messaging is massively important to billions of people worldwide. WhatsApp or Messenger usage is greater than SMS is some countries.
- el-salvador 4y ago
  I have kept my Facebook account mostly to interact with business. Most of them, especially small ones, keep their FB pages more updated than their websites. Facebook Marketplace is a whole world of its own. It's become like the Etsy/Ebay/Craigslist in Central America. Payments are confirmed by sending screenshots of bank transfers, and deliveries handed by private post or an informal network of couriers that visit towns and neighborhoods on specific days of the week.