4 ms·

This all hinges on our personality. I go on Facebook, like what I like, ignore what I don't, and refuse to dwell on things.

theorique 14y ago
+1 If you like it, great. If you don't, delete your account. Either way, no big deal. A lot of writing and drama about a rather minor decision.
- aes256 14y ago
  It's not quite that simple. Facebook has changed the way many people interact. Delete your Facebook and you will almost inevitably miss out. You will miss event invitations — "Oh, I sent out an invitation to everyone on Facebook, did you not get it?" — your friends will change their numbers without you knowing — "But I put a message on Facebook telling everyone my new number!" — and you'll find people talking about you, and posting photos of you without your knowledge. We have a rather fascinating collective action problem here.
  - theorique 14y ago
    Fair point. There are definitely network effects. Facebook is more valuable to me than it was when I first joined, primarily because of the other people who joined, secondarily because of their new features (since I don't play Farm-Mafia-Pirate-Ville or other FB games). What this means is that FB do offer real value for whatever they are taking/monetizing in return. I don't know what you'd call it - a method to broadcast to your social connections, perhaps? To synthesize that out of separate parts would take a lot of effort on peoples' behalf.
    - aes256 14y ago
      At present I'm of the view that simply having a Facebook account, without actively contributing content, provides me with most of the benefits without any significant costs. What's more, I've started to notice a lot of my friends adopting this approach. I'd say my current news feed adheres to the 80/20 rule; 80 percent of the content contributed by 20 percent of the people. Perhaps even 90/10. Meanwhile, it's not as though Facebook are getting much out of me. I can't remember the last time I clicked an ad on Facebook...
      - theorique 14y ago
        Right. Just a placeholder so that if friends use Facebook as Eventbrite or Evite or Gmail, you have a place to be contacted. It's a reasonable compromise between being the person for whom "if it's not on Facebook it didn't happen" and the person who dramatically commits "Facebook Suicide" and deletes their account.
- apetresc 14y ago
  "I deleted my Facebook account" is this decade's version of "I don't own a TV."

theorique 14y ago

+1 If you like it, great. If you don't, delete your account. Either way, no big deal. A lot of writing and drama about a rather minor decision.

aes256 14y ago
It's not quite that simple. Facebook has changed the way many people interact. Delete your Facebook and you will almost inevitably miss out. You will miss event invitations — "Oh, I sent out an invitation to everyone on Facebook, did you not get it?" — your friends will change their numbers without you knowing — "But I put a message on Facebook telling everyone my new number!" — and you'll find people talking about you, and posting photos of you without your knowledge. We have a rather fascinating collective action problem here.
- theorique 14y ago
  Fair point. There are definitely network effects. Facebook is more valuable to me than it was when I first joined, primarily because of the other people who joined, secondarily because of their new features (since I don't play Farm-Mafia-Pirate-Ville or other FB games). What this means is that FB do offer real value for whatever they are taking/monetizing in return. I don't know what you'd call it - a method to broadcast to your social connections, perhaps? To synthesize that out of separate parts would take a lot of effort on peoples' behalf.
  - aes256 14y ago
    At present I'm of the view that simply having a Facebook account, without actively contributing content, provides me with most of the benefits without any significant costs. What's more, I've started to notice a lot of my friends adopting this approach. I'd say my current news feed adheres to the 80/20 rule; 80 percent of the content contributed by 20 percent of the people. Perhaps even 90/10. Meanwhile, it's not as though Facebook are getting much out of me. I can't remember the last time I clicked an ad on Facebook...
    - theorique 14y ago
      Right. Just a placeholder so that if friends use Facebook as Eventbrite or Evite or Gmail, you have a place to be contacted. It's a reasonable compromise between being the person for whom "if it's not on Facebook it didn't happen" and the person who dramatically commits "Facebook Suicide" and deletes their account.
apetresc 14y ago
"I deleted my Facebook account" is this decade's version of "I don't own a TV."