4 ms·

Leaving Facebookistan

75 points by tremblanc 14y ago

addlepate 14y ago
"...as my colleague John Cassidy has pointed out, the company’s founders and early investors are likely to do better with this much-hyped [IPO] than individual investors." So, a group of people built something used by millions all over the world, and made money from it. Where was the problem again?
telent 14y ago
The article is from May 2012, perhaps the thread title could be updated to say so?
- pbateman 14y ago
  To be fair most of these articles could be kept current simply by updating the date and the outrage to latest version. Sure, facebook is creepy and annoying and provides little value to me but until average people start deleting their accounts it doesn't matter at all.
  - markyc 14y ago
    the fact that the act of deleting one's fb profile is considered newsworthy means fb is here to stay for now
    - jdechko 14y ago
      Only if you write for the New Yorker and don't have anything better to write about.
tgrass 14y ago
addlepate, you appear to be hellbanned.
- addlepate 14y ago
  Yeah, it goes back and forth. C'est la vie.
11185d 14y ago
I didn't really glean any new information from this article. essentially it was not the best use of my time.
- sillysaurus 14y ago
  Could you give an example of an article you feel was a good use of time? I'm curious.
rblion 14y ago
Facebook is a double-edged sword. I use it because it's the simplest way to keep in touch with all my social circles and also for the mild dopamine-kick that it gives (I'll be honest). Also, because most of them dont use Google+ yet. However, I feel an uneasiness about it because everything I read, like, comment, or try is shared over and over again with people that probably dont care. Everything I log-in I see how they combine a friend liking something and an ad for the thing they liked, it's subtle but ANNOYING. I dont care about McDonald's that much! I can sense that we are not people to them, we are a commodity. Our value to them is data, this seems to me why the ethical issues keep resurfacing and people keep getting outraged. It has an unshakable Big Brother feeling to it, almost everyone I know feels better about their life because of Facebook yet dont realize how they are the product. I respect the company and Mark overall, I don't hate them. But...I do feel like it's becoming more and more like the Death Star of startups. Any startup that builds a great feature/app that challenges FB's existing is acqui-hired and now a part of their empire. I can see where this is going, it'll be the Microsoft of the web. Anyone who tries to build a better social network is attempting a herculean task akin to blowing up the Death Star. I'll stop now.
- rblion 14y ago
  everytime instead of everything. typo.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
    - deleted 14y ago
      [deleted]
      - ColinWright 14y ago
        Never mind - I've deleted my comment. You delete the parent to this one, I'll delete this one, then no one will know!
alyx 14y ago
Deactivated my Facebook account this morning and deleted my Twitter account too. Ironic to see this popup on the front page almost as an affirmation.
tokenadult 14y ago
[May 2012] The previous submission of this article http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4018856 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4018856 received just a few upvotes, and no comments. Meanwhile, I have engaged in hundreds of interesting conversations on other topics both here on Hacker News and on Facebook. I was amused to see how much Facebook's stock price has tanked since the IPO, but that is an investor's problem, not my problem. I use Facebook while its investors suffer, the same way I used AOL for a while during the 1990s. When Facebook fades away (the same way that AOL still exists, but is no longer a big name in the industry), I'm sure I'll still be able to connect with my friends through some new channel.

75 points by tremblanc 14y ago

"...as my colleague John Cassidy has pointed out, the company’s founders and early investors are likely to do better with this much-hyped [IPO] than individual investors." So, a group of people built something used by millions all over the world, and made money from it. Where was the problem again?

telent 14y ago

The article is from May 2012, perhaps the thread title could be updated to say so?

pbateman 14y ago
To be fair most of these articles could be kept current simply by updating the date and the outrage to latest version. Sure, facebook is creepy and annoying and provides little value to me but until average people start deleting their accounts it doesn't matter at all.
- markyc 14y ago
  the fact that the act of deleting one's fb profile is considered newsworthy means fb is here to stay for now
  - jdechko 14y ago
    Only if you write for the New Yorker and don't have anything better to write about.

tgrass 14y ago

addlepate, you appear to be hellbanned.

addlepate 14y ago
Yeah, it goes back and forth. C'est la vie.

11185d 14y ago

I didn't really glean any new information from this article. essentially it was not the best use of my time.

sillysaurus 14y ago
Could you give an example of an article you feel was a good use of time? I'm curious.

rblion 14y ago

Facebook is a double-edged sword. I use it because it's the simplest way to keep in touch with all my social circles and also for the mild dopamine-kick that it gives (I'll be honest). Also, because most of them dont use Google+ yet. However, I feel an uneasiness about it because everything I read, like, comment, or try is shared over and over again with people that probably dont care. Everything I log-in I see how they combine a friend liking something and an ad for the thing they liked, it's subtle but ANNOYING. I dont care about McDonald's that much! I can sense that we are not people to them, we are a commodity. Our value to them is data, this seems to me why the ethical issues keep resurfacing and people keep getting outraged. It has an unshakable Big Brother feeling to it, almost everyone I know feels better about their life because of Facebook yet dont realize how they are the product. I respect the company and Mark overall, I don't hate them. But...I do feel like it's becoming more and more like the Death Star of startups. Any startup that builds a great feature/app that challenges FB's existing is acqui-hired and now a part of their empire. I can see where this is going, it'll be the Microsoft of the web. Anyone who tries to build a better social network is attempting a herculean task akin to blowing up the Death Star. I'll stop now.

rblion 14y ago
everytime instead of everything. typo.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
    - ColinWright 14y ago
      Never mind - I've deleted my comment. You delete the parent to this one, I'll delete this one, then no one will know!

alyx 14y ago

Deactivated my Facebook account this morning and deleted my Twitter account too. Ironic to see this popup on the front page almost as an affirmation.

tokenadult 14y ago

[May 2012] The previous submission of this article http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4018856 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4018856 received just a few upvotes, and no comments. Meanwhile, I have engaged in hundreds of interesting conversations on other topics both here on Hacker News and on Facebook. I was amused to see how much Facebook's stock price has tanked since the IPO, but that is an investor's problem, not my problem. I use Facebook while its investors suffer, the same way I used AOL for a while during the 1990s. When Facebook fades away (the same way that AOL still exists, but is no longer a big name in the industry), I'm sure I'll still be able to connect with my friends through some new channel.