

What happens if Facebook shuts down? - DigiHound
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/112287-what-happens-if-facebook-shuts-down

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willvarfar
Way wrong.

After a week of silly headlines, people would grasp the reality that actually
its zero impact on life moving forward. It could well not be replaced with any
other online anything, but rather a simple return to talking to people you
know by other routes just like, well, 2 years ago.

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mrsebastian
Do you really think that?

Do you really think that telephone companies are ready for 800 million more
people using their networks? Or the mail service? Or... or...

Facebook is _so_ ingrained in how we do things. I agree it's not too late to
back out and return to normalcy, but in a few years it probably will be.

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toddmorey
You are conflating facebook and the internet. That traffic would NOT return to
the mail service. Remember, there was email before facebook messaging. The
phone services still have major SMS traffic and push notification systems like
Apple's are used to announce FB activity.

I'm already finding my self moving away from FB towards dedicated services
like Path, Instagram, and GMail. I'm starting to find myself using FB about
once a week.

Digital sharing will never go away. But I wouldn't be surprised to see
Facebook one day replaced by more interesting alternative(s).

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kruhft
Life will continue as nothing of value was lost...

As a side note, my GF is starting to complain about FB after being an avid
user for years. 'My front page is full of ads for things I've liked'. The
downhill (meteoric) decline is started when the normals start complaining.

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brlewis
On the contrary, when people complain it shows they see it as essential. They
don't complain about non-essential online services; they just stop using them.
I get excited whenever an OurDoings user sends me an email full of complaints.

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TomOfTTB
I complain every time there's traffic on the road I use to get to work. It
doesn't mean I consider it essential that I make it to work in 6 minutes
instead of 11. People complain about all kinds of inessential inconveniences.

~~~
brlewis
When I say "service" I'm talking about the road. Getting to work is worth the
inconvenience. That you complain instead of not driving on that road shows how
much you value the road.

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JumpCrisscross
This site is a pain in the ass to pull up on an iPad. It scrolls strangely,
makes the text too big, and generally results in a quick backpedal to the HN
site.

