

Facebook as a disease - tychonoff
http://plus.maths.org/content/sick-facebookread

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primitivesuave
I remember something along these lines came up quite a while back on HN, and
later some Facebook data scientists satirized the Princeton researcher's
methodology where they showed how Princeton would have only 4 students in
2017.

On a more practical note, I despise Facebook, but I don't think it is going to
fade into oblivion. It may become less relevant, but it will never fully
disappear, especially as it snaps up these new social networking channels like
WhatsApp and Oculus.

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btown
This is exactly the same research you mention, just being picked up by news
media now after the fuss has already died down.

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dang
Given that this had several vigorous discussions on HN, I think the current
post counts as a dupe. So I'll bury it, unless someone points out something
substantially new in it.

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nirkalimi
"Between 2015 and 2017 it will lose 80%". It seems like everyone is basically
saying the same thing about Facebook: Eventually facebook won't' be as
popular, similar to all social networking sites before it.

I think Facebook, if anyone, knows best how to defer these types of scares.
They have some of to brightest minds constantly worrying about these problems.
Remember when Google+ came out and people thought Facebook was doomed? Well
they survived - and that was a Google effort mind you. At the end of the day
Facebook delivers a good product, not to mention established themselves as a
legacy platform. I think Zuckerberg stated once that he wanted to be the "dial
tone" of the internet. I think they have accomplished this. And as technology
continues to develop, Facebook will try its best to stay up to date.

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pointillistic
There is one problem with this logic. Some called religions "viral" and
despite the analogy religions form the core identity for the majority of the
world's population. And in the end this all the marketers care about. But
Facebook is yet to deliver on the marketing promise and it is this aspect of
the experiment that will make or brake the site.

