
Facebook isn't necessary - chrbutler
http://chrbutler.com/facebook-isnt-necessary
======
0wl3x
I logged out of facebook a few weeks ago with the intention of never going
back. I got to say it's a deeply liberating feeling. Once you realize that
people just go there to go there, breaking that loop is incredibly gratifying.

On the other hand, I still use FB messenger as the main means of communication
for almost all of my friends abroad.

~~~
cylinder
I unfollowed everyone so I don't have a news feed anymore. I'm not missing
anything.

~~~
Markoff
done this too followed later by deleting account because what's the point
after all

as for never who want to contact me feel free to use signal, sms, email or
calls, also running Skype Mingo for few other people

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ng12
Facebook solves one stupidly important problem: it's an easy digital index of
everyone I'll ever meet. I treat it more like the yellowpages than a social
network and as a result never really have a reason to think about it.

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nosuchthing
Facebook UI and UX is comically bad, it's just that currently FB holds the
"network effect" for a generic social platform on the web. And yet the site
still functions like some relic of an AOL landing page.

I can only assume most people must be uninspired, or unaware of how to seek
out alternative forums on the web.

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chetanahuja
[Meta] I clicked the link. Saw just a white screen. May have had some light
grey markings but my eyes couldn't tell what those markings could have meant.

~~~
rchaud
Serious accessibility concerns on that site. Unreadable on most mobile
browsers. At least on desktop I have 'reading mode' and 'color invert'
extensions. Plus, what is up with that incredibly thin font? I've only ever
seen that use for a sub-headline on a product landing page. Never as the body
text font.

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kristianp
Interesting point about the difficulty of removing fake news:

>> On Wikipedia, you have the freedom to set up an account, log in, and edit
any entry you like. You can change the name of George Washington to Billy-Bob
Washypants if you like. You can say he’s still alive and sells insurance in
New Jersey. You can say he has sixteen cats and has gone vegan. Whatever. Will
your edits stick? No. That’s the point. The openness of Wikipedia is the
outworking of a philosophy that truth, when crowdsourced, is just as strong —
if not stronger — than when managed by a select few. Now, one too many bogus
edits and you’ll be banned from Wikipedia, which is, again, in line with their
philosophy. If your intent toward information is chaotic-evil, fine, but
you’re not entitled to go about your trickster ways anywhere you like, and
Wikipedia is entitled to kick you out. So how about Facebook? On Facebook,
only the original creator of a post on Facebook can edit it. The crowd has no
recourse but to complain to Facebook, and Facebook, of course, has already
said that the content isn’t their problem.

~~~
ue_
>The openness of Wikipedia is the outworking of a philosophy that truth, when
crowdsourced, is just as strong — if not stronger — than when managed by a
select few.

Unfortunately Wikipedia isn't like this in practice. There are several
articles written in a quite biased way, with biased references, which are then
locked at various thresholds. Wikipedia, just as the democracy it relies on,
is no truth machine.

~~~
chrbutler
Interesting. I'd love to learn more about that. What do you mean by "locked"?

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0xfaded
This is extremely meta and only tangently on topic.

I don't use Facebook and live in SV (Redwood City). I have lived in many
places but have never had so much trouble maintaining meaningful connections
as here.

If someone local would like to meet up for coffee only on the basis that we
both read HN and neither use Facebook, I would be interested to meet you and
share stories. I've temporarily put my email in my profile.

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romanovcode
I removed myself from FB around 2 months ago. It wasn't anything special,
didn't notice anything lacking from my day-to-day life whatsoever. Also didn't
notice any "liberated" feeling or anything like that as well.

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mrmondo
I found that Facebook lost all relevance and provided really... nothing to me,
my life, my friends or my family around about 3 years ago. I'm not one of
those elitist 'I quite facebook' people but, I did and my life did improve,
and guess what? It wasn't social media or the distraction that was the problem
- it was the medium. Since then my twitter usage has grown like crazy and I
absolutely love it, I learn things, I laugh, I ignore some things but over all
- I really love the platform.

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nkkollaw
Facebook is a great tool for many uses.

The most empowering thing I can personally think of, it lets small
organizations/businesses reach a lot of people without spenind any money.
Anyone who can't afford a website can still put content out there and reach
their audience.

It's great for advertisers. While with AdWords from my experience clicks
rarely convert, Facebook works generally well.

Like Whatsapp, Messenger is an awesome free chat that most people will have
already installed and that makes communicating with new people extremely easy.

People who complain about Facebook seem to be those who use it improperly,
such as not being able to ignore notifications for more than 30 seconds, or
sharing private things irresponsibly.

~~~
dublinben
As an organization, you can't actually reach "your followers" on Facebook for
free, because they aren't your followers. Facebook will lower and lower the
reach of your posts until none of your audience actually sees them. They'll
gladly show your posts to more of your audience for a fee though, which is
where much of their advertising revenue comes from.

Any small organization/business would be better off with an email list, so
they can actually contact their audience.

~~~
nkkollaw
A small store or organization can tell their clients: "pictures of the
products are on our Facebook page, check them out".

I've been trying to adopt a dog, and all shelters have a Facebook page where
you can see the dogs. They wouln't have the money for building and keeping a
website updated.

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fuzzfactor
Obviously the quality of the internet as well as interpersonal communications
was declining already before Facebook came along.

Facebook isn't necessary for this decline to occur, but it does accelerate the
process.

disclaimer: didn't read the article

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ramgorur
I have seen a couple of news on communal violence (resulted in death)
originating from a facebook post, is there any statistics on that?

