
Facebook is slowly eating the rest of the Internet - FrankyHollywood
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2016/04/11/how-facebook-is-slowly-eating-the-rest-of-the-internet/
======
steego
I'm really ashamed to admit it, but I am addicted to Facebook. As much as I
despise the lack of depth in the average content, I feel confident that
Facebook has stumbled on something in our animal behavior that draws us closer
to it.

I've always explained the phenomenon of gossip rags as a surrogate for our
innate need to be social. Rather than engaging in actual social scenarios
(which can carry social risks), many people have fulfilled our social needs
with television shows and gossip rags. Celebrities have become a surrogate
community members for many people, and I suspect Facebook ups that by one by
creating a platform where you can interact with friends, celebrities and
strangers in an environment that mitigates most (not all) risks.

I wish I had a clever idea for a solution to this because I really think the
world deserves an open social platform that not only engages people socially,
but provides the social lubricant to enable people to form online/offline
clubs and interact with each other in a high-bandwidth so we can use the
internet to teach each other and create fun things with each other.

Maybe it's only a matter of bandwidth, transistors and time.

~~~
golemotron
Facebook is the social equivalent of fast food. They've tuned the menu to make
it addictive.

> I wish I had a clever idea for a solution to this because I really think the
> world deserves an open social platform that not only engages people
> socially, but provides the social lubricant to enable people to form
> online/offline clubs and interact with each other in a high-bandwidth so we
> can use the internet to teach each other and create fun things with each
> other.

It's called a coffee shop.

We need to get off the curated online experiences and back to interacting with
people physically. It's vital. A therapist friend of mine says that most of
the clients he sees that are teens or in their 20s have poor interaction
skills in person and social phobia. Those lead to incredible rejection
anxiety. I know from my own experience that some of the best conversations
I've had with strangers have been people in their 50s and above who know how
to engage in casual conversation and find joy in it rather than angst.

Go to a coffee shop and talk to a stranger. We should all do more of that.
It's healthy.

~~~
petra
It's not just you or your therapist friend. According to a study[1]: Empathy
Dropped 40% in College Students between 2000 to 2010.

And now everything is much more addictive, and mobile wasn't even that common
in 2010. And now we have virtual reality, which when you read the research
some scary side effects surface - stuff like "derealization" \- basically
having a consistent feeling that real life isn't real. Or stuff about ads
having deep brainwashing like power.

And almost nobody is working to solve those issues.

[1][https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/born-
love/201005/shocke...](https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/born-
love/201005/shocker-empathy-dropped-40-in-college-students-2000)

~~~
bpchaps
Wow. I've been suspecting this more and more, but whenever I bring it up or
similar, it ends with an asinine amount of resistance and I'm regarded as an
SJW, worse, and even unempathetic. Hell, when I bring up some of the civics
work I do, people get _angry_ that I'm trying to help others. Parpaphrased
statements like, "Why are you trying to help dumb people?" are unbearably
common and sad.

Thanks for the article. It gives me a lot to think about (after fact checking,
of course).

------
blowski
I wonder if and at what point competition authorities will start requiring
Facebook to make these options available with accounts on other social
networks. Otherwise, we end up in the same place as Internet Explorer killing
Netscape on Windows - a company releasing technically inferior products that
squash competition by using their strengths in other irrelevant areas.

I can use Whatsapp and Instagram without a Facebook account, and there's no
reason I couldn't use this new video streaming thing in the same way.

~~~
amelius
I guess in theory they should already be required by the telecommunications
act of 1996 [1]

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_Act_of_1996](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_Act_of_1996)

------
nekomancer
As much as I dislike facebook, I've moved around a lot throughout my life, as
have a lot of my friends, both from high school and university. So
realistically, I just don't see any realistic alternative single platform
which allows me to keep in touch with all these people.

If such a platform did exist, and I knew about it, I would switch immediately.
Their entire business model revolves around getting users addicted, and their
history of abusing user's data means I will never be able to even trust the
platform.

That being said, I limit my facebook usage to messanger and wishing people
happy birthday, so I guess it could be worse.

~~~
josu
>If such a platform did exist, and I knew about it, I would switch
immediately.

>That being said, I limit my facebook usage to messanger and wishing people
happy birthday, so I guess it could be worse.

You don't need a platform, you need a messaging tool and, if you don't mind
the lack of encryption, you could just use email.

~~~
nekomancer
True, but I also need people I want to talk to to be on the messaging tool,
which is the real issue here.

As for email, to me it just doesn't serve the same purpose that IM does. It's
analogous to sending letters back and forth as opposed to having a face-to-
face conversation -- the increased time lag between replies encouraged by the
medium has a huge influence on the nature of conversations that occur through
it.

I still use email, for example when I want to send something more in-depth to
someone and I don't expect a quick reply. But it's not the right tool if I
want a real-time, informal conversation with someone, which is most of my
conversations.

~~~
jankedout
I use Google Messenger. Everyone has a cell phone number. No need to enroll. I
can share pictures, audio, text, video. Text messaging is the only thing you
need.

I have a group chat with 2/3 other friends I've know for 20+ years. Then I
usually text others individually.

Facebook is an awful medium to conduct intimate conversations over. After two
failed attempts to ditch it in the past, I've been off Facebook for a year. I
can attest that you won't miss it. Just use SMS.

------
Gratsby
Until you talk to a teenager. "Facebook is for old people..."

~~~
uptownJimmy
And then the teenager grows up and becomes an "old person", at which point
we'll see them on Facebook.

~~~
jerf
At the moment, the frequency of social app turnover is much higher than the
rate at which people become old, even for definitions of "old" as low as "30".
Facebook is bucking the trend, but it's still not possible to know whether
that's a "permanent" situation or just a trend-bucker. There's no guarantee
they'll "end up" on Facebook.

~~~
basch
if all the webs content ends up migrated into facebook, they wont have a ton
of choice.

imagine all of yelp and craigslist locked, oh and every small business web
page, requiring an account to view. stuff kids might not be interested in, but
adults probably are.

~~~
unprepare
I very much doubt craigslist users desire to have their craigslist activity
tied to their real life identity...

~~~
basch
what was on craigslist, is now quite often taking place in facebook groups

have you ever looked up groups for your local neighborhood: garage sales and
all kinds of random things i previously would have seen on craigslist

~~~
unprepare
I haven't had facebook since 2009, so no.

But I doubt you're going to see facebook: casual encounters anytime soon

------
bovermyer
I have friends and family scattered all over the place. They're all on
Facebook. That makes it really easy to connect with them, which reinforces the
loop.

I use Facebook Messenger more often than texts now.

But perhaps more interestingly, I'm neither addicted to Facebook nor worried
about this trend. It just fades into the background for me. The real value is
the communication I have with other people. And as for the ads... I rarely
notice them anymore.

~~~
oever
I think it would be more accurate to say people are _in_ Facebook instead of
_on_ Facebook.

------
dkopi
Not sure if it's an Israeli thing, but Facebook groups are probably the
biggest value I get out of Facebook (excluding messanger/whatsapp).

We have very active programming groups (Israeli IOS/Android devs, Javascript
Israel), neighborhood and city groups (Secret Tel Aviv), social groups
(Burning man Israel) and even a large discussion group about politics and
economics.

~~~
meadhikari
This. I spent 95% of my time on Facebook in groups. Its definitely not a
Israeli thing. In Nepal too, we have groups of programming language, groups
about all sort of stuffs.

------
justinhensley
I deleted my Facebook sometime ago when I noticed an acute "icky" feeling
every time I used it. Whether it was the posts complaining about whatever the
latest outrage was (Supreme Court legalizing same sex marriage, etc) or the
barrage of games, or whatever else, the signal to noise ratio was awful.

That was about a year ago. I don't miss it, and I don't feel that I'm missing
anything. I think there are plenty of niche, high value aggregators of
content, and ways to "connect" that are more useful to me. Such as where I am
posting now. And I don't have to feel bad about myself when I use them.

~~~
devin_liu
where are said aggregators of content?

------
cm3
I've never used Facebook or LinkedIn and I'm someone who doesn't feel the urge
to sign up. Should I be concerned?

~~~
Tenhundfeld
I am "on Facebook", but it's for four specific reasons:

1) So I don't get questions about why I'm not on Facebook.

2) To let friends tag me in pictures (and see what pictures are being posted
of me).

3) To let friends invite me to parties through Facebook.

4) See pictures of friends' babies.

I think it's good to have a Facebook account. It lets people push stuff to
you, and more often I'm seeing invitations coming exclusively through FB. But
I personally don't think you're missing anything by not actively using it.

Likewise, LinkedIn can be nice to keep tabs on past colleagues, not those you
were close to obviously, but those on your periphery. You don't need to
participate in the community to get the biggest benefit, IMO.

~~~
Chathamization
I'm on it, but still get asked all the time why I'm not on it. It seems like
if you're not posting and commenting all the time people forget you exist.

------
alaaf
# Hostfile

    
    
      127.0.0.1 localhost facebook.com www.facebook.com
    

Best decision ever.

~~~
pdkl95

        # if you're bothering with a hostfile block, you probably want these
        fbcdn.com www.fbcdn.com fbcdn.net www.fbcdn.net
        www.static.ak.fbcdn.net static.ak.fbcdn.net
        facebook.com www.facebook.com connect.facebook.com
        login.facebook.com www.login.facebook.com
        www.static.ak.connect.facebook.com static.ak.connect.facebook.com
        www.static.ak.facebook.com static.ak.facebook.com 
    
        # might want to add these as well
        google-analytics.com www.google-analytics.com ssl.google-analytics.com

------
teh_klev
Archive copy, for those like me who are crap at getting around paywalls:

[http://archive.is/MP459](http://archive.is/MP459)

------
sickbeard
I find it really weird that when I click on a browser link from the facebook
site to an external site, it ends up going back to opening facebook in firefox
which asks me to login from the browser so I can see this external website.

It's like it wants me to view the internet from facebook wtf

~~~
Jaruzel
That's actually doing you a service - Facebook maintain a database of malware
sites, and they run the link through it to make you aren't going to be
exposed.

Of course, they don't really do this for your benefit, as it also enables them
to track metrics on which links get clicked.

------
adrianwaj
I think on FB, celebs can follow normal people without them appearing as their
followers (can anyone confirm this??) This means that power moves up the
chain, but not necessarily down it (you lose the bragging rights.) What sort
of company culture would do that?

------
tmaly
The only reason why I have not been using Facebook is their android app on
4.4.3 burns through my battery.

I still have their messenger app which I use every now and then to keep in
touch with friends overseas. I might return to using the regular it in the
future.

------
xlayn
Facebook is slowly eating the rest of the Internet... of course that depends
on your use of the internet.

I have a profile but it's been closed for years.

For me the internet are forums that provide some technical insight that helps
me fix a problem, open source software and a way to buy something without
getting out of my chair.

On the plus side, facebook took away from email a lot of non requested emails
and that made more straightforward the service, another plus is that suddenly
I can get telephone numbers for most stores in case I need to do a call
(sometimes small business doesn't have a webpage)

~~~
rokhayakebe
Some of the reasons Facebook took away from email are UI/UX-based: 1) have you
ever wanted to send just a message without a subject line (email forces you to
stop and think for 2 seconds, which is not good), 2) you have to remember the
person's email address or how it starts (emails are still not great at just
entering the person's name), 3) if the person changes email address you have
to know the new one or your mail goes undelivered.

FB gave these folks email without all the above extra and folders, tags, and
all that other non sense.

------
sharemywin
facebook - microsoft for the next 50 years.

------
return0
I am not on facebook, and yet i don't see the internet being "eaten" around
me. Maybe it's a good thing to have a wall behind which all the trivialities
occur. If something great happens, it will jump out of there. Facebook is
apparently "eating" the social networking world. To me, that's good, i would
like to see companies innovating in other, more exciting areas.

------
toddmorey
From the article: "Facebook does come out with great, original ideas. It
reinvented the iconic 'like' button and created Facebook reactions."

I know they had to tread carefully on a heavily-used feature of the app. And
it's a welcome update for sure. Still, let's not oversell it, either. They
added a few more icons. I hope that's not the leading example of a great,
original idea.

------
thieving_magpie
While I agree with the premise, considering the source is a Bezos owned paper
it's a little funny. That's amazon's modus operandi.

------
SonicSoul
ever since i enabled 2 factor i'm too lazy to log in so that did the trick.
When I do log in once in a while, it just looks like a tumblr feed of people
posting funny videos with occasional personal photo, I can get that on reddit
already. so i'm just keeping my account alive in case i have anything to
announce in the future..

~~~
cbeach
You can control what you see from individual people and what things they
share. It's very granular and it works well. You can also follow really
interesting people, pages and groups. It's all about using the tool properly.

~~~
SonicSoul
I find following interesting people on twitter to be a better signal to noise
ratio. That way I get exactly what they put out and nothing more, instead of
some complicated algorithm designed to keep me "engaged".

~~~
mxuribe
I agree, i do like Twitter just a slight tad more...but I wonder: if a person
is following someone on Twitter, do they see _all of the actual output_ from
that person? Or does Twitter do something similar to Facebook, and limit
things a bit? If not now, then I wonder if it will happen eventually
(Twitter's gotta monetize somehow, someday)? I should have began my comment
with the disclaimer that I am becoming more and more of a curmudgeon of being
a user on someone else's platform. Doubtful I'll get to RMS levels, but def.
I'm a curmudgeon. ;-)

~~~
SonicSoul
frankly I wish twitter would do this for direct replies to other tweets (maybe
just show the first reply, and to see the rest you should click on that
thread)

------
ams6110
I'm on Facebook for one reason --- GoFundMe insisted I needed a Facebook
account to "validate" my campaign.

I have never logged in to Facebook since. They send me email about 3x day
about everything I'm "missing" LOL.

~~~
mrweasel
Sort of similar: I've only kept my Facebook account because I need it for
work. I log in to Facebook (Business) and check that our product feed is
behaving, and log out.

------
vit05
Facebook is the most powerful attempt to construct a true modern walled
garden. Bots and VR could be really useful in this attempt. Please, do not let
this happen.

------
quattrofan
Eventually Facebook will become evil, and eventually probably after that the
Govt will have to regulate it or break it up.

