Are we better off with Facebook?

[Sperglord Dante]

I think people are misguided when they blame FB for not being an intellectually rich platform that encourages educated discourse. That's not its raison d'etre. Facebook is meant to replicate the idle chatter we indulge into in our day to day live with our acquaintances and friends. Don't take it too seriously.

 

[FemalePresident]

Mmm I don't like it too much, I have an account but I barely use it. I have my friends phone numbers (lol) so I mostly use whatsapp; Facebook didn't really appeal to me. Lots of stalkers, fake accounts and spam. I guess it's useful for group tasks or joining communities of your interests, but to me it wasn't too engaging. So... I think I'm better off without Facebook.

 

[polonium]

It's a huge echo chamber too which is always terrible. People with weird opinions get more entrenched and less able to understand how the "other side" think or what they want

 

[keksz]

people are misguided when they blame FB for not being an intellectually rich platform

That's a fallacy. It has become the biggest social network and community on the Internet. At that point not only it has some standards of quality to live up to but it also becomes even more important that we talk about it.

If Fox News and the BBC decided to become tabloids tomorrow would they somehow be exempt from criticism just because that's what they want to be? As the quote goes, with great power comes great responsibility.

It's a huge echo chambe

Not only because people have a tendency to do this naturally but also because their algorithms are working to show you more of what you've liked in the past, from the same people you've liked before, while hiding everything else. Well, that and sponsored (paid) content... The network is literally rigged as a safe space as any good SEO guide will tell you.

 

[Guardian G.I.]

I have an account, but it's been abandoned for many years, and I'm too lazy to retrieve the password and deactivate it.

I like VK more - it has greater functionality and a more tolerable interface. Good luck finding someone who isn't from the former USSR, though.

 

[Sperglord Dante]

That's a fallacy. It has become the biggest social network and community on the Internet. At that point not only it has some standards of quality to live up to but it also becomes even more important that we talk about it.

If Fox News and the BBC decided to become tabloids tomorrow would they somehow be exempt from criticism just because that's what they want to be? As the quote goes, with great power comes great responsibility

If Kiwifarms became the most popular internet community overnight through meme magic, would you hold it to higher standards? I wouldn't, KF's appeal is being a chill place where you can laugh at people marginally more autistic than you and use slurs unapologetically. Having a billion users shouldn't change what it is at core.

If Cuckerberg is satisfied with providing people with echo chambers and instant cat pics in exchange for ad money, then more power to that hooknosed son of a bitch. Facebook shouldn't change its policies or enforce some vague standards just because it has power over feeble minded people.

 

[polonium]

That's a fallacy. It has become the biggest social network and community on the Internet. At that point not only it has some standards of quality to live up to but it also becomes even more important that we talk about it.

Facebook is a commercial product and the only real quality standard it needs to hold itself to is "are we serving the needs of our customers?" - if it stops doing that, its customers will go elsewhere and Facebook will stop making money.

 

[Heimdallr]

My facebook is done. It is immobilized and it's execution date will be November 9th. It can't come soon enough.

Two days without it and I feel massivly more motivated and at peace.

 

[AnOminous]

That's a fallacy. It has become the biggest social network and community on the Internet. At that point not only it has some standards of quality to live up to but it also becomes even more important that we talk about it.

Not really. It's a shitty place for activism and political discussion. It's somewhere for people to share pictures of cats with their family. Instead, it's where family fights over idiot politics shit start. That shit is worthless and is why social media is absolute cancer.

 

[Raziel]

Not really. It's a shitty place for activism and political discussion. It's somewhere for people to share pictures of cats with their family. Instead, it's where family fights over idiot politics shit start. That shit is worthless and is why social media is absolute cancer.

True that, i use skype to talk to friends, and if i need to meet new people i just scour different forums, as for the question of this thread: No i think Facebook was a nice idea turned to shit by corporate greed and power.

 

[Zoobles]

Facebook is great at just being that, a powerful facebook or yearbook with contact options. It's a place to stick all your fourth cousins and former classmates for the peace of mind that you can always get in touch with them if you need to.
Aside from that, I do not use or endorse Facebook for any other purpose.

 

[polonium]

It's a place to stick all your fourth cousins and former classmates for the peace of mind that you can always get in touch with them if you need to

This is what I use the contact list on my phone for

 

[Mark Corrigan]

Facebook means finding out wank about your irl friends that you never, ever, EVER wanted to know. It was a bad idea.

True, but that's a good thing for that very reason. Thanks to FB you can know very easily what's really inside the heads of people you socialise with regularly and who is most likely to be a backstabbing cunt or throw a fit over something irrelevant (like bathrooms).

 

[keksz]

I'm not for a second saying Facebook doesn't have a great business model or that they aren't a successful company. They have been implied in pretty big accusations over their entire advertisement system (which is their revenue model) being a scam but that's a different topic altogether..

The fact they are successful doesn't mean they are a good platform or that we can't discuss it on its technical, ethical and design-wise merits. Not comparing the two, the mafia is a pretty profitable business- doesn't mean it's good.

Also I'm not sure I'd call Facebook a commercial platform when most people don't pay for it directly. That's a real nitpick though

 

[Male Idiot]

It is bad for us. It encourages narcissism and flooding the internet where the most banal, uninteresting, meaningless details are released by idiots about their banal, uninteresting, and meaningless lives.

It is a cesspit of utter intellectual decay which is a bigger waste of computer memory than the lowest the farms ever did. And that's not a high standard. It is literally a containment thread for meaningless, uninteresting shit. At least our shit is mildly entertraining at worst.

 

[Heimdallr]

It is so wierd. I have had facebook for the past 8 years, largely as a way to peer into lives of people I envied, as opposed to keeping in touch with old friends.

I really struggled in the transition between high school and college and I feel facebook has held me back significantly. I have accomplished a great deal since the summer of 2008, but I feel facebook has been this ball and chain that has been dragging me down,slowing me down the whole way.

One week without it.. it feels like I am slowly awakening. I have far more free time, care about my own life, and more importantly know who my true friends really are.

The more I think of it, the more stupid/dangerous facebook is. Yes you get to keep in touch with old friends, but you are volunteering your information to total strangers. Creepy "friends" of yours can check out your profile.

Hitler,Stalin, Saddam and others would have loved it if facebook existed when they were in power (Saddam missed it by a year.) That way they could monitor their own people, and their people would voluntarily give up info about themselves!

 

[friedshrimp]

Meh, it's kinda dumb, but that's kinda to be expected for a website for normies. Like Twitter attracts shallow celebrities, Facebook attracts that mom and aunt that try way too hard to be "hip" and "up" with the kids.

And maybe it's just my experience but i really dislike it due to how...it seems to bring out the worst of people. Like classmates or family I know just turn dumber or into utter assholes when using Facebook. It just brings more their assholeish behavior that they seem to hide on their day to day basis.
Not to mention the stalking. You can't ever make a post without some exceptional ex-classmate/cousin bitching at you over it or even calling you because GASP it somehow offended them! There's little to no privacy or respect in that site.

 

[Male Idiot]

Privacy? I think Facebook is the very opposite of that concept.

 

[melty]

I guess I'm in the minority but I think facebook is fine, at least for me.
I did however delete my original facebook, with all my college/high school/etc friends on it. THAT was total cancer. I said I was going to reactivate it in a month and it's been four or five years or so.
I didn't do anything with it for awhile, then I made a new Facebook under a different name. I only added a couple of people from my old one. This one I use to join local interest groups, especially jfashion groups.
That has actually been really positive, I moved to a new state a couple of years ago and if it weren't for local Facebook groups it would have taken me a lot longer to make friends. Some people mentioned they don't really talk to people outside their bubble, I don't find that true, I've made a few friends who live elsewhere.
However I guess you can argue that's not really a special feature of Facebook. If Facebook didn't exist people would just make meetups on meetup.org or livejournal or something.
I also really like the event feature, I don't like using a calendar outside of work, so it's really convenient to be able to look at the events and see if anything interesting is going on and which of my friends are going.
So I think Facebook has been really positive for my social life, but it took some trial and error to get to that point.

 

[Mariposa Electrique]

Not really. It's a shitty place for activism and political discussion. It's somewhere for people to share pictures of cats with their family. Instead, it's where family fights over idiot politics shit start. That shit is worthless and is why social media is absolute cancer.

So, it's just a reflection of humanity and society.

I think facebook has made it easier for people to express narcissism and their cancerous "god-driven" beliefs.
Everyone believes that god and the government is on their side, when both things probably left this dust ball a long time ago.
As a whole, the internet is being rampantly abused because of the illusion of protection it creates.