Are we better off with Facebook?

Heimdallr

Heimdallr

Sentry of Asgard
kiwifarms.net
Joined
Oct 8, 2016
Has Facebook helped the human race grow and develop?

Are we better off for having it? Are we more connected because of it? Or are we further apart than ever?
 
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In my opinion, social media on the whole is more of a symptom of the current trend of narcisism and self-absorbtion, if nobody was going to use it then it wouln't survive, so there has to be some kind of perceived need for it i.e. people have to want to overshare every dumb detail of their lives else it would die out.

As for making a moral judgement about whether it should or shouldn't exist, I don't actually mind it that much. If people want to ruin their lives by posting things on the internet that should remain private, that's up to them.
 
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Facebook is literally holding back the Internet, the biggest tool for human evolution, dialogue and understanding ever invented. Their platform is the lowest common denominator of everything the web has to offer.

Through gaming, IRC, alternative social networks and forums I've made friends from every major region of the world and got to know them pretty well- how they live, what they think, etc. I've never made a single Facebook friend I didn't know in real life or had any single interesting discussion on the site since joining it years ago.

Maybe you, a blessed Internet soul have done so but it's obvious that the average person only uses FB to keep in touch with family and friends. A recent Internet research showed more people "use Facebook" than there are people who believe they "use the Internet". Your average moron can't even tell that Facebook is part of the Internet, let alone know the Internet has better alternatives to everything Facebook does...
 
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Facebook will likely be like Myspace in a few years, same with twitter. Twitter will be sooner than latter.
 
No. Absolutely not.

Facebook is a terrible thing, because it tends to bring out the absolute worst in people without the aid of anonymity. I kinda see why most sites now require FB for commenting on articles: sort of a bizarre honey pot so people can ruin the lives of others if they say something offensive or inappropriate (I'm sure you've heard stories of people losing jobs because something reprehensible was traced back to them). If nothing else, it goes to show that GIFT isn't mutually exclusive to flat-out anonymity.

And it also has a tendency to spread misinformation even worse than Tumblr does. Remember the whole thing with the Dakota Pipeline protests and GPS tracking? Or Facebook stealing and using your photos without your permission? And then there's the ultimate in slacktivism: changing your profile icon with a cheesy overlay to show your support for the Cause of the Month (i.e. rainbow for marriage equality, the France flag after the Bacalatan massacre).

Not to mention those godawful meme/macros. Those need to die in a fire.
 
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See I feel more connectivity and more actual friendships with people on this website as opposed to people on facebook.

I gave my facebook account a death sentence. Its execution date will be two weeks from now
 
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Part of why you feel this way is because the anonymity in the Farms (and mostly everywhere else on the Internet) allows us to actually discuss things openly. On Facebook there isn't proper discussion except on private groups- and that sucks balls compared to any old forum when it comes to platform. Can you imagine talking about following the antics of a transsexual autistic manchild in a platform you're being watched by family and all sort of people who will hold it against you for life, even if they're into much nastier shit themselves privately? (Not to mention the NSA..)

I don't mean the Farms is an avant-garde gentlemen hideout. We have dumb threads. We have scores of stupid posts on good threads as well. But by and large we're a much more intelligent community than Facebook as a whole because here the topic comes first- and ourselves second, no matter how shitty the topic being discussed.

The only people who think Facebook actually promotes intelligent debate is either only engaging in topic-of-the-week stuff they've been fed by mainstream media (which, when you come down to it doesn't really matter much in the grand scheme of things- what's the last time TV made you really think?) or they are literally too dumb to understand that there's more to discuss in life than the latest news piece or trend or what your friends ate, did lately or whatever "deep thoughts" they had in a moment of splendid self-actualization.

You may feel inclined to reply that we don't discuss anything relevant here either. If you honestly do, don't. If you really don't think there's a good reason for you to be browsing this site right now do yourself a favor instead, leave and never come back.
 
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