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Comment by orthoganol | Hacker News Reader

The main reasons social media is used:

a) You have a career that requires some PR management

b) You're the type who gets pleasure in showing off (the best image of) yourself to others

c) You are bored, and you get a small thrill from the attention

Are there any other reasons to be a regular, active participant on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook? I get 'just having one' as a sort of contact directory, but beyond that...

Would an educated, independent thinker, someone who really tries to engage and understand the world and has discovered interesting opportunities which they pursue, really have any reason to spend significant time on social media?

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Planning social engagements with friends. I can easily see who is going, let organisers and everyone else know if they want to that I may not make it, as well as see if there are other engagements that I've already agreed to go to.

I could do this with email and calendars, but I don't know 95% of my friend's email addresses. We talk over SMS and Facebook Messenger. If I wanted to find another one of my friend's I just search for their name, and if they have privacy settings set to only allow friends of friends to search for me - that's OK too!

I don't have to ask a friend for their email address, or their phone number and then ask that person for their email address. I don't have to phone or SMS people to see if they want to come, and I have an easy way to track it.

Sure, we all got along fine before social media. But Facebook has made planning social events ridiculously easy.

I haven't posted on my wall since 2013 and none of my information like age, email, phone number, etc is public. Sure Facebook has access to all sorts of conversations I've had over the years, but so do my local ISP's and data centres.

For anything that I'd truly like to keep private, I use PGP, OTR or chat in person.

the non naive way to look at this is that you and your friends gave up a little freedom (using open, standard and interoperative ways to communicate) for a little convenience (proprietary controlled communication medium)

How do they give up that freedom? Did they sign some agreement with FB never ever use any other forms of communication / events coordination? No, they did not. Can we just cut this kind of crap? Facebook or any other social sites did not take away any freedoms from anyone.

> Facebook or any other social sites did not take away any freedoms from anyone.

The freedom from data being stored about the respective persons?

Meetings I have with my friends are either planned over email, or via something that is specifically designed to pick a date, like http://doodle.com/.

The network effect works both ways, I was one of the few people initially who didn't adopt facebook, so anything that involved me had to be communicated over mail.

I think for the same reason that you might hang out and converse with people. I've unfollowed a lot of people, so my feed has been pruned down to mostly interesting content. I occasionally post something that I think is interesting, relevant, and not widely known. Of course, there's a performative element, but that's true of all social interaction.

I mean, I get that a lot of social media content is narcissistic and vapid, but it's tool that you choose how to use.

I'm an active participant on Facebook because it is hands down the best way to keep up with what my friends are doing.

I don't really appreciate the snarky insinuation that using Facebook makes me somehow uneducated or conformist.

I never advocated not using Facebook as if I'm above it. I'm questioning regular usage of social media... obviously not everyone (incl. you) falls into these categories, but can you imagine the great minds and innovators of our generation regularly Tweeting, engaging Instagram followers, and constantly updating their FB (if not for brand/ PR)?

https://twitter.com/elonmusk https://twitter.com/AndrewYNg https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack

all three of your examples are within his first point though.

> a) You have a career that requires some PR management

Neither Ng nor Carmack need Twitter accounts. Plenty of scientific and technical luminaries don't have them.

> an educated, independent thinker, someone who really tries to engage and understand the world and has discovered interesting opportunities which they pursue

That certainly sounds like an attempt to insult those who do use Facebook.

> but can you image the great minds and innovators of our generation [...] updating their FB?

Absolutely, the same way that great minds of past generations had friends, went to social events, and wrote letters. Facebook is just the latest and easiest way to maintain the social bonds which are important to nearly all of us (including so-called "great minds").

I don't post status updates often (probably once a month), but I log into Facebook multiple times a day. It's great to see what my friends are up to and what they care about.

If not for seeing my friend at SpaceX post about today's launch, I probably would have missed out on watching it.

Get off your high horse. If you don't want to use Facebook, that's fine. That doesn't make those of us who do neanderthals.

Well, you censored the bulk of my argument with the quote there :) It's regular, frequent usage...

I don't think I've come close to calling anyone a neanderthal, sorry if this has riled some emotions. If you are younger, you will certainly have a lot more pressure to use it (you can be ostracized), so you probably should use it.

Also, people tend to have a cognitive bias against judging themselves as conformist... myself included. We probably all are more than we would like to admit.

>Absolutely, the same way that great minds of past generations had friends, went to social events, and wrote letters.

I recently read the Wulf's The Invention of Nature, a biography of Alexander von Humboldt - from the middle of his life up until his death Humboldt wrote 2000 to 3000 letters per year, crazy if you think how much work a "regular" letter is.

I accidentally downvoted you, sorry.

Your point about the great minds of the past is spot on. There's a reason why people buy letters from famous painters. I'm sure Van Gogh would at least have had a twitter account.

Don't you think emails are the digital successor to personal letter writing, not broadcasting to a bunch of followers on Twitter?

Anyways, based on artists I know - who aren't digital artists/ graphic designers, a scene where most tech companies are viewed as just an extension of greedy capitalism, I have serious doubts Van Gogh would be an active user on Twitter.

>as if I'm above it.

Your post laid out three users of social media. One was a professional managing a brand. The other two were narcissists.

If you're not above it, what were you trying to get at with that post?

Large extended family and circle of friend staying touch?

I don't use but my wife does, because our extended families are on it. Grammas, cousins, high school friends, that couple across the street, the realtor, ... etc.

Could they use email? Probably, but they don't they use Facebook for whatever reason.

Personally I don't have an interest in it but like hearing once in a while how so and so is doing. I usually communicate via email, google chat, or phone.

One thing I never quite got was Twitter though, just never really saw an interest it, never understood it...

I encountered a Mexican kid outside my house (I live in the USA) who was asking me if I knew where there was WiFi. It turns out he was new to the USA and had a cheap Android phone. From our conversation I realized that all of his communication was via FB. Like, he didn't use "email" or "phone" technologies--FB or bust. I actually let him use my WiFi to find his friends. I couldn't tell if he was on vacation or planning to stay...

When I moved to France for a semester I had to make a fb to keep in touch because I didn't have a phone. Until you get yourself established in places it's a very easy way to keep in contact with people and make new friends regardless of what you're used to in your home country.

I can add that in Brazil, there is a significant amount of people who can't even Google, however are active on Facebook and WhatsApp.

From what I can gather, it seems like the web will be soon a ghost town. Most people will flock to a handful of web properties.

you aren't truly considering the scale of the Internet if you believe that

I have a slew of acquaintances from around the world. Facebook makes it easy to stay in touch, and to discuss the things we enjoy. Yes, there are other ways to do this, via specific forums, which I also use. But facebook is a bit more casual, friendly, and easier to use. That said, it is frustrating to use it for serious discussions (of course that isn't what it is for)

But your last, fairly insulting question could be rephrased as "would an educated, independent thinker..., have any reason to communicate with anyone else?"

Facebook is just a communication tool.

I'm educated, but I'd way rather see what my friends are up to or what their kids are doing than try to "understand the world" (whatever that means). Facebook is great for that.

Are there any other reasons to be a regular, active participant on... Facebook?

Party invitations. Facebook is Evite.

One other reason is professional where you follow "leaders" and amateurs who will one day become professional "leaders" in whatever activity one might be interested in like, professional development, hobby development, etc.

Finding and staying connected with old friends easily. That is a big one.

To me that's the contact directory point... I'm also talking about regularly participating as opposed to just having one, the latter being so people can connect with you when they need to.

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