Facebook is worried about users sharing less – but it only has itself to blame
theguardian.com
theguardian.com
Why would anyone put effort into writing a post out? No one sees it and no one does anything with it if they do. It's pointless. Like @overcast said, people are just sick of posting. It used to have a purpose. 50 people would see it, they'd all like it and comment their opinions on it. Now nothing.
It's still Facebook's fault partially for laying out the groundwork for Facebook to become total garbage.
The moment I stopped using Facebook - hell, the moment I stopped enjoying Facebook - was when they published their findings that they could manipulate people's moods by what they show them.
Ever since I've felt like a rat in a cage, being prodded and tested not as a human being, but as a user. And so if that is Facebook's way of looking at me, then as far as I am concerned, Facebook is just a website. A website I barely use.
I get that services want me to see stuff that is "most relevant" to me, but there is no room in relevance for serendipity, and it brings to mind the line from Equilibrium:
"..The comfort of knowing your life has been lived before."
In this case, you're not paying, so you're not a customer and they don't really care about your needs as long as you stick around.
They make their money from the companies that the article goes on about, and they will do whatever they can to make more.
In short, wouldn't it be better to assume that if the NSA can listen to you, they will? And if a company can make money from your data, they will? And if a politician could be taking bribes, they are?
You can unlike things, you know. You can also mute things.
Then, what would be on my feed?
No I'm clear that you can but it's still a lot of effort that isn't worth the lack luster content that still remains.
Once you have unsubscribed, your newsfeed will be wonderfully straightforward. After a few days it will be cluttered with sponsored likes. I assume this is however long the batch process takes to catch up.
I only go on Facebook to respond to invites at this point. I stopped going on because their mobile app is literally the worst software I've ever installed on my phone though. It's huge and bloated, and it doesn't even include messaging, which they broke out to another app for god-knows-what reason.
Guess what was advertised in my feed later that day?
Note: I hadn't so much as googled Roombas before this - it was a totally off hand remark during a call.
And at that point I'm not really sure it's a problem with facebook, or a problem at all, but moreso you not being the target user.
But recently, crap app of the day pops up, a few people share it, I ask them to hide all from that app, and I see it again the next day or so. The cynic in me thinks they might be doing some kind of test to see how long they actually need to hide something before it can be dropped back into the timeline, instead of just hiding it like I asked.
However over the past 5 years FB has been trying to drive up engagement off the News Feed through allowing apps to publish to timeline, and encouraging people to post links to articles and videos, etc. For me, Facebook today fundamentally is no longer fulfilling its core product value of helping me stay connected to what is going on in my friends lives. Apps like Snapchat have now taken that role because they are able to deliver on that value in a way Facebook is no longer able to.
I've got 3x/4x more people on my friend list but I mostly only see stuff I want to see. I've also quite often picked "hide post" and then when it asks why I pick "see less of so-and-so".
Facebook's main advertising niches seem to be "spammy" things.
[1] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/news-feed-eradicat...
But spend more than a day on it and it all comes back. Its /r/all or imgur. Its unusable again for the prime reason I have a facebook account, keeping up with friends and family.
My suspicion is that since their feed algorithm tracks how long you look over things, and HIGHLY prefers videos and click links over text or photos. If you spend a few more seconds over a gif thats pretty much designed to grab your attention than grandma's witty comment about the old days you're doomed to never see grandma again, unless you comment, like or otherwise engage with the grandma post in a metric-capturable way.
This is the problem with social media - the more you try to monetize it via advertising the less you succeed at your core value proposition. If not for the network effect I suspect people would have moved on a long time ago.
source: http://venturebeat.com/2010/05/13/zuckerberg-privacy/
Most substantive Facebook activity I've seen lately takes place in groups.
You could do vaguely similar things on FB by defining who your close friends are, bu I doubt many people do that.
"Who are you to tell me to avoid partying!? I ran a deep internet search on you dad. I saw how you lived college! Why cant I do the same!? What kind of hypocrisy is this?!"
This mindset is one we are all familiar with. Its part of youth. Its going to be very challenging to parent in the future where people can find out everything about each other with simple searches.
I predict that Facebook is pretty fucked in about a decade from now. I already see the demographics tipping - all the younger girls I've dated prefer Snapchat, and use FB only as a force of habit, and even that's waning. People closer to my age group don't want to post anything that could possibly damage their real identity's reputation in anyone's eyes: goodbye interesting content. Older people who used the internet before 2000 really do see the value in anonymity and alternate identities and don't see it as "a lack of integrity" [2]. And let's not forget about clickfarms [3].
It's not going to die like MySpace, but it's not going to be anything special, either.
[1] - http://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/telecom/intern...
Having said that, right now, Facebook still seems to be one of the dominant tools for business to consumer communication. (In particular, many small businesses survive with an online presence of a minimal web page and a Facebook site for day-to-day updates.) You never know, but unless something rises to challenge that angle of Facebook, I don't see them going away anytime soon.
I'm still astonished by those who use their full names and face pictures on Twitter, etc. Those opinions you've shared online are stuck to you forever now.
I trim my Facebook friends once a year. If I wouldn't stop in the street and have a 5 minute conversation with you, you are not my friend on facebook. Yes, this means I can't spy on my old HS Quarterback, but I don't care. I also use facebook more as a way to see what is out there about me and to monitor that than to actively post content. The last 15 posts I have made have been "go team" or "we did this fun thing today."
My last rule is to avoid politics as much as possible on all platforms. The only political stuff I engage in is tech related, such as drones, encryption, etc. I won't touch on hot button issues that can burn me.
I totally understand why you would do this, I try to limit what political news I share with those around me, even if it's what I spend a lot of my time reading and watching. However, isn't this a problem long term? How are we going to address the issues in our society if we're not prepared to discuss them? I find myself unsure about how to share important news without turning people off. Perhaps the best way in most (but not all) cases is to sugar coat it with humour.
I'm perplexed that anyone ever left that mentality. As an internet user in the 1990s, that was drilled into me pretty hard.
> When I was asked to make this address I wondered what I had to say to you boys who are graduating. And I think I have one thing to say. If you wish to be useful, never take a course that will silence you. Refuse to learn anything that implies collusion, whether it be a clerkship or a curacy, a legal fee or a post in a university. Retain the power of speech no matter what other power you may lose. If you can take this course, and in so far as you take it, you will bless this country. In so far as you depart from this course, you become dampers, mutes, and hooded executioners.
> As a practical matter, a mere failure to speak out upon occassions where no statement is asked or expected from you, and when the utterance of an uncalled for suspicion is odious, will often hold you to a concurrence in palpable iniquity. Try to raise a voice that will be heard from here to Albany and watch what comes forward to shut off the sound. It is not a German sergeant, nor a Russian officer of the precinct. It is a note from a friend of your father's, offering you a place at his office. This is your warning from the secret police. Why, if you any of young gentleman have a mind to make himself heard a mile off, you must make a bonfire of your reputations, and a close enemy of most men who would wish you well.
> I have seen ten years of young men who rush out into the world with their messages, and when they find how deaf the world is, they think they must save their strength and wait. They believe that after a while they will be able to get up on some little eminence from which they can make themselves heard. "In a few years," reasons one of them, "I shall have gained a standing, and then I shall use my powers for good." Next year comes and with it a strange discovery. The man has lost his horizon of thought, his ambition has evaporated; he has nothing to say. I give you this one rule of conduct. Do what you will, but speak out always. Be shunned, be hated, be ridiculed, be scared, be in doubt, but don't be gagged. The time of trial is always. Now is the appointed time.
-- John J. Chapman, Commencement Address to the Graduating Class of Hobart College, 1900
I don't mean this to say you should spill out your heart on FB, there probably are better ways. But as a matter of principle, it's not you who should be afraid of your "peers" and "authorities", it should be the other way around. There are countries where speaking up for what is right and going to jail for that is the norm, and people still do it. We don't for fear of not getting our dream job instantly...?! Yeah, I exaggerate, and I don't want to shame anyone who doesn't "dare" to post certain things, or just doesn't want the hassle of dealing with the reactions of friends/relatives/bosses. Do what feels right for you, obviously.
But one thing is objectively true, a democracy however you understand it requires informed citizens, and so it can't be democracy to never talk about anything but then vote every X years. And if we "can't" talk about politics with our friends, online or offline, and can't be open about what we do and think (among other things to make NEW friends who might share some interests with us) because every boss and their dog thinks they're entitled to be a snoop that way, then we need to change that, not to stop talking. It's not us who are out of line for enjoying our human rights and citizenship, and it is not fit for a sovereign, which is a role citizens share with their fellow citizens, to be blackmailed into submission like that.
Facebook occupies a no-mans-land, neither public nor private. I find it infinitely more troubling.
Instagram user stats (acquired around April 2012):
http://www.statista.com/statistics/253577/number-of-monthly-...
Whatsapp user stats (acquired around Oct 2014):
http://www.statista.com/statistics/260819/number-of-monthly-...
If Facebook had circles, I'd share more. The fact that they don't makes me believe that either there's a patent in place, or Facebook has an ideological position. Something like "we're making the world better by making more connections and interactions transparent." If that's the case it's both sad and doomed to failure as "context collapse" shows.
At some point it just became people sharing articles so that everyone could agree with them. There's also a lot of people being outraged about things and demanding that I also feel outraged about whatever the injustice of the day is. It gets very tiresome and is mostly a waste of time IMO.
That's not even talking about the clickbait, which I started resolutely blocking. Whenever a post has a clickbait title I'll choose "Don't show me posts from this page / site anymore". It cleaned up a lot, but even what's left just isn't that great in terms of content.
If entities could be trusted not to be total jerks with over-marketing, maybe people would share and Like things more.
Instead, a simple “Like” is virtually guaranteed to result in new spam.
A very simple thing Facebook could do: mandate that each Page (and even itself) may not send more than one message per MONTH. Period. And set a maximum length. Hire some editing people if you must, and make that message count. Don’t just assume you can send hourly updates to all your “followers” as if they care more about you than their own families.
Then I guess it's more profitable for them to be "the Internet" for as many people as possible.
Wonder what will be the alternative? Many fragmented social networks? Or one that's open and does not have commercial interests?
Actually, I think that's Facebook's problem. It's not a community. It's an interactive contact book. You're expected to add everybody and the conversation turns to mush.
As the Roman philosopher Seneca said: "To be everywhere is to be nowhere."
1. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/facebook-un...
https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2...
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http%3...
Where they do want to create their own content is in chat. I dont think this is a great mystery and FB is very aware of it. Its why Mark kept saying "The best way to privately share" instead of "Chat" when referring to messenger.
I'd like to see posts only, and not see "sharing" at all. You can block sharing on a per-user basis, and I do a lot of that.
- Most of my feed is links to stuff elsewhere on the Internet.
- If I post, I have no idea whether their algorithm will actually show it to my friends.
- I get the feeling their algorithm prioritizes posts with images or video over pure text.
- Hard to post to subsets of friends. I know you can manage lists, but the UI is clunky. (And I don't trust their privacy settings.)