I've just never enjoyed using Facebook. I tried, I instantly despised it, and have never looked back. It seems like a vast time sink with almost no value that isn't better derived elsewhere.
Nowadays I would say that Facebook is more of a "format" of sorts than "just a service", in that it has tremendous power to sway the opinion of large groups of people all over the world, kind of how the TV was a "format" with a lot of impact during its time.
Maybe in the past you could've argued the same in e.g. a comparison between TV and theaters (or other previous format). Maybe people more used to going to the theaters could've made the same comparison saying that TV is just a "show in a box" and it's not delivering the same impact as a play.
I could even make the same distinction between Facebook and say Snapchat. To me, when I use Facebook, "at least" I can get some interesting stories, some interesting discussions among friends (very seldom but they are there), vs Snapchat which to me looks like "just a service" to take pictures, but I'm pretty sure that a teenager could give me a full dissertation on how Snapchat is much more than just a service and is instead the prime communication media of their time.
My point being that I believe you might be biased due to age or due to being born with the TV as the main world-wide reaching medium vs today's kids for which that medium is now FB/Snapchat/whatever the new thing is, even though in strict terms you are correct in saying that FB is a service (i.e. it's "just a webpage") but in the end, taking account the contemporary context for that, it's really much more.
So, to each their own. The fact that you don't like Facebook doesn't mean you can dismiss it any more than I can dismiss Snapchat. Just look at the numbers mentioned in the article. We couldn't care less about these systems, and yet there they are. I guess that's what everyone here is trying to say.
I was referring to a counter-cultural phenomenon rather than trying to say Facebook is exactly the same thing as TV set. It's not an attack on your previous statement, just an observation.
My initial reaction to your post is that it doesn't contribute anything useful: clearly you're sufficiently different from the Facebook-using masses that statements about them have zero relevance to you and vice versa, and because the masses are, well, masses, it's still perfectly legitimate to talk about them.
Since your post (like the similar ones that appear on every submission about Facebook) doesn't contribute anything useful (and especially not anything novel), and since I (subconsciously) project onto you and assume you are probably aware of that, I find myself filling in blanks and concluding that you're posting for a different reason - something to the effect of "hey look at me, I don't use Facebook, I'm better than that, you're all wasting your time and I'm not".
And, unsurprisingly, that kind of gloating and attention-seeking, even subtextual, is annoying and elicits a negative response.
I'm not saying you necessarily meant it that way, and I think this is all half-subconscious, but I do think it's what's happening.
Maybe don't spend so much energy on reading into things and making assumptions.
But I still want to express that I think your top comment was unpleasant, regardless of how unhappy it makes you to hear that (which is apparently a lot).
Sure, you can tell me I shouldn't bother saying any of this, but I'm not really doing it for you; I want other Hacker News comment-browsers to be reminded not to do unpleasant things like that, and about how exactly they're unpleasant, and to do that I have to write something that's pretty much going to piss you off regardless of how I phrase it.
> It would be nice if Facebook had some incentive for sharing ad revenue with large publishers, the way YouTube does; that seems like that would give at least some companies a way out of this hole. Is there any chance that someone like a Buzzfeed would have enough leverage to broker this sort of deal?
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11678329
It's still a personal opinion, of course, but it's directly addressing the question raised by the article: how will news operations make money when all their traffic comes through Facebook? Whereas your comment simply stating that you, personally, don't like Facebook, does not address that question.
My parents and a large part of my extended family is active on facebook, and I think if facebook were not to exist it would be harder to keep in touch over long distances. Say what you will, but it makes sharing pictures and simple text extremely easy.
Prior to the internet we used the telephone. Later our family moved to email. But even then we faced problems in email such as too-small inboxes and out of date email address books that are solved by facebook.
I have the same problem as you with Twitter. Nobody I know is on it, and when I've used it it's value is not at all apparent to me. Every time I try to use the platform it seems like a waste of time.
That's the whole idea. Twitter isn't meant to be productive -- just a fun waste of time, reading not so important news, gossip, and quips.
That said, I wasn't really meaning "work" productive, just productive in the sense "it lets me connect with friends" etc kind of utility.
This is not true for all people. Many people use Facebook as a tool for groups, events, etc. Have you been using Google or Yahoo Groups lastly? Facebook has less friction once you are there. This is not a Facebook defence just a reminder to "us" here in HN who use the Internet in another way and with a lot of expertise. Other people don't care if they are in FB, LinkedIn, Reddit, etc they just want a place to share their thoughts insighful or trivial.
Just an anecdote: once I signed up in Facebook zillion of Internet years ago I subscribed to the OpenBSD and C++ groups there. Obviously nobody posted until a few years ago when I started to receive updates. Obviously you will never search for an OpenBSD or C++ solution there but was an interesting social media change. Nowadays I find local groups like Data Science group in Argentina representing well the local scene.
I believe people whining about Facebook are only anti-social person. And those whining about only seing thing they are not interested to are just lazy to not organize their feed how they want to...