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Comment by danra | Hacker News Reader

Harder questions:

- Is it bad for us that Facebook is aggressively monopolizing the social media/interaction space by: * Abusing its data collection (including through its purchase of Onavo) to eliminate/buy out competition * Storing our social data in a closed garden with no easy way to migrate it out into a different platform or even provide an API so that other social platforms can interact with Facebook

thus limiting our options for exploring different options for online social interaction?

- Is profit taken into account in Facebook's feed algorithm, or is it just our well-being (encouraging active social interaction, as the article describes) that's being considered?

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> Is profit taken into account in Facebook's feed algorithm, or is it just our well-being (encouraging active social interaction, as the article describes) that's being considered?

THIS. That's exactly why this "feel good" pseudoscientific bullshit Facebook spits out from time to time sounds so disingenuous: they never take their profit - which is their main motive - into account. Pathetic.

^Exactly what I thought when I read this bit:

>We want Facebook to be a place for meaningful interactions with your friends and family — enhancing your relationships offline, not detracting from them. After all, that’s what Facebook has always been about.

It’s true though. I think the reason Facebook got so big is because it connects you with your meat space friends as opposed to internet strangers!

Everything I do on FB is related to my real life friendships, activities, events, etc.

I recently spent a day deleting every "friend" (600 or so) on facebook.

FB sometimes reminds me of that scene where John Coffee gets all teary eyed about how the child-rapist-murderer used the little girl's love for eachother against eachother.

the longer I stayed friends with those people, the longer I was doing them harm by providing them engaging tidbits about my life, or liking their posts. it's not just good for me not to use FB, it's bad for my friends to use it to see me.

> it’s not just good for me not to use FB, it’s bad for my friends to use it to see me.

Very well said. You just convinced me to deactivate.

Presumably things are discussed in those terms at the shareholder meetings. The "feel good pseudoscientific bullshit" is of course PR and should be ignored.

Are you asking or stating the obvious. Answer is yes to both.

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