Ask HN: Why, you all intellectual people not quitting Facebook? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Why, you all intellectual people not quitting Facebook?

4 pointsdprophecyguy13 comments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXdYSQ6nu-M

I just went through this video about Cambridge Analytica whistleblower that talks about How and Why they did what they did. And it sounds so scary when they talk about Changing Culture which could be done by Changing People. It sounds like a script from Black Mirror and now it seems like we are living in a black mirror. As a person myself who uses fb. I wanted you guys to ask why even after knowing all these things you guys can't quit FB. I am interested in more of matrix points that describe concisely why you are on FB and after this thing has happened what you are going to do about it in near future?

View on HN

I quit years ago. Setting aside the condescension in the title, it's probably useful to analyze the reasons people nowadays aren't voting with their actions as much as with their online activism or even personal opinion.

Restricted to the FB scope. Some of many:

- Human need for social connection (which FB preys on)

- Ignorance (and poor sense of privacy) and carelessness (even though people waste hours on it, they don't think it's an important part of their lives)

- FB's self-preservation engagement tactics (your attention = clicks = $$$) (FB: "you're deactivating your account? but look! all of these people will miss you. Oh. You meant delete? Google it.")

- Ego and insecurity (you can selectively display to others what you want of you, hide what you don't want, block what you don't like, anything to enrich your fake sense of online self)

- Fast food equivalent of catching up with people

- Fear of losing contacts (and fear of loneliness)

- Detachment from moral responsibility (why should I feel guilty for something FB is doing?)

- ...

Sorry if the title gives you the feeling of condescension in the title but by Intellectual, I mean people who can assess the situation and can act according to it. The people who know right and wrong about it.

I am from India and here I can guarantee you that 95% of people are not even aware of whats going on in this social media ecosystem. What it does, what the impact of it and everything. And hence I felt like why people who know that it's bad why they cant get rid of it.

Now coming to your points.

- The human need for social connection (I really feel that nobody really get some valuable interaction out of any social media. The only exception being when you talk to someone special and someone you won't have access directly in your circle.) I think what most people relate to social interaction is via liking other people's posts and also getting your post being liked in return which is equivalent to your 4 point getting the dopamine hit and boosting your ego.

- Ignorance point is right but its also being complemented with the fact that they are being bombarded with these values that these companies have cooked to tell that whatever they are doing clicking and scrolling is somehow adding value to their lives.

- I agree with your 4th point Ego is the only thing that we get as in case of dopamine hit. But do you really want to go that path?

- Fast food equivalent of catching up but again my same argument ? are you really catching up ? or is it the just fake perception of catching up?

- I am running out of time but I also disagree with your last two points about losing contact and detachment because I don't think these things are fulfilled by them. It's just fake values that we start believing in and start perceiving how to be in contact and detachment the way these big companies want us to believe.

- I'm able to use the tool in a way that is responsible and provides value to me. It's a rolodex of all the different people I've met in my life with up-to-date methods of communication to easily reach them. That's valuable.

- At times, I have certainly abused the tool, but I'm quick to catch myself when I feel this happening.

- I only post things that I would be comfortable saying in public. It's like a public scrapbook for me. I have people added from all different parts of my life, including work.

- I don't use it that much. It's a bit like personal email in terms of pace. High frequency communication doesn't happen on Facebook for me, it happens on iMessage. I know some people who use FB Messenger or Facebook itself for high-frequency communication, which is fine if that's what they prefer, but that's not me.

I manage a promotion page and unfortunately this page isn't even close to being popular enough to get people to visit it on other channels.

But to me this whole disaster wasn't such a surprise. If this was a revealing moment for the people who often read this site I could only ascribe it to ignorance and naivety. It has been blatantly obvious that Facebook and all the other big internet companies who serve "free" services have been doing this all along.

On the other side, for some people Facebook and others really are essential just like I couldn't do without Whatsapp since everyone here uses it. To me all of this seems like a failure of the law too, people should be protected from these things. Nobody would physically sign a contract without thinking about it and that's the thing we do online all the time.

I have an empty profile that I can't delete since I manage a few business pages. You need an FB personal profile in order to open a business page. That's the only reason why I still have a profile (empty). I removed all pictures, comments, posts, etc. It's literally an empty page.

A few reasons:

1. For me, the damage is already done. Facebook has over a decade of data from me, and even if I were to delete my account the Cambridge Analytica story shows that Facebook has already shared that data. Even if there was a way for Facebook to delete all of my data, they've already lost control. It's like taking the bullets out of a persons gun after they have shot you. You're still wounded.

2. Facebook has largely become the social network where you interact with people you don't really care about. My feed is full of third-party content, and stuff about people I haven't seen in years - people I knew from school, people I don't even like, etc. If I delete Facebook I delete my ability to be nosy, and I think that's why a lot of people won't delete their accounts. Whether you're perving on the guy/girl at school that went from zero to ten, laughing about some asshole from school now has a shitty life and several failed relationships, or how many kids the girl from your English class has popped out since leaving school, Facebook will always be the platform for that.

3. Despite its flaws, it's the closest we've got to a universal social network. I do BJJ a few times a week, and outside of a few people I know that everyone at my gym is on Facebook, so if I want to chat to any of them I can use messenger, or I can add them as a friend.

Most of all, I genuinely don't believe anything bad will happen to Facebook as a result of this. Their higher-ups might get a grilling from ministers/congress, but they will get away with their crimes - and make no mistake, these should be serious crimes. Facebook allowed access to their data under false pretences, and the first news to come from the arrest warrant was that Facebook engineers were on-site right away at Cambridge Analytica. In a just world, Facebook would be fined for every breach of a persons data, to the tune of tens of billions. The fine should be so great that it forces Facebook to scale back their operations and completely restructure their business. In reality, someone might go to jail at Cambridge Analytica, but this practice will continue. If anything, this practice will be promoted as an unethical, but unpunishable tactic across the world.

80%+ of private events I attend are hosted on facebook (nearly 100% of social ones.) Every gig I attend I find out about due to Facebook (easier than reading a print gig-guide.)

Same. There really needs to be a good alternative to manage and discover events in your area, but most will probably fail due to the missing userbase/users' reluctance to switch to a new platform.

Some organizers/venues in my area put you on their guest list and have lower entrance fees for people who are "going" to their Facebook event. The only way I see a switch happening is if they agree to only offer those rewards for users of the new platform. But some of them are already showing dissent and setting up their own mailing lists/group texts, so I still have hope!

B/c breaking a habit is really, really hard. Like asking smokers why don't they quit even in light of known risks. It is not a matter of users being intelectual or not, it is a matter of rewards that reinforce the habit. Think of that silly moment when a person shares a picture of a mundane act, like a meal about to be eaten. What is the reward?

FB is an epidemic. It will go away when ppl (most likely new generations) develop resistance to it.

I got family on Facebook I can't find anywhere else. Some of them died and their account memorized with pictures and comments. I find new family members too.

Facebook is like Microsoft Windows, you want to get rid of it for Linux but the apps you need and people you know still run Windows and need help.

I never shared anything personal, I don't have any real photos. I don't follow anything/anyone so my wall is empty. I have it for messenger, oauth and one page that I administer.

I use it for Tinder and Bumble.

snip - self censorship

Reply on news.ycombinator.com