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Comment by acjohnson55 | Hacker News Reader

It's unfashionable to say this, but I get a lot out of using Facebook. But I'm now thinking hard about getting by without it.

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Definitely, as do most of us. But that IMO is mostly attributable to the network effect and not to anything particularly special about Facebook as an application. An incumbent social network with mostly identical software, minus the spying plus an ethical monetization strategy, would be out-competed financially by Facebook unless user tracking is regulated more closely.

I now live in a country where Facebook is a major part of how people function online. I deleted my profile and stayed off for 2 years when I still lived in the US, but here it's more vital to have one unfortunately.

I've interviewed people from the Middle East who don't have a concept of the Internet beyond Facebook. They don't even know how to open a browser.

Yep. In places outside of the US, like Indonesia, Facebook IS "the internet": https://qz.com/333313/milliions-of-facebook-users-have-no-id...

Upvoted you for admitting that Facebook is a useful product.

Not because it's a particularly good service. Mainly because everyone is on there. It would also be fine if everyone was on Google plus or anything else but it's the only place where I know I can reach most people I know.

I stopped using facebook in 2008, and I wonder if my social life degraded because of not using it.

Since everyone is on it, it would make sense that not using it would "exclude" you or a social standard or norm.

There are two sides to this.

First, I don't since exchanging on facebook is relevant or meaningful social exchange. Teamspeak or skype are more meaningful, but facebook only brings delayed text, photo and video, while real time matters more.

The second side is that as I've discussed already, there are no discovery feature on facebook. You don't make new friends thanks to facebook, you only do with Tinder, meetup, Uber, etc. The friendship relation in facebook is one of exclusivity. I don't think facebook events or groups are really attractive to users, or really do create new friendships, beyond the classical scenario of real life meeting. If you make new friends, it's not really thanks to facebook, because organizing an event can be done on any other platform, or even by email.

So it's true that user base matters a lot, but facebook seems to have little to no usefulness. It's just for messaging, posting photos, event exposure. It's just a very large myspace, with improved features, but it brings nothing new to the table.

facebook only brings delayed text, photo and video, while real time matters more.

You mean, except for FB Messenger (and Whatsapp, which should be included if one it talking about the company practices).

The second side is that as I've discussed already, there are no discovery feature on facebook.

I'm not a user, but AFAIK it does suggest friends to you. Plus, you often interact with friends-of-friends (e.g. through comments on posts of your friends), which does allow you to discover new people.

Good God, imagine how terrifying Google would be if plus was as popular as Facebook...

At that point, we could give up on privacy altogether.

Just curious, but why not email/sms? Everyone with a Facebook account has an email address and phone.

Facebook is like a phonebook with everyone I've met. I live away from where I grew up so often contact with friends has large gaps. I don't have everyone's email/phone and those change. To get them once they change I'd need a directory like Facebook.

Network effect and low friction is why it's useful but if everyone was on some other platform where I could find them by name I'd happily switch given I mostly use it for messaging and event planning.

I think anyone who argues it’s not useful or at least compelling is being disingenuous. None of this would even be an issue if Facebook wasn’t important to the infrastructure of modern life for billions of people.

Just take it one day at a time. You got this man.

After 10 days clean, buy yourself a beer.

I'd be totally fine without the routine of going to Facebook. My problem is that there's not a clear substitute for the specific typos of info I use it for, for the specific relationships I maintain through it, and for the reach I get for things I share.

>the reach of stuff you share

I don't know if you have a fanpage or anything, but if you just do it personally, I have far more reach sharing on HN, reddit, and my personal site compared to Facebook.

The problem with Facebook other than bad privacy is that it doesn't take much to press the like button. Someone clicking like doesn't mean shit - maybe they're being nice to you. Most likely they're bored. Next 5 seconds their mind will be to something else. Plus, Facebook is ruthless to the freshness of things, so shit you spent a lot of time producing only gets a shot temporarily in the present and then imediatelly forgotten if they shared to 10 people and they don't care. You're not a creator, you're an easily replacacle cog in their system. I have had things that picked up long after I produced them on my site - I can't imagine doing that with Facebook.

> the specific typos of info I use it for

That was inadvertantly a perfect way to describe the "info" people get from Facebook.

FYI, I recently deactivated my Facebook account and found I could still use messenger. That seemed like a great compromise to me. I still have had to reactivate it a couple times for some third party login, but I deactivated again right after that.

It seems far harder than it really is to forego Facebook completely.

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