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Comment by iskander | Hacker News Reader

Setting aside your personal judgments on how other people spend their time, do you actually not think that facebook has had a large impact on how (primarily younger) people socialize, understand each other, and think about their relationships?

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I don't think so, I'm 20, and I remember when I was 12 or so I had friends that spent hours talking with each other on the phone at night, now I'm pretty sure they spend it on Facebook chatting. I'm not convinced there's been any fundamental change, just shifting some deck chairs.

So then why isn't Facebook as notable as laying the first landlines across the US? Sure it's not the first time people have been communicating in this way, but by your argument Facebook is implementing the way that the current generation communicates with each other. Now there certainly are nuances to the situation; there are parts about communicating through Facebook that are richer [1] and also scarier [2] than the telephone. But if your claim is that Facebook has taken place of the telephone for certain types of communication, I fail to see how that isn't changing the world.

[1] Sending various forms of media to each other, having a historical record of communication, etc.

[2] Privacy controls, control over your data, etc.

When I was 20 (in 1995), social networking was done through telnet...sitting in the computer lab until the sun come up chatting away with strangers at other universities. I still keep in contact with a few of the people I met that way, but not through Facebook. I still don't even have an account!

I was just gonna say... back in myyy day, when I was 12, in 1990, we socialized by dialing into BBSes and spamming Usenet via asynchronous relay. Clearly the GP runs in social circles heavily involved in some sort of ancient technology cult; "tele-phone"?

The real difference is that they aren't going to keep the same phones numbers forever. With FB, and whatever eventually replaces it, they have a shot at keeping in touch all their lives.

As a primarily younger person (18), it hasn't changed anything. It hasn't made me "hang out" with anyone I don't hang out with regularly ect.

I mean, I recently left my home town to go to a new school and when I wanted to say good bye to my friends who I don't normally talk to- I wrote on their walls, but I also called them-

So you were 12 when Facebook was started and had Facebook your entire high school life? It seems a bit hard to be subjective then since you haven't known any different.

That's a valid point; nevertheless, I have plenty of (some very close) friends that do not have Facebook- or recently acquired it so that they may see photos of themselves, so I can easily speak about their lives, but I do not know if that counts (does it?) because they grew up around people who have facebooks.

But in the end, you are right, I'm not quite subjective because of the way I grew up.

I think you both mean "objective", not "subjective".

It's hard to realize the value of Facebook when you don't yet have friends all over the country (or the world).

Have you ever seen people/group of friends in the bar or at other social occasion, taking out their phones and start fiddling with Facebook for hours? I've seen many. On the upside, i think it does help people connecting with their friends. As much as it does, it's a site where you see your friends' photos, that's about it!

It is the best contact and "address" book I've ever had

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