Hacker News Reader

Comment by axod | Hacker News Reader

"In essence, Facebook users didn’t think they wanted constant, up-to-the-minute updates on what other people are doing. Yet when they experienced this sort of omnipresent knowledge, they found it intriguing and addictive."

OR they got bored and spammed to death such that they stopped using facebook. (My personal experience)

View on HN

Thus the core of the problem: if you don't "get" Facebook/Twitter, it doesn't help to read about other people who do.

The article explains how it works -- ambient awareness and all that -- but it doesn't explain why I'd want that, if I'm not one who already "gets it". Why do I want 1000 asymmetric "weak ties"?

I have noticed that the people who use twit/book the most are those with cell phones. If you don't have a Blackberry welded to your hip, tweeting "I'm making a sandwich" has way too much overhead.

I like Twitter, but I think Facebook is horrible, a terrible waste of time, it's like LinkedIn for teenagers imo. This comes from a guy that has also stopped using chat tools (excepting for the days I might need them), so please excuse me for being on the very unpopular side.

But, as a look at Facebook's numbers would show, they began using it in far greater numbers.

I think that adding the feed and the apps forced me to use Facebook the way it was meant to be used. I got rid of all but 70 friends, people I cared about, and suddenly it became a very productive way to plan out events and talk to friends in the middle of class. No spam, no feed updates that I don't care about.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com