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Old 12 Sep 2021, 11:24 AM   #1
webecedarian
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Facebook’s Broken Vows

I'm assuming that at least some of you are on Facebook, so might find this article to be of interest.

Facebook’s Broken Vows
How the company’s pledge to bring the world together wound up pulling us apart.

By Jill Lepore

Collecting data and selling ads does not build community, and it turns out that bringing people closer together, at least in the way Facebook does it, makes it easier for them to hurt one another. Facebook wouldn’t be so successful if people didn’t love using it, sharing family photographs, joining groups, reading curated news, and even running small businesses. But studies have consistently shown that the more time people spend on Facebook the worse their mental health becomes; Facebooking is also correlated with increased sedentariness, a diminishment of meaningful face-to-face relationships, and a decline in real-world social activities. Efforts to call Zuckerberg and Sandberg to account and get the company to stop doing harm have nearly all ended in failure.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...ks-broken-vows

https://globalupfront.com/2021/07/27...s-broken-vows/
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Old 12 Sep 2021, 03:24 PM   #2
Bamb0
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Faceboook is a horrible intrusive site!!!

I have them blocked like crazy!!

I suggest everyone avoid them also!!!!!
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Old 12 Sep 2021, 09:25 PM   #3
TenFour
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I wouldn't use Facebook or any of their satellite companies if I didn't have to for work. Unfortunately, you can't post on a FB business page unless you also have a personal account. I put a disclaimer on my personal page that I rarely check it and it is not a reliable way to reach me. I do find that it is fantastically useful for reaching certain demographics with updates about our business. To some people FB is the "Internet." That's the only thing they do online. What really amazes me is how horrible their interface is considering the amount of money they make and spend on technology. It has to be one of the worst interfaces on the Internet. Everything is 10 times harder to do than it should be.
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Old 12 Sep 2021, 09:57 PM   #4
hadaso
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TenFour View Post
... Everything is 10 times harder to do than it should be.
This is for getting people to spend much more time there than elsewhere...
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Old 18 Sep 2021, 08:16 PM   #5
chrisretusn
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I use Facebook. Not worried about it. I have a business page too, it was created by another member, but I am also an administrator. If I had thought about it, I would have tried to create a new account for it.

I mostly post things. I've been on a hiatus for a several days on posting stuff. Still log in to see what's going on. Got a Messenger message from my sister I need to respond too today. Would have missed it if I had not logged in.

I use a Firefox add-on called Facebook Container which isolated Facebook in a container make it harder for Facebook to tracking my activities on other sites.
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Old 18 Sep 2021, 09:04 PM   #6
TenFour
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The biggest problem with Facebook is that a high percentage of people are not smart enough to discern what is bad information. Back in the era before social media this same phenomena was observed with the rise of cable television and organizations like Fox News. Suddenly, fringe ideas and outright misinformation gained widespread distribution and allowed people to avoid seeing the counter information that they would have seen if they read the newspaper or watched one of the major networks. Sure, traditional news outlets were never perfect and will never be, but they hired real journalists who studied how to research and write stories, and there was a big effort to tell the truth. Today's social media tries for engagement before anything else, no matter how ridiculous the story or idea. Unfortunately, there are lots of people who just lap this stuff up, fueling their prejudices and pre-conceived notions about the world. With Twitter you are able to avoid a lot of their desire to feed you only what is most outrageous. Just make sure your timeline is set to "Latest Tweets" and not "Home," and then you mostly just see in order Tweets from people you have chosen to follow. They do force various promoted Tweets into your feed, but in most cases they are just ads. As soon as someone I follow veers off into the crazy I unfollow them.
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Old 19 Sep 2021, 07:21 PM   #7
chrisretusn
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@TenFour, agree with your post.

The thing with Facebook as I see it. There are people, a lot of them who post and share things based solely on the "headline". They never read what's behind the link. Often the complete opposite of what the "headline" said. I know the vast majority of folks in my Friends list who actually see my post do not bother with reading (or watching) beyond the headline before commenting, reactive or sharing it. There are a group of folks who apparently cannot think for them selves and parrot the what ever narrative seems to be trending. Or the obvious incorrect information, I do my research before commenting, often I ignore the crap. I readily defend someone who I oppose or disagree with if what is being post is incorrect. There are two side to every issue, I find many only want one side, there is no other side.

The most frustrating thing with Facebook are those who do not want to engage is rational conversation. It's their thought or naught. Some folks have a hard time not "shouting down" or start immediately with name calling. I read and watch everything I post. As for other's post, I click though and read/watch, then decide to comment/react or not.

As I mentioned above I am on a hiatus from posting or reacting to post on Facebook. Today I read several articles and watched a few videos that I would normally post on Facebook. I resisted the urge. My thought process is perhaps I can get one or two "Friends" to read, watch what I post, and start thinking on their own.
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Old 19 Sep 2021, 10:38 PM   #8
hadaso
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TenFour View Post
The biggest problem with Facebook is that a high percentage of people are not smart enough...
that's a problem with people, not with Facebook.
The big problem with Facebook is that they are a private entity that has taken over and controls a huge part part of the communications between people in world. It is, in my opinion, a very big problem that a privately owned network becomes a default method of communications, to the extent that most people are sure that since they have chosen to become Facebook customers and use their private network, of course you must also agree to Facebook's TOS in order to reach them. People expect you to be available on WhatsApp. And if you choose not to use Facebook's networks (and some other privately owned networks) then miss out on some important stuff. Facebook's products make it difficult for people to share the info in them with people not in ther network. People usually have a hard time trying to send me SMS or email with info they have in WhatApp. Obviously it is not Facebook's interest to make easy to use interfaces between their network and other networks.
So in fact the world is going back to Feudalism: few people own the most important resources. The masses become their peasants. In the middle ages the mot important resource was land (especially fertile land). Nowadays the most important resources are communications network, and Facebook's business is to control most of them.
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Old 20 Sep 2021, 09:12 PM   #9
TenFour
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People expect you to be available on WhatsApp.
Not here in the USA. The only time I have used WhatsApp is when a family member was traveling in another country with no access to SMS. I've never had someone here in the USA ask me to communicate via WhatsApp. Of course, something like 50% of people are on iPhones, so I do lose out having an Android phone without iMessage, but we can generally communicate via SMS and now RCS.
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Old 11 Oct 2021, 09:34 PM   #10
somdcomputerguy
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hadaso View Post
This is for getting people to spend much more time there than elsewhere...
One used to be able to post by sending an email (like one can do with WordPress) but that 'feature' hasn't been available for years.

- Bruce
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Old 21 Oct 2021, 08:44 AM   #11
cedricdig7
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Facebook has been an outdated site for a long time, which, in my opinion, has no development. It's full of people with obsolete views, awkward jokes, and weird types. Honestly, I still don't understand why people are sitting there and promoting their products when there is Instagram.
This is a very convenient and modern platform, especially considering that there is an instagram analytics tracker. I use a similar application myself and can easily track the activity of my account.
Although many people say that the future belongs to Tick Tock, I don't believe in its success yet.

Last edited by cedricdig7 : 23 Oct 2021 at 12:50 AM.
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Old 21 Oct 2021, 03:15 PM   #12
Bamb0
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Welcome

Yes facebook is horrid and I also dont understand the thrill!
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Old 21 Oct 2021, 08:43 PM   #13
TenFour
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Quote:
It's full of people with obsolete views, awkward jokes, and weird types. Honestly, I still don't understand why people are sitting there and promoting their products when there is Instagram.
I don't like or use Facebook personally, except very occasionally like Craigslist since FB has a marketplace that covers where I live and there is no competition. However, in my experience it is a very effective advertising channel for nonprofits and small businesses, and there are many people on there who use almost nothing else on the Internet. They don't use Instagram, or regularly go to websites, or watch YouTube. But, they do daily check for news from those they know, or use it to communicate with family and friends. I've found that when announcing an event we have to do it on FB or else we miss a significant number of people. The toxic stuff isn't even seen by lots of people who just merrily use FB as sort of a giant "party line," if you are old enough to remember when many people in rural areas were connected by phone lines that were interconnected. Pick up the telephone and you might have to wait your turn talking until someone else was finished. Everyone knew each other's business!
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