←back to thread

U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says

(www.marketplace.org)
1293 points rmason | 4 comments | 06 Mar 19 20:30 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
kojackst ◴[06 Mar 19 21:48 UTC] No.19323205[source]▶
Note: personal opinion bellow

It seems to me that the overall interest in Facebook is decreasing. The social network hasn't had any interesting feature added to it in the last couple of years. It's becoming boring and boring, so that's why I believe people are leaving.

Still, Instagram and WhatsApp are running strong with barely no competition. We don't see any news about their user base decreasing and news channels don't seem to dislike them. Facebook is doing a good job making sure their biggest three platforms are seem as independent from one another, keeping Instagram and WhatsApp almost free from controversy.

Personally I see no loss for them here. Besides, they will promptly acquire any new players that look promising, or shamelessly copy them as they did with Snapchat.

replies(25): >>19323310 #>>19323407 #>>19323409 #>>19323443 #>>19323459 #>>19323471 #>>19323680 #>>19323683 #>>19323767 #>>19323778 #>>19323795 #>>19324014 #>>19324017 #>>19324063 #>>19324111 #>>19324152 #>>19324240 #>>19324493 #>>19324617 #>>19324644 #>>19324719 #>>19324922 #>>19325233 #>>19327219 #>>19331109 #
victor106 ◴[06 Mar 19 22:16 UTC] No.19323459[source]▶
Note:- I have been off FB for the past 5 years or so.

As much as I hate FB and its abhorrent privacy policies, there are a very large population who do not care about privacy. I have some in my household who don't and FB's latest financial results prove it.

replies(1): >>19323584 #
1. jordigh ◴[06 Mar 19 22:29 UTC] No.19323584[source]▶
Everyone cares about privacy. They just aren't keenly aware that they're losing it. If you meet someone who doesn't care about privacy, ask them, can I borrow your phone and browse through your contacts, your conversations, and your pictures? Almost nobody will say yes unless they are very close to and intimate with you.

I think John Oliver did a pretty good job of framing the Snowden revelations in terms of "the NSA can see your penis". That's a good angle to make people care.

replies(1): >>19324105 #
2. leetcrew ◴[06 Mar 19 23:35 UTC] No.19324105[source]▶
I don't think your analogy is very good. it's true that many (maybe even most) people have secrets that they would be embarrassed to share with their friends, family, or coworkers. if you asked them whether they would be okay with letting some stranger who they would never meet look through their phone, they might not do it for free, but I bet a lot of people would do it for $5-10.
replies(1): >>19324310 #
3. jordigh ◴[07 Mar 19 00:04 UTC] No.19324310[source]▶
That's not it. Offering people 10 bucks won't change that most say "no" when you ask them to borrow their phone and snoop through everything. Instead, it's that the whole loss of privacy is impersonalised. When you see my face, the face of someone who just asked to borrow your phone, when it's clear a person is going to be looking through it, that's when you say "no".

But when Facebook is harvesting data about you, it doesn't feel like a person is doing it. It feels like some abstract machine or algorithm or a faceless corporation is doing it. They even promise that humans aren't individually looking at your data. So people bank on that impersonality. The data may be collected, but who cares, nobody is actually really looking at it, right?

The truth is that people do often look at it, despite all the promises and everything. That's what you have to convey and that's what John Oliver was trying to establish with his angle.

replies(1): >>19325330 #
4. victor106 ◴[07 Mar 19 03:31 UTC] No.19325330{3}[source]▶
Sure, when you ask people they tell you they care about Privacy. But their actions prove otherwise. And actions are what matter. It’s an unfortunate situation but that’s just the reality of it, like it or not. I don’t.