←back to thread

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

(www.marketplace.org)
1293 points rmason | 3 comments | 06 Mar 19 20:30 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
standardUser ◴[06 Mar 19 23:00 UTC] No.19323876[source]▶
It feels like Facebook now contains all of the negative parts of social media - complaining, arguing, chain posts, fake news, relatives, etc. While Instagram now has all the pleasant parts - pretty photos of families, vacations and food! So these days I find myself using Instagram regularly and Facebook almost never.

Having said that, I'll never leave Facebook until something else replaces it. It's the only place I have to keep in touch with a couple hundred people I would otherwise have no contact with. And it's still common for various groups of people I know to use it for event planning.

I also find myself having to share invites and news with people I know who are not on Facebook. They appreciate it, but I consider it a pain in the ass that they could easily resolve by getting a Facebook account again and just checking it once a week.

replies(4): >>19323966 #>>19324266 #>>19324646 #>>19325174 #
1. justaguyhere ◴[07 Mar 19 02:43 UTC] No.19325174[source]▶
couple hundred people I would otherwise have no contact with

Not being snarky, this is a genuine question - If you can't make the effort to email these people every other month or so, then do you really care that much about them? I can understand the difficulties in visiting in person, or even phone calls - many people don't like phone calls these days, but email/SMS? This sounds more like you have a passing curiosity about these people than genuinely caring about them

replies(2): >>19327770 #>>19332366 #
2. josteink ◴[07 Mar 19 13:20 UTC] No.19327770[source]▶
I was about to comment on that particular remark too.

Lately I’ve unfollowed/unfriended everyone I dont feel I have a relationship to.

People of my class 1996 or whatever? Gone. That’s not my social circle anymore. Etc. You get the picture.

But still FB insisted on showing all kinds of uninteresting garbage instead of posts from people I know.

So now I’m no longer checking Facebook. And they did it to themselves.

3. standardUser ◴[07 Mar 19 21:00 UTC] No.19332366[source]▶
I've gotten back in touch with various people over the years. I can't predict which of the couple hundred people I will have a reason to reach out to in the future. But I know I'll inevitably be happy to be connected to this or that person on Facebook when I pick up a similar hobby or visit a certain place or go looking for some new type of job, etc.

And no, obviously not ever person I know is worth emailing or calling on the phone on some regular basis. That doesn't mean I don't want to know them.