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by nitrogen 3884 days ago
I haven't had a Facebook account for 3 years and while that was my main concern, I found that any event worth going to the organizer would simply call, message or email you because they wanted you to be there. People vastly underestimate the power of their real social network and what friendship or love can do to motivate people to maintain relationships.

Based on the comments people make about how essential Facebook is, it seems that not everyone has the luxury of such friendships. Maybe it's because they grew up in a military family that moved around frequently, or they came from a small town where nobody shared their interests, etc. They still might want the company of the fair weather friends who only invite them to do stuff via mass events on Facebook.
1 comments
TeMPOraL 3884 days ago
> Maybe it's because they grew up in a military family that moved around frequently, or they came from a small town where nobody shared their interests, etc. They still might want the company of the fair weather friends who only invite them to do stuff via mass events on Facebook.

Or maybe they're just... normal, regular adults? The kind that met their friends in school and university, and then had to split with most of them because some were from out of town, other moved; everyone now has a job and responsibilities and any tool that lets you maintain relationships without crazy amount of micromanagement is a very useful thing?

Some comments try to marginalize Facebook as if it was something weird. It isn't. It's normal to use it. That's what regular folks do.

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bigbugbag 3884 days ago
Sorry to point that out but it seems you miswrote email in your reply.
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TeMPOraL 3884 days ago
No I didn't. Normal people don't use e-mail for day-to-day communication anymore, unless they need to send files (e.g. documents) as attachments. You may not like it, you may pretend it isn't happening, but it doesn't change that it's true.
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Shish2k 3883 days ago
Anecdote not data, but out of 96 emails in my inbox, only one of them is even remotely social (if you count a family member asking for PC tech support as social)...
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bigbugbag 3879 days ago
well then I suppose you have a facebook and have blocked all those annoying email from facebook warning you about what's happening on facebook which is a dead giveaway that facebook understand that email is where the action is/was/will be.

Try surveying an inbox of those who do not use facebook. Chances are you'll get quite a different picture.

You can also have a look at those:

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/08/why-em...

http://blog.frontapp.com/email-will-last-forever (seems to be down at the moment, try the wayback machine: http://web.archive.org/web/20150331054046/http://blog.fronta... )

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