[franbulax]

"We study how the fence weaves into and out of the trees. And one day, when the sun has gone down and the guards are asleep, we catapult over to the other side, and see all the things we couldn’t see before."

Yep, and some of us even see the fence being built and make sure we stay on the outside. It's easy to fence-in dopey ruminants, but wily canids prefer to keep their options a little more flexible.

I refuse, as much as possible, to be herded around, sheep-like, and am repulsed at the thought of being used, as do these "social" sites seeking to "monetize" me, as grist for their psychological-manipulation-for-profit mills. No product, I!

[tim333]

Meh - I've got 20 tabs open, one of which is Facebook. Sometimes I click on it, sometimes not. I don't consider that a great feat of fence jumping.

[pessimizer]

Don't worry, it's always got your mic open; no need to click on the tab.

[dave2000]

I use it to keep in touch with friends around the world, for free. I don't spend more than a few minutes on it a week. I do use the messenger app as the main way i keep in touch with people around the world though. I guess that makes me one those dopey sheep.

[rtpg]

Serious question, do you feel like Facebook provides much value to its users?

[losteric]

Oh definitely, just like a crack house.

They've got their friends and "friends" in a walled off room, socially connected by leisure activities with questionable value to the residents. It's more of a slum filled with degenerates and graffiti... but hey, people come for the high not the scenery. The heavy users are there for life but even the occasional users keep coming back.

Then of course there's the dealer managing the place... they're the only one to actually benefit from the operation.

I'm being a little facetious, but in short: no. There are a multitude options for chat that provide a better experience, keeping in contact was not a problem in the first place, and all that's left are games or wanting to show off/snoop on lives. I would argue it provides a largely negative value if you consider filter bubbles and their impact on society. Shareholders are the only ones that derive value from FB.

[dave2000]

> There are a multitude options for chat that provide a better experience

"Better", huh? One of those opinion words. They like it, you don't. Some people like IRC. It's a funny old world.

"keeping in contact was not a problem in the first place"

A bit simplistic, this. You could have said the same about email when it replaced snail-mail for most people, most of the time. But now email has been largely abandoned, thanks to spam and "better" alternatives which let you know when someone has received, then read, your message. Facebook messenger is amongst the most popular of these because they've listened to what people want, and responded.

> and all that's left are games or wanting to show off/snoop on lives.

I don't spend more than a few minutes a week on facebook itself (i only really got an account for messenger, because just about everyone is on facebook so it was easier than convincing them to get a google+ account, or installing 4 or 5 other apps) but I understand that the gaming thing is waning. Showing off - well, if you're talking about people talking about what they do, sharing holiday photos etc then I guess you could use that description, I suppose. Is there a way of sharing holiday photos in a way which you personally would not describe as showing off?

"I would argue it provides a largely negative value if you consider filter bubbles and their impact on society."

I think very carefully before installing apps or using web services so as to avoid anything that makes me part of the problem. Nah, just kidding. I've heard this sort of thing before. You're one of these people who believe that people all used to read the same newspapers and watch the same tv and got exposed to differing opinions, and now people can choose their sources they'll just choose stuff they already agree with, and facebook is part of that? I think you'd have to go back a long, long way for that to have ever been true, and even when it was there are endless studies to show that people reject/ignore stuff they don't agree with, and give sources they do agree with the benefit of the doubt. And in any event, it's not like many people are using facebook as their main news source. And even if they did, it sounds like you're above all that, so your use of facebook would have a positive impact on some of the sheeple on there, and can help to make the world a better place.

Or you could just use it, like I do, to keep in touch with your mates.

[faitswulff]

I'm going to dissent with the majority of commenters here and say yes, it provides a lot of value to its users. Why do you think so many startups are squashed because they're just subsets of Facebook functionality?

With the network effects of having over a billion people (and most of the developed world) on Facebook in mind, consider that all of these people now have free and highly functional voip/video calling wherever they have internet. They have a group and event management web apps with sophisticated privacy controls. Facebook also serves as an event and news discovery app. It's also an effective publishing platform, though the line between statuses and articles can be blurry.

Note that I'm not listing things that Facebook users can do, but things that I've seen Facebook users actively employ.

And all of this for the small (dollar) cost of giving up your email address and personal information. Which, for most people, as we've discovered, is an acceptable trade. Most people's personal information is not that valuable to them, given an agent that is trustworthy enough. Consider that most Americans give up their social security numbers on things as trivial as a job application.

In summary, outliers like HN commenters may disagree, but most people get a lot more value out of Facebook than they sacrifice.

[nibs]

In a sense that addictions provide value while simultaneously extracting event more, all with the willful participation of the user (consent seemed like the wrong word).

[AckSyn]

Not op, but no. It's an absolute time-sink with no value to anyone but advertisers, and anyone involved in an actual "group" that performs work or collaboration.

Outside of that it's a meme sharing, conspiracy fueling, agenda line toeing shithole.