[joehewitt]

I used to feel that social networks were a waste of time (even when I worked for Facebook) but in the last couple years that has changed. My social life has been dramatically improved by Facebook because I started using it to socialize with people who share my hobby (growing fruit). Through Facebook groups I've made a number of new friends I never would have met otherwise. We communicate and share details of our hobby on a daily basis. It's great fun. I hardly use the site to socialize with my family and old friends - it's basically a glorified message board.

[alexanderdmitri]

That's great and that is a positive contribution to your life, but it follows the same formula I'm very used to hearing:

usecases = ["group events", "messaging", "staying in touch with people", "networking", "checking in once a month", &c()];

singleUsecase = pickWhatevs(usecases);

otherStuff = pickNotWhatevs(singleUsecase, usecases);

responseStr = "Well, I only use it for " + singleCase + ". I rarely use it for " + otherStuff + "."

As a former employee you might have more insight than I do, but how exactly has a glorified message board which doesn't charge its users become one of the richest companies in the world?

Sure they're a bit interested in the fruit growing hobby and that network, but they're also very interested in the ways you "hardly use the site" and they're even more interested in the things your doing when you don't even know they're still watching you. Even more interesting, you're actions on and off their platform can be correlated with heavy users of the site to infer traits they'll assign to you and sell on, true or not.

At the end of the day, the way the species is evolving with the internet, giving someone permission to follow you around the web and collect that data on you is the same as giving them insights into your inner psyche, the majority of what composes your reality, and the things you value most in your life, among other things.

These are things we should have a right to offer explicitly, not implicitly surrender.

[edits to elaborate on a couple points and add helpers to the why I use FB excuse]

[Joe-Z]

>...but how exactly has a glorified message board which doesn't charge its users become one of the richest companies in the world?

Because, as you just demonstrated with your programming example: For HIM it's a glorified message board. Other people may use it in completely different ways and appreciate it for them.

I'm not the greatest facebook-fan either, but I think you're really overstating the control they have over people's lives here and at the same time understating the value it can provide to people. Unless of course all people using facebook are just damn idiots and don't know what they're getting themselves into!

EDIT: 'control over people's lives' might be better phrased as 'knowledge about their activities/preferences'

[alexanderdmitri]

I think you're missing my point. Google and Facebook are conditioning the population to say no big deal. It's creeping normalcy. Remember when Sergei was trying to make peeps comfortable with Gmail? [para-phrasing here:] "It's not a person reading your email, it's just a robot." Well now the robot is a neural net and I'm pretty convinced (if it's not already) that neural net will start feeding data to other nets built by other powerful institutions that decide whether you get higher education, loans, whether you're likely to be guilty or innocent, &c. Didn't provide enough data, well hell, that's suspicious, throw a red flag.

And people will accept it because we're pragmatic. And those who don't just need to grow up and start pleasing the AI.

A whole new industry will pop up from the ones training nets in the first place. Hey do this and that and our calculations will read you better, you'll get the results you want. We just suggest you don't talk about these things at all, don't shop at these stores, don't have this name or be associated with that demographic ...

[hankhill]

This is totally off topic and I apologize, but considering apparently you and I share very similar views on "social networking" and such, you would probably really love (or really hate) the show Black Mirror if you don't already. It does an excellent job of showing just how fucked up things can get when these things get out of hand.

[Joe-Z]

Well yes, I must've missed your point. I was under the impression we're talking about the reasons why people use facebook and not engaging in a privacy discussion. I have nothing to add to that. Have a nice weekend!

[zild3d]

I agree we're heading in that direction. There's actually a group of us that talk regularly about this, if you would like to join, here's our group on faceb...

[nicklo]

Google no longer reads gmail emails:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-23/google-wi...

Though I'm guessing that they are only now okay giving up on email data because they have so many other sources of tracking your behavior.

[sgs1370]

Google is no longer using email data for gmail ads. They might still use it for their google search ads or anything else they want.

[icebraining]

Unless of course all people using facebook are just damn idiots and don't know what they're getting themselves into!

I invite you to read (or preferably watch) your Ibsen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Enemy_of_the_People

[icebraining]

I hardly use the site to socialize with my family and old friends - it's basically a glorified message board.

That's the annoying thing. We already had message boards! Except they were decentralized, you could register anonymously and the administrators often had more autonomy (e.g. not put up ads and tracking scripts). Now Facebook has eaten a bunch of that market, and so we're forced to choose between giving up those communities or submitting to the Borg. It's annoying as hell.

[madshiva]

I still think that the information is not well organize. I prefer goes to a standard forum of the 90' to share things.

For what I see on Facebook or social network is : - look at me - post without arguing or even answer, discussion. - look at me - stalking - quote about life - game - cat meme

0% construction, information is not well organize, scrolling..

[coldtea]

Apparently for the majority of people "look at me - post without arguing or even answer, discussion. - look at me - stalking - quote about life - game - cat meme" are just the ticket!

[madshiva]

I understand for Facebook that is better that we pay for that they don't sell our data, but I don't understand why we need to paid to post, voting. This make me feel bad. Only rich will post, vote, terrible idea. You even can't down vote. Then why don't allow down vote, or remove for 1000$? You even can have better control of the information. Welcome internet for rich only.

[guelo]

Facebook works ok as a message board while a group is small. But at some point as a group grows Facebook starts manipulating the feed, removes chronological ordering, stops notifying group members consistently, and does whatever other opaque actions that the engagement algorithms dream up.