[deweyusa]

Finally, we're starting to see through the mess that Facebook is causing. It seems so innocuous and fun at first, but it takes years until we look back and realize exactly what you're saying now. I remember having hours of conversation with friends prior to Facebook via the phone. Now, it's like it's expected that I'll "just know" what my friends are doing (after all, they took the time to post it, so they almost take it as a form of offense if I don't know what they're up to. "What? You didn't see my post about my gardening project?").

I really hope our generation figures out how to get out of this quagmire somehow. I fear, however, that just as innocently as we started this project now known and accepted as "social media", we will be too far down the rabbit hole to reverse course, let alone even recognize what we've done to our true relationships with internet communication.

[starter]

I really hope our generation figures out how to get out of this quagmire somehow." What is one thing we could do the reinvent the Social Network concept?

I recently asked What to build into a better social network (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2586836) I'm on a mission to build a bigger, better network.

I'm starting to see that people are longing for a social experience that is truly social. Better algorithms just aren't cutting it. What will?

[jamesbritt]

Better algorithms just aren't cutting it. What will?

Make things harder rather than easier.

I mean, I do not want 5-line bot scripts slurping up my associations. I do not want it to be easy for Joe Blow to learn what book I last read or what foods I like. I do not want to be fodder for every Social Media expert.

Having some sort of speed bumps might help filter out the frictionless-friends from the real friends.

Facebook had that initially, to some extent, by requiring a school. Now they're icing the roads.

I don't have a clear idea on this other than a gut feeling that making some things at least slightly troublesome might go a long way to helping evolve real social networks.

[starter]

Make things harder rather than easier. Got it.

Social media "experts" need better ways to spend their time and starting at schools with .edu addresses will help to build concentrated user bases. So, THAT won't be a problem.

Based on feedback, maybe FB's problem is simply that it's no longer theFaceBook. Its not exclusive, hardly worth my time and the structure is vastly overbuilt for what its meant to be: a people directory.