[wastholm]

I have never understood why people insist on getting news from Facebook. To me that seems a bit like heading to the nearest bus stop in search of medical advice.

While I don't have a Facebook account myself, I do recognize that apparently their service has some value to a lot of people. But using it for news -- in the traditional sense, i.e., reports on large-scale developments in the real world -- has to me always seemed ill-advised.

[steve_taylor]

People don’t read the news on Facebook. They read the headline, choose the reaction that aligns with their political leaning, then proceed to grandstand in the comments section.

People know how to get the news directly from the web. They were angry because they couldn’t fight with the other side and show off to their friends in the comments.

[nickkell]

I think that behaviour is universal. You've just described another site that we're frequenting right now

[bogwog]

As long as there's a vote/like/share/other counter, people are going to be incentivized to act like that. It's the part of our monkey brains that are desperate for approval from others.

I wonder if the solution to that problem is better education, like we teach kids not to do drugs. Both drugs and internet points activate chemicals in our brains that make us feel good, and both fuck us up if we do them too much. Yet we're able to coexist with drugs, but having problems with social networks.

Maybe we need PSAs and cheesy slogans with mascots to tell us that "cool kids don't dopa-meme!", and hip celebrities kids can identify with (Youtubers?) to casually mention that they don't use gamified social networks, etc.

[curryst]

> Maybe we need PSAs and cheesy slogans with mascots to tell us that "cool kids don't dopa-meme!", and hip celebrities kids can identify with (Youtubers?) to casually mention that they don't use gamified social networks, etc.

That's not likely to happen. The real secret of the gamified social networks is that they've found a way to keep you participating in the economy 24/7. Even when you're not doing anything, you're creating value in the form of metadata that gets shuffled off to Google and Facebook. Even when you're off work, you're "working" in the sense that you're contributing to the economy.

If we cut all of that off, I would expect a drop in GDP as people revert back to having large periods of time when they're not active in the economy.

I'm with you, I think they need to go away, but it won't be without it's drawbacks.

[idontpost]

Imagine thinking that anti-drug advertising ever worked...

[dazc]

Perfect summary.

[paranoidrobot]

> To me that seems a bit like heading to the nearest bus stop in search of medical advice.

I think you've got it backwards.

I would say that they are not heading to Facebook to get news, they're there to see pictures from their friends/celebs they follow/etc. That it's also a convenient way to get news articles is just a bonus.

[wastholm]

Same end result though. If I randomly get medical advice by people at my local bus stop and I therefore [mostly] stop trying to get it from other sources, the randos at the bus stop will have become my [main] source of medical advice.

[paranoidrobot]

> I therefore [mostly] stop trying to get it from other sources

That makes the assumption that these people were looking for news sources anyway. Sure, there's going to be some people that fall into that camp.

I can't provide evidence either way, but I would be entirely unsurprised if there were a large percentage of people who don't look for news with any regularity at all. They wern't interested in hitting up a news site.

And to be clear, when I say news, I don't mean the latest celebrity gossip mag, or some specialist/niche publication on their particular interests that might have some news content.

[curryst]

> That makes the assumption that these people were looking for news sources anyway.

It doesn't assume that, it assumes that they would have looked if they didn't get advice at the bus stop. If I have a cut and want to know if it needs stitches, I go to the hospital. If someone at the bus stop is a doctor and tells me that I don't need stitches, then I don't go to the hospital. However, I would have gone to the hospital if there wasn't a doctor at the bus stop.

News is the same. I want to keep up to date on the news. If Facebook doesn't show me the news, I have to go to a news site to get the news. However, if Facebook shows the news and I was going there anyways, then my news needs are taken care of incidentally.

> I can't provide evidence either way, but I would be entirely unsurprised if there were a large percentage of people who don't look for news with any regularity at all. They wern't interested in hitting up a news site.

I think you're right, but it's because they get enough news from Facebook. It might be enough news for you or me, or the kind of news we like, but it is for many people.

The interesting question is how many of them would look for news if Facebook stopped serving news.

[nitwit005]

I recall the Daily Show finding out it was the only source of "news" for many of its viewers despite being a comedy show. People watched for a laugh, but also got some exposure to the news as a side effect.

[stubish]

News gets pushed into your feed, so you don't have to remember to pull it yourself. Like email, except more people actually check it.

[adventured]

I get all my news pushed to me through the PointCast Network, no need to use Facebook.

[Anon1096]

Ironically posted to Hacker News on an article about a current event.

[dazc]

It is ironic but, I expect, the quality of news linked from HN is of a far higher quality and much less likely to resonate with my own preconceived views?

[pessimizer]

I also do not have a facebook account, but there's an obvious benefit to having news filtered by people you know and trust. The alternative is having news that is only filtered by the half-dozen massive companies that own it.

When I was on facebook (a decade ago) my feed was a good source of news, probably because I consciously kept my friends list small.

[thejohnconway]

In my experience, they don’t insist on it. People post links to news sites like any other content, then the algorithm does its thing. You get news in your timeline from the people you follow — just like Twitter, or many other social media sites.

[mbg721]

The bus company doesn't place chattery doctors between you and the bus door.