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by Jonanin 1695 days ago
I'm impressed by the extent to which people actually believe media narratives match reality.
2 comments

11% growth for FB would be very impressive.

However, the growth numbers are for FB, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp.

11% growth is for Monthly Active People (whatever that is). Monthly Active Users (MAU) - the more common metric - grew by 6%.

It's possible that FB is actually shrinking - while Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp are growing. They don't provide enough data to know that.

Instagram and whatsapp have to be growing.

Facebook itself? I think its dying personally.

This is not just a PR spin. Lying in their SEC filings is actionable.
That's not what they mean. They are alluding to negative press about Facebook which has led some to believe that Facebook is broadly disliked.

In reality, it seems that people are completely fine with Facebook.

It's really ironic when you think about it. One of the things people hate on FB for is enabling echo chambers in online discourse. That FB has this corrosive effect because it amplifies toxic content and radicalizes users who get pushed further and further from the mainstream.

But us FB haters don't always realize that we're also in a bubble or echo chamber when discussing it. We see nothing but negative opinions on the company and don't realize that the larger world doesn't share these thoughts.

There are so many other topics I see this applying to. Amazon work conditions; whether Apple should scan for CSAM client-side; the whole Chappelle thing.

I'm a case in point. After a decade of ignoring Instagram, I'm now a solid DAU[1]. I probably see a dozen ad impressions each day; I know I've clicked through a handful in the last month. I do what I can to compartmentalize it from the rest of my online identity, but when looking at their growth metrics, I'm one of them in the 3rd quarter.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28360371

Political outcomes in the past year or so have really been driving this home for me: Twitter / the internet isn't "real life".

Taking a quote from Eric Adams:

> Social media does not pick a candidate, people on Social Security pick a candidate"