Normal people have friends and family and would like to use social media to stay in touch with them. There are network effects that make it practically impossible to switch. This is not something that can be done with the power of love and well informed agent in the marketplace.
One solution would be to nationalize facebook and other social media and turn them into public utility coops that are run democratically by giving the workers that work there a vote for who and how they should be managed. And give the users a vote.
Everything else is just fantasy. Facebook is forever. You’d need many billions in marketing and advertising to get enough people to switch. And then it will be the same shit.
Unless of course Elon Musk buys facebook, then it will be trash in less than a year.
Normal people have friends and family and would like to use social media to stay in touch with them.
Normal people stay in touch with their loved ones even if they are not on the same platform. You do not need everyday group chat noise for that.
Ah normal people. My apologies
Those same people have phones which have phone numbers and unlimited amount of apps that provide the exact same ability.
There are network effects that make it practically impossible to switch.
Stop making excuses for your lack of morals. If they truly cared about you they wouldn’t mind texting your phone number or using another app.
Let me guess, you continue to use Twitter too
Situation understander has logged on
No I don’t use facebook or twitter. But it’s more for personal disgust than for morals. Nothing you or I or ten thousand lemmings do or not do will change the rising domination of social media on our civilization. Same as our individual choices won’t impact climate change. It’s the same illusion that only serves to prevent actual action against a serious threat. Not even thinking or talking about possible solutions. Corporate control of the means of communication is amoral, and accepting it is problematic.
Maybe I’m wrong and network effects can be overcome through a well crafted alternative like mastadon. But capital translates into power for marketing, development, articles and regulation or even legislation.
I think it’s a good sign - people are on here because they like it, not just because they are free software fanatics.
If nobody here had any Meta accounts I would be more worried, as it would mean we’re completely detached from whatever normal people are up to.
I use it for marketplace that’s all. Fake name, no friends.
I only still have fb for 2 reasons.
Work contacts.
And FB Marketplace.
I never use it. Never browse it. Never post.or comment. Don’t even scroll it.
It has all the local groups and my friends and family. I like to see what’s happening locally and with my friends and family.
network effect
Yup. I quit everything but Reddit several years back without a second thought in all that time because I lived in a big metropolitan city.
Now I live in a small suburb where all the towns and businesses post to FB, neighbors have tradeposts and active interest groups on there, the schools and Police post info there too. My wife has connected to “friends” we otherwise wouldn’t exchange info with.
All that has had me wanting to create a new account - just to connect. I was completely ignorant to the role it plays outside of big cities beforehand. Nextdoor is a really crappy alternative.
I tried nextdoor but nobody was on it compared to the thousands in the local facebook group.
The few people on ours are local real estate agents and severe weather alerts lol
Nextdoor is the Boomer HOA of social media
Not missing much. It’s full of WASP-y pearl-clutchers.
Lucky that I’m a misanthrope so I don’t care about leaving communities and acquaintances behind.
Also reddit - why still keep using reddit
Reddit has communities without active alternatives here 🤷
I have switched to using a WPA version with Adblock
Way, way more content. Lemmy isn’t even close.
Must. Consume. Content. 🤖
I mean that’s why you’re here too. Lemmy would be all I needed if all I cared about was Linux and Star Trek memes. But lets say I want a live thread with hundreds of people all watching the same sporting event I am and chatting about it, I’m going to need to go somewhere else.
Besides from the Turkish shooter meme, there was barely any engagement in the Olympics here. Our interests here are so niche not even the largest sporting event in the world can get our attention.
But at what price!
Niche interests and/or local stuff. My city has basically no activity over here, so I still browse the local subreddit regularly.
Never used any bar Reddit, then binned that for Lemmy.
Same. Lemmy is the only social media I use as well after I dumped reddit.
Obligatory: fuck Spez.
Yeah, it’s always surprised me a little bit just how strong they still are. While the often-online do tend to shy away from it, it’s actually still a preferred platform for the less-online, due to how easy it makes coordinating real life events. Also not the sort of segment that usually cares much about data privacy.
Sorta’. Far from actively. The landscape is unrecognizable from it’s origin and the way it’s used is even more foreign. It’s 95% ads.
I don’t integrate it with anything else, but facebook remains my best option for getting current contact info for anybody from my past. Even after the enshittification, it remains an effective Rolodex. Rolodex…I am old.
You’d be surprised how much you’re integrating it with everything else. Facebook has installed trackers on most major websites, and without the right tools blocking it, they are essentially following you everywhere.
that happens regardless of whether you have an account.
Fair point, but I still need a quick way to tell people about upcoming funerals. On the plus side, I’m between the wave of friends’ baby photos and the wave of grandbaby photos. Which is nice.
And yet your life would be almost literally no different if you didn’t speak to a single one of them again after dropping the charade of cordiality and reminiscing.
You clearly haven’t met all of my friends.
Sure I haven’t, Bob.
Hahaha! It was a good bet on my part.
That’s how I’m connecting with friends and family for the most part.
Everyone seems to make this excuse for using Meta like it’s no possible without meta. They’re a piece of shit company, we shouldn’t be making excuses to stick around.
I can’t convince all my acquaintances in my group chats to switch platform.
They don’t got a goddamn phone to SMS with???
Let me guess, you still use Twitter too
They don’t have email?
It’s 2024. People don’t socialize over email anymore.
But… But… Marketplace something something
I actually tried to use marketplace a few weeks ago. It was an unmitigated disaster. People either didn’t respond, had stale posts for items, or couldn’t get their act together to have a conversation (even with 12 hours between messages) about how to get shit out of their house. I have never yearned for old-fashioned yard sales so much.
I’ve used Marketplace many times without issue.
Come up with a reasonable replacement product, and do it through an ethical company, and people might switch. But you’re not gonna convince people to give up the convenience they’ve relied on for a decade without a really good reason, and “this company is evil” is way too esoteric for most people.
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Oh come on, that’s like “all politicians lie”. There is “I record every millisecond of your private life to sell to anybody with a fat enough wallet” evil and there is “I am raising prices this year because I can” evil. The two are not the same.
Companies have forced everyone else out of what was previously a functioning non-commercial space. We have more choices than “evil company” vs “nothing”
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Social media has barely been around for 20 years, we kept in contact with those we wanted to just fine before it. But now with social media you’re in contact with all of them all the time, even the ones you aren’t particularly excited to see once a year on the holidays.
Half of that is why I ditched it in the first place
Yes because none of them have a goddamn phone number, can’t talk to em unless you have a facebook account!!!
Jesus fucking Christ what a bunch of bullshit
We are your friends now and we are your new family
That’s unsettling
It is at first but you will soon get used to it
True, brother
Rockandstone.mkv
Cool can i borrow a few thousand dollars? Thanks
Sure! You first have to send me a comparatively small sum of 500$ so that I have your address and than I will send you 7000$ at a not specified moment in the relatively near future.
If that sounds shady, it’s not, I’m a Persian prince and therefore not allowed to do scams. It’s forbidden by law here in Persia.
<3 ily xxxooo
Haven’t used Facebook in probably a decade, but as a photographer Instagram is still the most active platform I’ve tried. Vero is weird. PixelFed is pretty empty, mostly people’s snapshots. Others either cost money or aren’t really good on mobile.
How about cara.app or is this more like art and not photos?
I don’t use any other social media sites. I don’t even have accounts to them.
I have a bare bones FB profile for neighborhood info (were those gunshots?), school stuff, local businesses, etc.
Dang. Friend, I think you need a new neighborhood.
Spoiler alert: it’s never gunshots
