This is so wild, I'm thinking back to 2005-2007 when people were doing everything possible to get on Facebook. Waiting for Facebook to open up to their school or network so they could sign up and start updating their profile. Now there are so many attacks on the company politically, technically, and socially that I wonder if Facebook will be able to recover its trust with the community?
That cycle sums up all of my emotions about the Internet, from wild-eyed optimism and hopeful idealism circa 2000, to the modern reality where I feel heart broken, disillusioned, and disgusted with the way it all turned out.
Don't loose heart, it's still turning. Although the fraction of privacy-conscious, technically involved, and non-evil users has plummeted, the absolute number of them is much higher and still growing.
I never signed up for Facebook. I've been made fun of "oh but I thought you did computers, how come you're not on all these cool sites?". I've missed meetings and social events if they were organized over Facebook. I skipped on sites that only accept Facebook logins. However looking back, I feeling more and more justified and happy with my choice. Wish there was a place to pick up my free "I told you so about Facebook" t-shirt :-)
> This is so wild, I'm thinking back to 2005-2007 when people were doing everything possible to get on Facebook
Not everyone. Everyone I knew shunned facebook, laughed at myspace, looked down on youtube, you get the idea. For us, it was so odd that people would use their real identities and put their lives online. I think that period marked the true shift of the internet from a tech oriented population to the "normie" population.
I've never had a facebook, myspace or youtube account and never will.
> Now there are so many attacks on the company politically, technically, and socially that I wonder if Facebook will be able to recover its trust with the community?
There were similar attacks on social media back then too but not as vocal or widespread. Facebook, instagram and whatsapp are still growing so I'm guessing they will be fine.
Though I think facebook ( and the nytimes for that matter ) are toxic useless enterprises that humanity would be better off without, I don't think it or the nytimes are going anywhere anytime soon.
Also, keep in mind that facebook is banned in china and if zuckerberg can get his foot in the door, they may have another decade of significant growth.
Facebook should be replaced by a public service providing the same functions.
User would be required to signup with their id card ; and in case they screw up, would be hold accountable. It would allow to purge the network from a lot of shady practices, from users as well as advertisers and the organisation itself.
It makes no sens a private company owns the public sphere and the public discourse.
Well, saying things like "I think that period marked the true shift of the internet from a tech oriented population to the "normie" population" as if it's bad that other people get to enjoy the Internet, comes off as pretty damn smug.
I think it means that someone achieved what most of us wish we could have achieved: not getting dragged into getting used by social networks that mine our data and use it to manipulate our behavior. Seeing that someone has successfully done it increases the chances that other people will be able to do it.
Most people don't use those sites out of educated choice -- they got manipulated into using them and would want to leave if they knew what the sites were doing.
