Facebook

A year with Facebook by Nitin Khanna (nitinkhanna.com)

All this stopped on August 1st. The declaration came in the form of a blog post by Facebook on their developer portal on April 24th. It was hidden between a bunch of other deprecated APIs, which I’m sure broke a lot of other things for other people.

Most of my traffic in the past has come from Facebook. Back before Facebook deprecated the API, my photography posts would be automatically cross-posted to Facebook. Friends and family could see my travel or other photographs. Some clicked through to the blog and left comments. Many clicked liked or left comments on the Facebook itself. When I started using IndieWeb plugins I could even pull these responses back to my blog. All that stopped when Facebook deprecated the API. Traffic to the blog has fallen off and I don't make the effort to manually post a link to Facebook.

But what happened when the posts stopped? Nothing.

Same. I am not sure anyone notices that I don't post to Facebook. Is that the algorithm at work or do people just not care?

I’m tired of being Facebook’s fix. I don’t care for it any more.

What took you so long? Facebook only has the power we cede to it by using it. I am no longer angry at Facebook. Facebook is Facebook in the same way my wife is my who she is. Expecting here to change to meet my expectation of who she should be in foolish. Better to accept her as she is and learn to love her as she is. Or leave. Same for Facebook. Leave. Delete the account. I told my friends who complain about Facebook to put up or shut up.

While the company has morphed and plundered and established itself as the place to go to steal access user data, it should know that its main platform is tired and done for.

I don't think so. You are not the majority of Facebook users. When I log into Facebook, the complaints I see about Facebook are from tech geeks. The regular people have spoken. They like Facebook.

I know a lot of people have done this in 2018, but I still have derived some utility from it, so I’m sure it’ll feel somewhat bad to do so.

Define a lot? How did you do this analysis? I think this "Facebook is dead" talk is from a small group of tech nerds who are all in one echo chamber. Facebook is not in decline. Neither is Apple or Google. If you have actually analysis and data to back this up, please share. I have stopped using Facebook as much. My friends continue to use it as heavily as before. I see their timeline posts.

I specifically made it a point to uninstall Facebook (it came preinstalled for some reason), while I did install Instagram.

Facebook owns Instagram and has integrated all the data and analytics into its platform. So how are you signalling Facebook by using Instagram? Do they care about the usage pattern of the singular data point that is Nitin Khanna?

I have a question. What is it that Facebook could do to make money while doing nothing of the things that offend you? Is what you want the same as what the majority of Facebook users want?

Facebook had killed off an ugly experiment it has forced me to be a part of two years – the Facebook marketplace and Video tabs.

And how were you forced into this experiment? You also admitted that you've never used them.

I hope this does not come off as a defence of anything Facebook has done. I'm just trying to understand.

When I have a party at my house I hope that my invited guest understand that they must follow the rules of my house. If they don't like the rules, they are free to leave at any time.

Author: Khürt Williams

A human who works in information security and enjoys photography, Formula 1 and craft ale. #nobridge

One thought on “Facebook”

  1. What took you so long?

    One last attempt at using what a lot of people out there are still using. I'm still irked by the fact that my and my wife's experience of Facebook and Instagram is so different - I see an ad as the third post on Instagram. Always. Where does she see them? 15th post, if that. I wanted to try one last time to fix that.

    The regular people have spoken. They like Facebook.

    Isn't it our responsibility as tech nerds to inform the regular people that this platform needs to be killed off?

    How did you do this analysis?

    Fair enough. I've not done any analysis. I'm only going by 'feeling' and my echo chamber. Heck, I'm not a pioneer here. In my network, my brother was actually the first to delete his FB account. I've still not done that. Point is, I tried to like Facebook all over again in 2018. They shot themselves in the foot. I might be one voice, but hopefully, I'm one of many that will cause change.

    My friends continue to use it as heavily as before. I see their timeline posts.

    In my circle, Facebook and Instagram usage has actually gone in the way the company wants - people have started using the Stories features across all the properties - FB, Insta, and even WhatsApp. It's actively being used by those still not bombarded by ads. When Facebook squeezes them, they'll leave too.

    So how are you signalling Facebook by using Instagram? Do they care about the usage pattern of the singular data point that is Nitin Khanna?

    I'm signalling to Facebook that they need to kill off the primary property. That's a start that I'm willing to live with. Do they care about a singular point? They should.

    What is it that Facebook could do to make money while doing nothing of the things that offend you?

    Show me ads. Track me around the web. Sell my data. DON'T close off API access to good tools. DON'T bombard me with ads while the person next to me sees a pleasant, no ads experience. DON'T give me crap like Facebook Marketplace.

    how were you forced into this experiment?

    I was constantly shown the video and marketplace tabs. Facebook often prompted me to visit those pages with call-to-actions which had to be clicked on to get rid off. I was not given the opportunity to remove those features. Other people I know did NOT see both the tabs, they saw one or the other. I was forced into the experiment. Facebook has a long history of forcing people into these experiments, just because we're unwitting users of their shit.

    they are free to leave at any time.

    The tone of my answers above will come across as a little angry. But what it is, is resigned. I have not yet quit Facebook. I'm seriously considering a few things as to how I can get my data out and put it to good use. Not sure yet. As I've mentioned before here (http://www.nitinkhanna.com/why-tent-io-will-flop-and-what-we-should-learn-from-it/), even if I export my data, there's no place to import it. There's no way I can convince all my friends to jump ship to another social network. There's not even a social network we could all agree upon! So I'm at an impasse.

Comments are closed.