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Are you sure facebook is the right app though? They obviously have a large user base, but is facebook really being used anymore?

This is anecdotal, but everyone in my social circle is considering quitting facebook. They stick around for the same reason I am, because events are planned on facebook, because everyone is there.

No one really uses the wall though, and messenger completely died when it started forcing you to use it on mobile and people simply started using other message services because half their friends wouldn't respond until they were at computers.

That's not to say facebook the company is struggling. The wall has moved to instagram and a lot of people obviously use watsapp, but facebook itself is almost exclusively a better meetup.

Maybe this is different in the US, and it's certainly anecdotal, but it's the story I hear everywhere.

The user base is big, like you've said, and that means facebook has better potential than almost everyone else, I'll agree with you there, at least in theory. I just don't think Facebook is really a company with enough vision to disrupt online dating. If they were, they probably wouldn't still be trying to push facebook as their core product, and certainly not at the expense of their new apps that people actually like. I mean, it feels like the world is moving on, and Facebook isn't realising it, maybe because of their company name, but it just feels like they don't have the or any vision anymore.



> messenger completely died when it started forcing you to use it on mobile and people simply started using other message services because half their friends wouldn't respond until they were at computers.

To counter this with my own personal anecdote, in my social circles this is not true at all, and messenger has become even more of the messaging standard in recent times.


A second anecdote, every single communication for me is over FB messenger or iMessage. I occasionally get SMS messages but I refuse to use SMS long-term with my android friends, you just miss out on too many features.


What features do you miss out on by using SMS?


Encryption, authentication, delivery notifications, read receipts, typing indicators, group messaging, hyperlink previews, third party app integrations, (some) emojis, etc.

The experience of using SMS is spartan and incomparable to modern messaging applications like iMessage, Whatsapp or Facebook Messenger.


All Unicode emoji work in SMS, fwiw.


MMS is hit or miss on WiFi too. (Yeah I don't have signal in my apartment.)


Read receipts, typing indicators, delivery receipts, unlimited message size (text), better sending of media files and links to websites like previews)


Plus I believe SMS is not free, so you never used it as much


Plus, if you lose your phone and you don't have your SMS msgs backed up, they are lost forever pretty much. With messenger, because they are not device dependent, they are still there. You can access them from any device (mobile or desktop) which is connected to the net.

I haven't used an SMS in ages...can't even remember the last time I texted or received one.


Definitely. There are many friends and family members whose phone numbers I’ve lost track of I can easily contact via messenger. That’s amazingly useful.


My entire social life lives in Facebook Messenger. Maybe Messenger is dead in your social circle, but certainly not in mine. The Wall is dead though.


[flagged]


By Wall, 'msvan' meant News Feed I guess.


Literally half of all Americans actively use either FB or IG at least once a day, as of Q3 ending.


Also worldwide they have 2.27 billion monthly active users. Which is roughly a third of the human race.


At some point in the month those accounts make some kind of connection with Facebook’s auth system. Those accounts are almost certainly not 1:1 with people.

The real usage of Facebook is probably a fraction of that number. They have huge incentives to mislead about those figures.

A much better stat would be the number of individual people (eliminating known duplicates and businesses) who post an original post to their timeline each day, each week, and each month. Facebook don’t post those figures because they would be pretty darn low.


I actually don‘t believe those numbers without an independent audit.


Just stand in a subway and see what apps people are using. I’m in Southeast Asia and it’s Facebook or Line all the time. I almost never use it myself any lots of friends don’t either but these things will be correlated with my own preferences by nature. I also don’t read tabloids or watch reality tv but I know people on aggregate consume those a bunch.


It's ok. You aren't responsible for the go-no-go decision on this dating feature, so you don't need to believe the numbers.


Facebook is still being used, the majority of users are between 18 to 44 as can be seen on statista thru google search. However there is basically no young people. Having this dating feature kind of matches with their adult demographic who likely can pay. After all fb is dying with no young people signing up in North America, its gotta find a way out. Note that around the world but not North America and Europe there are still many young people signing up for FB.


> the majority of users are between 18 to 44

Yes but what kind of people? The only young people I see on facebook are married couples and kids.

Not exactly the prime dating demographic.


So, your friends list consists of married couples and kids. How are you confusing that with the overall demographics of Facebook?


I'm pretty sure Facebook users aren't more married than the average person. And kids aren't really on Facebook, not sure where you got that impression from.


By kids I mean parents posting photos of kids.


I mean, you kind of answered the question yourself, "considering quitting facebook. [but] They stick around"


I spend 4-6 months at a time without logging in. I don't delete my facebook because I used as a kind of blog for years and don't want to delete all that content yet.


There's a difference between having an account and using it.

I mean, I had a google+ account since the early days, but I used it about as much as I use facebook now.


And then goes on to say: because everyone is there and but it just feels like they don't have the or [sic] any vision anymore.


One example where Facebook is not just useful, but essential: crisis response. For example the butte county fire today.


I find that feature of Facebook pretty distasteful. Someone at Facebook said “how can we use natural disasters and terrorist attacks to boost our engagement figures?”


In what way is Facebook essential in this situation?


To see if friends and family are safe.


It's a stretch to call Facebook _essential_. If you're worrying about someone, pick up the phone. Using Facebook has its own heavy costs.


How do you keep track of the people -> current location mapping in your head? Are you going to suggest keeping a notebook for that?


I know where people live. I have a contacts list on my computer with phone numbers and email addresses. I don't use Facebook, WhatsApp, or any of those sites. There is a price for knowing exactly where everyone is at all times.

https://www.wired.com/story/our-minds-have-been-hijacked-by-...


There is also a price for knowing phone numbers and email addresses.

You can arguably do much more harm by utilizing a phone number and email address, compared to knowing which city someone lives in.


I don't see how, but if you feel so strongly about it you could put those cities in your address book as well.

It's still a huge stretch to call facebook essential. A growing number of peers and myself don't facebook, yet I don't know of anyone who has lost their home, job, and gone hungry because of it.


My social life and productivity have greatly improved since I quit Facebook. I also started to read more books, because my general concentration is returning.

Every time you read an algorithmic news feed, ask yourself, "is this more educational than reading a great book?" The answer will nearly always be no.


I'm referring to the huge cost of Facebook in productivity and cognitive functioning.

I don't think there is a price for knowing phone numbers and email addresses. It's much more harmful for Facebook to have my data than for people who I care about to have my phone number or email address. (My email addresses are public anyway.)


How is that essential? What are you going to do about it from wherever your remote location is?


Stress reduction.


The people I immediately care about being safe are people I can and will contact directly outside of Facebook. Everyone else, I’ll find out about eventually.


Anecdote - I don't know literally anyone who doesn't use Facebook, including my grandmother.


Hi, non-Facebook user here :)


Do you interact on the wall or in messenger?


Both, plus Groups and Events - groups are actually a huge major contributor to the development of shared economics in our country, a lot of people stick around because they want to participate in the hundreds of various interesting and well moderated groups (local food, housing, cars, ...) that are available in our language - I tried to find similar ones in English or other languages but failed. There are a few, but nothing comparable, discussion quality is usually much worse and ads are scam.


Plenty of people use facebook for the marketplace, I can see how a lot of them would use facebook for dating.




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