So Facebook allows its users to import content into their newsfeeds now? Competing with aggregators like Friendfeed? Big deal. The service is already loaded with features that provide no value, so adding a new one isn’t going to make it any better. Let me provide you with five reasons I personally don’t like Facebook very much (hey, it’s just my opinion).
Facebook is a large walled garden that allows users in but never, ever let’s them out.
Even after deletion fo an account your data is still within the Facebook databases. Moving to another service with your data is impossible. Getting your data out leads to account deletion (not data deletion, that remains with Facebook). I don’t like customer lock-in, I want customer freedom.
Facebook is based upon a flawed business model.
They use the free but ad-based business model which is fine when you are a giant search company, but really sucks when your main objective should be allowing your users to interact. There is no place for ads in interaction. It’s merely trespassing in conversations between friends.
Facebook newsfeeds are highly overrated.
They might have been the first to implement them, but the newsfeed sucks. I recently took a picture of my own newsfeed and it has learned me that one of my friends is playing Scrabble, three people added an application, someone had changed his profile picture (which was sort of obvious as I could already see that it had changed), and some advertisement for large Facebook groups I should be in. I’m not interested to read ‘Alexander went to movie X”. I’m interested in personal message like “Hey, I went to movie X last night. Had a great time, you should go see it too”. The first message was an Orwellian Facebook Big Brother is watching you headline. The second one was a personal message from a friend. Pick the one you like best.
Facebook is spam.
Can’t say it any clearer. While a lot of Facebook’s intentions (and those that create Facebook applications), might be to provide the user a good time, it is spammy as hell. I get a lot of requests to look at things my friends send me, only to find out I need to forward it to other friends too. Often even before I get to see the content. I don’t want to harass my friends with that. Which reminds me that I need to talk to the person sending me that stuff too 😉
Facebook is about data hogging, not about user value
Facebook isn’t there to provide its users with value. It is there to collect all the data it can get out of you, your social graph, your actions inside and outside the walled garden. It needs to do this in order to fuel it’s business model (that is why the business model is wrong). Facebook shouldn’t be hogging data, they should be providing user value. Instead of customer lock-in, they should be thinking about customer freedom. Instead of importing feeds from other sites, they should be opening up themselves to third parties. Instead of locking me down they should allow me to leave if I want to and taking my friends and data wherever I want to go. But they don’t, and you already know why.
@vanelsas 
I have very similar feelings about facebook – particularly the “spammy” nature of it – haven’t really started to spin it yet – we shall see.
What made me comment is your sentence:
“There is no place for ads in interaction. It’s merely trespassing in conversations between friends.”
– I firmly believe that –
I reached this blog post through your tweet –
Twitter is blowing me away at the moment – I am finding significant value in the information that I choose to receive – for sure – there is a fairly high signal to noise ratio, but with tools like twhirl – it gets easier everyday.
There is discussion on the “monetization” strategy for Twitter – whatever it is, I hope it doesn’t include ads – that would kill my part of the dialog very quickly.
nice post – thanks!
your such a facebook hater alexander. I think its your friends who are on there. I quite enjoy the service. Most users don’t care about the walled-garden aspects, or business model. They just want to look at pictures.
doug. I write about the effects of technology om human behavior. I don’t hate Facebook. But I do question the value it provides. The value they provide is based upon their business model. Hence this post
I have to agree with Doug here.
“Facebook is a walled garden”
Sigh. So is Twitter. Good luck exporting all of your Tweets in an easy fashion.
With Facebook your Events are exportable as industry standard iCal files and you can also subscribe to them as a feed in any calendar client.
With Facebook all of your status updates and your friends status updates are available as RSS feeds.
With Facebook all of your notes(blog) and your friends are available as an RSS feed.
What “data” exactly do you want to move that you can’t already? Wholesale email addresses and contact info? Thats not your information to be putting into other services.
“Facebook is based upon a flawed business model.”
So is Twitter, who haven’t made ANY money yet.
“Facebook is spam.”
Don’t know about you but I get about 5 spam followers everyday on Twitter which requires me to deal with in my email. Fortunately Facebook has introduced a feature to block all requests from friends so I pretty much get no app spam anymore.
And in any case, its your own friends who are spamming you, not “spammers” in the true sense. Have a word with them. Tell your friends not to spam you.
“Facebook is about data hogging, not about user value”
This is just nonsense Alexander. Absolute nonsense.
Do Facebook want to garner as much data as possible about users? OF COURSE.
But to say they aren’t about providing user value is just ludicrous and a comment that sounds like something that would only exist in the Twittersphere.
Ask anybody who is a “normal” Facebook user and they appreciate being put in touch with long lost friends, a photo service more relevant to them than Flickr, an ad hoc grouping system thats more relevant to them than Basecamp, an Events system that is more relevant to them than Upcoming, and a mobile video system that is more relevant to them than Qik.
I am becoming very tired at the Facebook hate from the Twittersphere. What they need to realise is that “normal” folks were on Facebook before the web 2.0 crowd jumped in with the launch of Platform (ironically the very thing said crowd is most annoyed about) and they will be there long after the crowd moves onto the next shiny thing.
“Facebook newsfeeds are highly overrated.”
This is the one point I somewhat agree with.
The Newsfeed used to be great. It was limited to stories that mattered. Letting applications in there was a huge mistake IMO.
The second part that has gone wrong is in updating. I have no idea what has happened but it is incredibly slow to update these days. I see the same stories 6 hours after I last checked, when I know there has been more activity within my network.
@Jamie thanks for the in-depth response. I’m not sure how to respond to the Twitter comparison but I’ll try to react to a few comments you made.
With respect to the walled garden. If I have 500 friends on Facebook (and yes they are mine, not Facebook’s), I can’t take them with me to another service. I don’t want them for wholesale reasons, but for interaction reasons. Facebook protects the social graph being build over there, but it is really the users that build it.
With respect to the wrong business model. I have written different posts on that. I won’t try to repeat all of my arguments, but in general I believe that if you choose a free but ad-based business model the value that is being build lies in the network you create. The larger the network, the more the value. It focuses the attention of Facebook on the network, or social graph. Not on the users. If interested, read this post, it explains it quite well:
Facebook and Facebook applications are spammy in my opinion. They focus on me having to forward the content to my friends. In return I might get something. Call it what you like, the purpose isn’t to provide me value, it’s to collect social graph data. I find that very spammy.
With respect to my “nonsense” claim. Facebook obviously provides people value, otherwise they wouldn’t be so popular. But at the same time many are ignorant about the way it works. They aren’t aware that everything is recorded for later use. And if your main purpose is data hogging, then it immediately shifts focus away from user value. If they were concentrating on user value, they wouldn’t be a walled garden, for example.
I’m sorry you are getting tired of negative feedback on Facebook via Twitter (not sure what the link is to this blog).
Anyways, these were my 5 reasons why I personally don’t like Facebook as much. You have every right to your own opinion 😉
Sorry, that came off a little snarky. Should’ve included a ” 😉 ” after the “you’re such a hater” remark.
One of the things I see all too often in tech reporting, is a tendency for a very sophisticated web user (such as yourself) to apply their rubric to all users.
I don’t think a teenager who spends an hour a day on the site gives a cr@p about data hogging, business models, et al.
Teenagers are where the money is – the site owns that market – even if the company hasn’t fully monetized its usership.
@Doug no problem, I don’t mind if people take opposing views, that helps the conversation going. While it is true that techies are more aware of the things Facebook does, I also think there is a need for us to make this clear to people that are unaware of the things social networks do in return of a free service. Teenagers might not give a crap, probably because they don’t know big brother is watching them. But they do care. I recommend looking at the blog of Zephoria. She often writes about her research results and talks about teenagers and privacy.
Alexander,
I totally agree with you about the wall garden Facebook strategy, the spammy (annoying) intrinsic nature of the Facebook applications.
I partially agree with about the user value statment: I was able to get in touch again with people I lost trace. The user pays a price for that: data hogging by Facebook of his/her data that are walled as well.
With regard the flawed business model there is one nice thing: that remains with Facebook not with the users.
The issue of the data
1. The privacy noise about facebook is overblown.
The fact is Facebook has the best privacy package, not the other way around. Facebook allows the most highly granular access control among comparable social networking sites. You can be 100% public, public but not search indexed, public to just school and/or geographical location, public to just friends or friends of friends, or not public at all. And beyond that, you can slice and dice your profile to control who can view which parts, down to the level of a single person, by leveraging limited profiles, contact groups, and application privacy.
In short, facebook has the most sophisticated privacy options available and respects your choices consistently (RSS, API, and news feed functions all honor your permissions).
Novice users see FUD like this and misunderstand the issue. They either think your profile remains available to other users after you deactivate it (FALSE), or they think that there is no way to delete content you’ve posted to facebook (FALSE).
You have the choice to delete your content items from Facebook at any time, and once deleted it’s gone. If you choose to leave the content there but deactivate your profile, it lies dormant but inaccessible, unless you choose to reactivate again later.
This is a feature not a bug. I’ve known several friends who’ve deleted their myspace in a fit of emotion and wished they could hit undo the next day.
The only real privacy concern here is what Facebook could/would do with your stored, unpublished data — a question only of concern for politicians, pedophiles, and paranoid delusional types.
I am reminded of a recent boinkology post entitled “Nobody cares about your old sex video.” Likewise:
FACEBOOK DOESN’T CARE ABOUT YOUR OLD SEX VIDEO!
If you have the one odd drunken note, pic of you engaged in illegal activity, or terrorist greeting card on your Facebook, I suggest you delete it now and stop over-inflating this non-issue.
Points 2 through 5 on your list are equally flawed but I feel like I’ve exhausted my reply length.
@nariprosa thanks for the lengthy response. I agree with you on the first part of your reply when it comes to the public aspects of my profile. But I wasn’t talking about my privacy with respect to other Facebook users. I was talking about my privacy with respect to Facebook itself. They hog everything and use it.
This qwuestion doens’t just concern politicians, pedofiles (weird comparison), or paranoid delusional types. I hope you don’t consider me any of these 3 types. I believe it concerns the Facbook user. He or she needs to know and understand EXACTLY, what is being stored and for what purposes. And they are often very unaware of this. And that is not a good thing. I see it as my task to write about such things, hopefully to make people aware, and think about it.Equally I hope it will lead to more user centric web development. Bring on the rest of your comments if you like, that’s fine with me.
Thanks for inviting me to continue my remarks after the privacy diatribe; that’s very classy of you. 🙂
My reactions to points 2 through 5:
2. “There is no place for ads in interaction.”
You’re taking a hardline stance with this remark, and IMO it is one that does not ring true in actual usage. Facebook ads are not intrusive.
I’m glad you mention Facebook ads, because again, this is something they’ve done surprisingly well. Facebook ads are positioned in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen, in a small box below the app tool panel. If I had to guess from eyeballing it, I’d say they take up 3% of screen real estate.
Many of the ads are text only, and the ones that do have an image with it are not animated, loud, or tricky (e.g. “click here!” etc).
The ad content and targeting on Facebook is good enough that I have actually clicked on a few of them. These facebook ads have user-driven stuff like political causes, and local/regional events mixed in. I’m finding it actually useful, and that’s how it should be.
Contrast that with myspace where you have to view a huge banner ad first and then scroll past it just to begin seeing the content of the page, and that banner is usually flashing and/or jiggling, and taking you to a site that probably tries to install spyware, and you can see that there is no contest.
What is the alternative business model by the way? Pay to join? That would kill any social networking site instantly, thereby defeating the usefulness of it.
3. “The news feed sucks”
Problem is between the chair and the keyboard here. News feed alerts of the kind you mention are configurable in the News Feed control panel, which again, is quite granular. Personally, I want to see when my friends join groups and change their profile, but this is something you can dampen by moving the control panel slider for these actions down to zero.
4. “Facebook is spam.”
Lets be accurate here — 3rd party facebook applications are spam, not facebook itself. I’ve recently discovered some of these apps have an opt out “Ignore invites from this person” button if you go to your notification page and click it. Avail yourself of this option.
Finally, tell your friends if you don’t want to be invited, cause they’re the ones who did it. This complaint is like someone calling the cops about the neighbor’s music without going over there and asking them personally to turn it down first.
5. “Facebook is about data hogging, not about user value.”
Facebook is a social networking site. It’s *supposed* to be a platform for user content aggregation, and it does its job extremely well.
And facebook is open to third parties. Clipmarks.com is a great example. Yes, you can import your clipmark RSS feed into your facebook notes — that’s the old way. Or, you can use the Facebook app that Clipmarks itself wrote, and have access to the same functionality, user network, branding, and look and feel of clipmarks.com embedded right into your Facebook.
It sounds like you’re writing from the point of a view of a burned third party website that wants more clicks for its content. If so they should stop complaining and instead follow the clipmarks model to design Facebook apps in a such a way that are useful and fun for the user, while at the same time driving hits back to their site.
By the way, why don’t you have trackback URLs enabled on your blog? Talk about data hogging.
In conclusion, I really feel like you were stretching to make this a list of 5, and that your points aren’t strong enough to be of concern to someone considering joining or remaining on Facebook. I wanted to give another perspective because I think Facebook has such a thoughtful, nuanced implementation and is a delight to use. I can only hope that everyone gets on board so they can enjoy and stay in touch too, and I can finally put my other social networking accounts to death.
@nariposa a lengthy response again, thanks for taking so much time for it 🙂
In response to your comment:
2) This is highly personal of course. I don’t like ads in friends interaction, you don’t mind. I do seem to recall (but have to dig for the link) that the click rate on Facebook ads is low, suggesting that they aren’t as effective as Google ads for example. The reason for this is quite obvious. As serve a purpose when I want to buy/look for something. But they add no value to my interaction with friends.
3) Its a personal thing again. You like it the way it works, I find it very unpersonal, mostly because the stuff that is shared is unintentional. I wrote a post about unintentional sharing earlier if you want to read about my thoughts here:
https://vanelsas.wordpress.com/2008/04/03/why-i-dont-like-friendfeed-as-much-as-i-wanted-it-lacks-intention/
4) Facebook is responsible for 3rd party application developers on their platform. They have stimulated development and created a situation in which spam could start in the first place. After that the user is of course responsible for his actions
5) Here you address more than one thing. For my thoughts on why data hogging leads leveraging network value instead of user value I suggest you look at this article below (don’t believe my words, Mark Zuckerberg is quoted a lot here):
https://vanelsas.wordpress.com/2008/03/11/facebook-is-fighting-a-lost-cause-they-just-dont-know-it-yet/
Wrt your suggestion that I write from a point of view of a burned 3rd party website. I’m just a guy, writing a blog. I’m not making any money out of it. I just share my thoughts and interact with the people that take the time to read it. If you don’t agree, that’s fine.
BTW I don;t have trackback URLs because WordPress has implemented automatic pings, no need for trackback URLs. You are accusing me of data hogging here, but I don’t . I write on a blog post without commercial purposes.
I’m in the middle of writing a post on how Facebook could be more successful in terms of revenues and user value. Maybe you’ll like that better (or not, I don’t mind either way)
2) “I don’t like ads in friends interaction, you don’t mind.”
Google ads is a great comparison because they are arranged the same way as Facebook ads — far off on one side of the screen, where you don’t even have to look at them in order to complete your business if you don’t want to. Except with google there are multiple ads, and with Facebook there is only one.
Again, this sounds like a purist objection to me, when in effect you don’t even see the little ad as you’re browsing Facebook (unless you make it a point to look).
3) “You like it the way it works, I find it very unpersonal, mostly because the stuff that is shared is unintentional.”
And if you dislike that you should disable these on your news feed.
For that matter, your friends have full control over which kinds of activity and applications post alerts to their news feed too. They could disable these if they want to.
Lets imagine if impresonal news feed alerts were disabled by default, forcing the user to enable them. You know most people won’t bother to configure anything, so effectively I wouldn’t be *able* to hear about the activity I want to.
The logical conclusion of your argument here is to turn the thermostat up for everyone (disable unintentional sharing), when really you could just put on your jacket (disable news feed alerts).
4) “[Facebook] have stimulated development and created a situation in which spam could start in the first place.”
This is fair. I expect we will see some stronger opt out features in the future since there is a lot of grumbling about this issue.
5) “For my thoughts on why data hogging leads leveraging network value instead of user value I suggest you look at this article …”
Ok, the only thing I can think of where users have such control is blogging. You have platforms like wordpress and livejournal that allow you to import/export posts. In that case, I can see why facebook Notes are less tempting for power users. The average user writes a Note and forgets about it, but if you are in the few that are highly invested in your content, then you should choose one of those more flexible platforms (which you can then import summaries of into Facebook Notes!)
But other types of content you could create on Facebook: tagged photo albums, favorite videos lists, forum posts, status updates, etc… I can’t think of any OTHER platforms that allow you to import/export this content either. Flickr, Youtube, Twitter…none of these services provide ways to move your content elsewhere. Why would you expect Facebook to?
If this is a concern, you are not the target audience for Facebook, and you should also host this stuff on your own private server. (Which you can then share via Facebook!)
5b. “Wrt your suggestion that I write from a point of view of a burned 3rd party website. I’m just a guy, writing a blog.”
I wasn’t suggesting you had ties, but it sounded like you were speaking from a POV that is informed by the kind of interests these sites would have.
5c. “BTW I don;t have trackback URLs because WordPress has implemented automatic pings, no need for trackback URLs. You are accusing me of data hogging here, but I don’t.”
Fair enough. I didn’t see a trackback URL advertised anywhere so I did not understand that I could do a trackback anyway, otherwise I might’ve posted this huge rant on my own blog. Accept my apologies for that inaccurate little jab, and thanks for schooling me on my own blog software!
I will look at your next post and thanks for the back and forth.
Reasons social networking is bad…
http://everything2.com/?node_id=1937902
Alexander: Nice Post
Nariposa: Either you work for Facebook, or you’re a very sensitive person. Who cares, Facebook sucks.
Please change your pic to a happier one.
Scroll all the way to the bottom of your news feed… all the way down.
http://www.facebook.com/feed_prefs.php
You’re welcome.
@Dusty Thank you, doesn’t make the experience much better for me, but its a good tip 😉
@Norton
Either you have a substantive response, or you don’t. Please raise the level of discourse to something more than “it sucks, and so do you.”
Wow, talk about uptight. Alexander, you are all so right, however, i have a much “simpler” reason for not liking face book: It SUCKS!
Its simple, it just looks terrible. I could care less about the large banners at the top of MySpace, MySpace is just plain better.
PS-If nariposa’s pic is any indication of the joy facebook gives, ill stay far away 🙂
This is trollbait. I don’t believe for a minute that anyone reading a blog on new media honestly and truly believes that “myspace just looks better.” Unless your closet is full of scratchy, uncomfortable sweaters festooned with shiny sequins.
I’ll defer to the Entire Rest of the Internet for reasons why myspace is a usability and design nightmare:
http://www.google.com/search?q=myspace+facebook+design+usability
I actually quite like Facebook. What I don’t particularly like is the status updates. I don’t really care if someone has got home, or someone is making lunch. That is one reason I hate Twitter. I don’t mind if someone has got something significant to tell, like they passed their driving test, but I don’t care if someone is eating or can’t be bothered to go to work, we all experience that, it is boring. If I wanted to know what someone was doing I would have a direct conversation with them. I also don’t really care that one of my friends has written on someone elses wall. The only thing I really take notice of on the news feed is relationship changes which is quite entertaining lol.
Amazing post Alexander. I totally agree with you on everything about Facebook. Personally, I’m creeped out at the fact that one cannot simply leave facebook like most other networking sites.
For me, it took nearly a week to get Facebook to completely take all my data off their servers. I think that’s really terrible on their part because most people wouldn’t think that their data stays with them.
Most people would just leave and think their stuff is gone, but that’s not the case with Facebook. Aside from that little tiny privacy intrusion, Facebook seems too plain and really boring.
I’m not here to say that MySpace is any better, but IMO it’s not as boring as Facebook.
Great post!
P.S. If you sound like a third party developer who got burned by Facebook, then Nariposa certainly sounds like she works for Facebook. It almost sounds like she’s personally insulted that somebody would find Facebook horrible.
Alexander,
I stumbled upon your blog while searching the topic “facebook sucks” on Google. I recently deactivated my Facebook account and I was searching for someone who might hold the same disposition that I now have after nearly three years of having a Facebook page.
As a college student, I believe Facebook has dampened the college experience. So much of our interaction is placed on having a Facebook page. Invitations, keeping in touch with people, whether they are near or far in distance, and spending time with others is based on Facebook. I miss the social interaction I receive when I get a phone call or when someone actually talks to me in person.
I have the feeling that boys and girls too often sit on Facebook and look at pages of potential mates, yet never actually talk or send a message to them. If they do, I’m sure it is incredibly awkward. The only impression of the person that the boy or girl will get is what is on the Facebook page. This takes away from the social element of actually walking up to someone, introducing yourself to them, and talking about your interests, likes, dislikes, and so forth.
From my experience, and based on people that I know, I have come to the conlcusion that people use Facebook for viewing pictures, keeping up with friends without actually talking to them (be that verbally or through typing), “stalking” others, finding out information about someone (for example, their religion, what kinds of groups people have joined (so an opinion can be subconsciously, if not consciously, formed about a person), and wasting time by playing applications that are sent by friends.
While there are good aspects of Facebook, such as keeping in touch with friends when a college students goes off to school, sending out mass invites for parties, and networking with people around the world, I believe that this can be accomplished by methods other than Facebook, which contains the unnecessary demons.
As far as Facebook’s effect on human behavior, I believe people have become more isolated to their computers. From heresay, I have come to learn that alot of people spend an hour or so a day on Facebook. This could be an hour better spent by studying, going to an outing with friends, or relaxing by shutting of your phone and computer. I believe people have lose (when they use Facebook too often) the human element in communcation and socialization, which comes from actually being present and using verbage, hand signals, and physical touch to communicate with people.
Just my two cents. Cheers on a good post.
Good commentary. I can’t help to feel that facebook both sucks and rules – there is so much potential there for innovative, exciting interaction and yet we make do, no we become addicted to, the mindless stream of status updates and pokes…
Made this clip to sum it up:
http://www.4mations.tv/clip.aspx?key=C936029765F90190
It’s dinosaurs explaining facebook. Have a look!
We’re leading a movement to get comments on the new Facebook platform. Please leave your thoughts about Facebook on http://www.pollograph.com/ask/348/irritating-things-about-facebook/
Facebook is the most primitive, simplistic, and buggy thing I’ve ever seen. It seems to have been written by retarded children, what a joke.
Facebook is a SCAM!! They need to go out of business!!! The most ridicolous site I have ever had to use in my life. They have already deleted my account twice!!! I REPEAT TWICE..without any kind of notification or explanation. Also, there is absolutely nobody to help you with your concerns. There is the so called email address that is provided by their circus of a company that they are running and nobody ever answers you!!!
Dont you think that they should be sued? They are playing with people’s minds and time!!! Excuse me but it took me forever to find my friends online and create an account twice and they are constanlty waisting my time!!!
Facebook is full of copy cats. Just because one person thinks it’s cool everyone else does too. Whenever something new appears everyone will feel the same way the feel about myspace now
Do your 500 friends want to leave facebook?
Isn’t that like turning up at a party and then taking them all to your place instead.
I totally agree. I have been hearing the same stuff about facebook too. What do they do? They steal, copy off of other sites, and more.
To Doug (who posted earlier): Look at pictures? HA. So thats what facebook is for is what your saying. And by the way… who are YOU to say that someone’s opinion os wrong?
I don’t know if anyone agrees with me but i find the facebook too personal..i mean when you got a lot of friends it becomes difficult to know that what you are saying on facebook is left confidential..i personnaly think it would be great if facebook have a feature that shows who views your profile! that way at least you know who is seeing what..
Facebook is a liar because it says ” It’s free and ANYONE can join”. What a load of….
I hate facebook’s extremely redundant host of features that sort of do the same thing and most of the time u have to figure out what the hell it is, unless u got alot of time on your hands, u’d just skip it rather than trying to figure out. i.e poke and super poke, what does a poke even do?
Thank you Alexander. I appreciate your post.
I’m with Gergana!
I study communication and the C.A.S.E. of looser communication is Condescension, Abruptness, Secretiveness and Evasiveness.
I personally have experienced all four looser styles with Facebook. They talk down to their customers that have broken a Facebook rule. And they disable you abruptly. The rules are all vague and secretive, don’t make friends fast, what’s fast? … they tell you that they won’t tell you. Don’t eMail too much … what’s too much? … they tell that you they won’t tell you! You must use your birth certificate name but they won’t even give you a name when they finally do send a vague eMail back.
Once disabled, Facebook does not allow you access to your data. Friends think they’ve been de-friended without reason. On and on.
And …
The terms and conditions basically wave all rights and reasons.
The compromise to give up all the personal info to get in touch with long lost relatives and friends seems worthwhile but is it?
Well …
I’m probably going to attempt to go back on only because there were people I got in contact with that I was not successful in communicating with on any other kind of format.
I throw in the white towel to big-brother Facebook and will use it to a minimum until there is a better medium that fits the world you (Alexander) are suggesting.
I commend you on educating the public on what is going on behind the garden-wall. People get comfortable and familiar and then don’t question … who’s doing what with all the info including eMails. It may be private to the outside world but it’s the insiders of the insiders that have the real private info. Also if you do have and gripe you don’t have any rights.
I also thank you for the forum to voice my frustration … loser communication sets off anger and indignation and when everyone around me is enamored by Facebook there’s no one who ‘gets’ it.
Pass on Facebook. I am not confident that I have full visibility or control over how much of my information is shared.
facebook is for married losers or for people who want to show people their ugly kids and want attention.
+1 to this article. really goes a long way to explain why facebook sucks but of course there is much more to it
I agree with all of this despite the fact I am on facebook
I agree with all that you said and too want OUT. Really sorry I ever sighed up for SpamBook. Sometimes I wonder what the hell is WRONG with these people I call friends
This facebook is really horrible, ive been a member now for only a few weeks and i hate it.. Fair enough you might say, so delete it… Yeah right, have you tried to delete your facebook account. You can deactivate it sure, but try to permanently delete it!! I tried several times to use the delete facebook account link, and it simply doesnt work, Not the link but the capacha thing, you just get errors everytime, try to deactivate your account with the same system and first time, no problem, but want to delete and no way… and i cant help thinking this is done on purpose. Why do they want to lock users in, why wont they let go if we want to leave, why make is so hard. Strikes me this company knows its product is so rubbish, once they have you, they wont let you out. i want to delete my facebook, let go of me, i feel like a prisoner. What the hell is wrong with you facebook!!!
Why would they let you delete it? It’s a goldmine for government agencies. Facebook doesn’t owe you anything. You signed up on your own accord.
Well lesser site’s than facebook lets you freely leave, so why not facebook. where is it in the TOS thats says, once we have you and your data, we wont let you go. Mind you, i did what most people should do when signing up to something for the first time. Dont tell them your real name, dont tell them your real DOB, and dont place anything on facebook that you wouldnt want a stranger in the street to know about you. (more to the point me!) people have the legal and civil right to control their own data, and who stores it, outside governments. Facebook is not a government, all though its acting like a dictatorship. Facebook is trivial and means nothing, so why dont they let your data go. Its like going to the shop to buy a loaf of bread and being asked for your Name DOB and phone number. Facebook must be breaking so many Civil laws with your data (under the data protection acts) that something needs to be done about it., and them, and quick.
Why facebook sucks:
Complicated, awful layout
Ignores what users want
Sells our information
Creators are arrogant in articles
They copied their new terrible layout after Twitter’s… how original
Pingback: 5 reasons why Facebook sucks « John’s Wordpress Space
I have not joined facebook. I don’t like the look of it. Anything that has wall to wall faces in it such as myspace looks strange to me.
Some other things on the net are more interesting. I have no joined myspace either. I do music and love to socialize, but these mediums make me uncomfortable. It is very un-natural and none of it seems real.
Pingback: Snappy Answers To Stupid Questions | Where The Rubber Meets The Road
Let me preface this by saying I believe in online anonymity. I’m neither a sociopath nor paranoid. I just don’t trust that the information captured and archived won’t be used against me or to the benefit of profit-focused corporations. That said, my ramblings:
Facebook (Methbook), MySpace (CrackSpace), Google, dating sites, etc… are all in existence for one reason: to make money. There are benefits to the user for sure but only to the extent that the sites benefit more. Economics 101. Why don’t people consider that when subscribing to their “free” product? Didn’t your daddy ever tell you that nothing in life is free?
Trust should be earned, not given away like candy – especially to corporate entities. Why do people choose to share so much personal information to profit-focused corporations for what? So they can know when their long-lost friend takes a shit??? If you are that interested in Sally from high school, why didn’t you stay connected in the first place? Maybe Sally disconnected from you for a reason. You were a jerk then and there’s a high likelihood you are just a grown up jerk now. People don’t change.
People aren’t supposed to have 500 friends. Not only is it not possible, it’s not natural. It’s just plain dumb to go on a quest to collect them in the first place. In real life, you may know and maintain 20 or so moderately close relationships, most people far less. We naturally (as in instinctual) groom our acquaintance list to around 150 in the real world. (google Dunbar Number or see the wiki here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar's_number).
I’d be interested to know how many other social networking voyeurs there are. I have an account on many social networking sites but absolutely NONE are real. I use them solely for watching and learning at a comfortable, anonymous distance. Maybe I’m just an arrogant ass, but people are really just plain stupid about how much they share. Hell, I’ve even set up accounts as people I know and “played the part”. My friends are none the wiser.
yeah facebook is a vacume sucking the minds of little children into pop-culture and desire of popularity
I’m suing them. They defamed me. They said I joined a dating site (that they run) and publicly showed my profile. I did not join the site and never even heard of it. My fiancee saw this and needless to say there was trouble. Long and short of it they damaged me by making false statements about me.
I had a facebook account for awhile, I didn’t use it much for over a year, maybe more. I added a friend at the friend’s request and within a few days I ended up adding dozens of friends through a network of friends (close to 100). I was a prominent member of an organization of which former members now seek support through networking tools like facebook.
In addition to adding many friends I did have some nude pictures on there, I admit that I did not read the fine print and I thought that only a few friends could see the pictures.
I’m a little surprised that freedoms are surpressed and censorship is so punitive when facebook friendships are restricted to only those you allow to see your account. What happens between friends is the business of facebook? I was sharing pictures with close friends only. I wouldn’t want my mom to see them, therefore I wouldn’t accept her as a friend. Without warning my account was disabled.
I have mixed feelings about it. I question how “private” facebook is and I question their “punishment.” There was never an opportunity to correct the situation, which I would have gladly done. I question the “right” facebook has to allow you to establish a network that they arbitrarily take away, without any kind of due process there will be friends with which I will never be able to reconnect.
There are limits to how much any business can regulate or censor its customers, even violate their constitutional rights, when they invite the public to their business. If I am in a store and the store doesn’t like a picture I show a friend, can the store kick me out? Can they ban me from the store permanently? How far does public policy allow us to go with the censorship?
Facebook is a private company, but so is the telephone company and they can’t disconnect a call because they don’t like the subject of my conversation. The post office is not public and they can’t refuse to deliver mail for which they find the contents offensive. If I violate the policies of the phone company, post office or any store they do not have the right to dismiss me permanently without a warning, notice or hearing. Personally, I think it is a lawsuit waiting to happen.
Generally harm or loss must attach. In addition to the emotional distress people suffer, what about the connections people make to stay with others around the world? When those connections are lost, it isn’t difficult to calculate a monetary loss. In addition to many other scenarios, there may even be medical or healthcare advice being exchanged that could cause serious injury or death. I realize that facebook is putting the public on “notice” when it has the policy online. However, those wrap-around or adhesion contracts do not stand up in every state. Facebook should have an expectation that they could be hauled into court in any jurisdicton through long arm statutes and international treaty. I’m sure they address that in their “contract” as well, but, again, those don’t always stand up.
What’s also interesting is that apparently some receive a warning and some do not. This is but one of the warnings found on facebook’s “help center warnings.”
“You received this warning because a photo or video that you uploaded has been removed for violating Facebook’s Terms of Use. Photos and videos containing nudity, drug use, or other graphic content are not allowed, nor are photos or videos that depict violence or that attack an individual or group. Unfortunately, for technical reasons, we are unable to provide further information about the removed content. In order to prevent this from happening in the future, please refrain from posting photos or videos of this kind and remove any that still exist on the site.”
http://www.facebook.com/help.php?page=421
Apparently there are different standards for different individuals. It would be interesting to see the different standards used for different groups. In other words, is facebook discriminating? Does facebook have less tolerance for gays, lesbians, blacks, hispanics, women, etc.? They invited the public, they have to play by the rules of our society. The rules include some constitutional rights. While it is true that I don’t have to join facebook anymore than I have to go to a store, it is also true that no one ever said facebook had to open a business and invite the public.
I agree with Alexander.
Including facebook, several others , so called the social networking sites are actually social predators.
The only purpose is
“How to convert users to cash”
That s the whole idea behind these social networking sites.
I actually worked as a software developer in 2 major social networking site and the only idea is how we can make more money.
That is it.
and yes, the best way to make money is to collect user information, everything about users.
I m not sure if you are aware of it. But it s pretty scary.
You think you have privacy on the net. Think again.
These folks are social predators who have no respect for others.
I deleted my account two days ago, as one aspect of face book i find irritating is that you can view status comments made by people who arent on your friends list and vice versa, and many times what you say to a friend on facebook is something you may prefer not to get around a large group of people whom you may not like. especially if, like me , you come from a small town.
My mother called me last night, after i had deactivated my account, worried that something had happened to me becsause she couldnt find my facebook page! Haha, Shes sweet. I laughed and explained to her why id shut it down (“im sick of seeing assholes on there i dont want to know, i dont want these jerks knowing what i do, theyve all pissed me off – not you guys though, ill still email you!) and she replied “yeah i know what you mean. people write on it what theyre watching on TV – i dont want to know what theyre watching on TV!?” Haha.
I actually like facebook. But it’s no good when it comes to showcasing artists or bands. For that I use http://www.putiton.com
…don’t get me started on myspace 😉
Well you are ranting here more than talking sense. The data hogging thing is creepy, and if I may say, even unethical, you should be allowed to destroy all the data belonging to you over at Facebook.
The quizzes and apps are irritating, definitely. More about this here – http://is.gd/Mqu4
And about news feeds, Facebook has implemented their new layout which makes the newsfeed much more organised and easier to read.
Whatever happened to calling your friends on the telephone?
Today people hide behind text messaging, IM, e-mail, social networking sites, etc.
The generations to come are and will be socially challenged.
Sounds like it’s time for a retronym. (After electric guitars were invented, we had to name the others “acoustic.”) Now that we have “On-Line Friends” and “IM Buddies,” none of whom we can differentiate from casual acquaintances, we can refer to our intimates as “Really Good Friends.” Of course we will need acronyms: OLFs, and IMBs vs. our RGFs.
I know that facebook is a free service (although they still need us a lot more than we need them. If we don’t join who is left to look at their pretty addverts?) but their customer service sucks! I’ve been trying to get in contact with them for months now about a problem with my account but I haven’t once gotten a reply! If you’re really bored sometime why not try navigating the help pages through the endless circles they put you through. Facebook is NOT user friendly in any sence of the phrase.
Pingback: An end to Facebook | danwade.com
You have written to the point!!
Facebook has never been, in essence, about Social Networking. It has always been about making money, more money, and huge profits while luring people of all ages into their business model to raise their revenue. Many have fallen into their well-organized trap.
Actually I like facebook but I hate those annoying apps and games. All my friends talk about the mafia and farmville games and I really hate that. So, I guess I hate facebook as well.
your reasons are lackluster at best. I think about one of them holds any actual weight. facebooks business model is flawed because they dont want to charge customers money????? Facebook should charge money? Really? This is your brilliant genius business model for facebook? Youre a f#cking RETARD!!! Sorry, you just are. Shrieking geek complaining about crap that no one cares about. Data hogging? Serious?? They dont give us value? You mean a free service that connects me with everyone from a new friend to my grandma has no value? Your brilliant idea is for them to charge money? As far as spam goes, its because how hugely popular it is. Thats like complaining about your city dump smelling like trash. Get a clue webnerd!
Wow, you really disagree don’t you?
For someone who thinks that he’s a “Shrieking geek complaining about crap that no one cares about”, you really poured your heart in that comment.
I agree with the author on part 5(“data hogging”), as for the rest of the article… I don’t know, I only used Facebook for 2-3months last year, so I can’t really say I’ve noticed these issues…
What occurred to me back then was that Facebook -really- did not want to delete my account, and after some searching on the Net, I found people who had the same issue. So at last I found an (obscurely hidden) button in my account settings which would remove my account. Or so I thought…
Now, roughly one year later, I try logging in on my old account which I thought was removed, only to find myself reactivating it!
Apparently(or so I’ve heard) one has to send mails to the Facebook staff, asking them to delete the account…
On a side note: I had no idea there was a feud between Twitter people and Facebook people!(???)
Or so it seems from some of the earlier comments here.
Pingback: Matará caretobook a los blogs?
FaceBook is a lame excuse for people not to show their fugly faces in front of hot people. Like how are people sure that the person they are adding are really the ones in the pictures? FaceBook is just like every other internationl site that makes people join them because a lot of people are and it’s become a TREND. its as if you don’t joint he site you automatically suck. when someone is school asks me for my account i’d say “i don’t have one. its like friendster, its a lame excuse for people with no lives” which is true.. you can make friends in person.. is it that hard to run downstairs and say hello to your friend? are they that lazy? no wonder people are getting fat, they have their asses glued onto their seats just staring at their facebook pages and playing those shitty games you can play in other sites..fuck facebook.. thats all im saying… if you put the vulgar words aside i make sense..
Only lasted around 8 months on facebook and then deleted account – easy way is to google how to delete facebook account and click on something that says delete my account and it takes 2 weeks to fully delete but if you change your mind within these 2 weeks u can go back in . temptation or what! The reason why i left was due to spending hours on the addictive games that require you to check on dishes cooking in real time ex cafe world and it was too time consuming and typically needed to add people i didnt know to have more neighbours for the games to expand which requires you to to keep on these games to earn money for expansion – I believe it was fun for a while but then hard work and another chore as well – gifting and recieving gifts waiting for loading excetera. People are also spending lotsa money on buying things with real money as they are so addicted or take the games so seriously and spend so much time on them – due to age, lonliness,boredom and then it itself can isolate them into believing they have a family within the cyber world – viscious cycle. So time consuming and bad for ones health to be on the computer for great lengths of time avoiding reality to a certain degree and avoiding chores at home – now i do not miss facebook and feel like i also don’t have to prove myself all the time to others or compete for popularity or worry weather my photos make me look ugly etc That was the downside for me and if i wasn’t so addicted to the games and feeling more and more insecure if i didn’t really get any feedback or emails from old friends – too much work definitely Now don’t have to listen to what im missing out on or feel like someone else is better than me or don’t have to worry that my food will go off in cafe world etc. Im back to spending more time with family and keeping house clean and no more temptation. Have time for other more important things. There u have it . Would also like to add it is up to the individual to use facebook in a way that suits them and hopefully does not overtake thier whole existence . GOD BLESS ALL.
wanted to leave one more comment is that it is hard for parental control when teenagers go onto facebook and it can be a problem as constant interaction and uncontrolled behaviour could land them into trouble this being peer pressure and verbal abuse and who knows i believe the police and organisations like this could target this behaviour and land these teenagers into hot water – privacy being the issue ??? girls could be largly at high risk with pedophilea and inviting strangers . There have been cases on the news. I don’t think teenagers look at privacy or think before they post photos and comments.so risky for them. Facebook can be a breeding ground for uncontrolled behaviour. Whats acceptable to someone may not be acceptable to another. Morals can go out the door as people let thier gaurd down. The question is How do you want to be seen by everyone?? ok thats all folks
Ha, “5 reasons why Facebook sucks” yet at the bottom “Share this: Facebook”
😀
no offense or nothing, just kinda funny.
i only go on facebook really to pass time when i need to. if i absolutely have nothing to do, ill go on to talk with a friend or play a game for a few minutes, but i dot eally care about much else
I just want to mention I hate facebook ads. They are very annoying. A lot of posters commenting have anger issues.
Facebook sucks! It transforms perfectly nice people you know in real life into attention-seeking, narcissistic, self-centred, egotistical idiots. It’s always about “me, me and me”. The collective IQ of a facebook wall comments list must be in single digits. I never gained any productive information from that place.
It was annoying to read comments from those self-absorbed idiots in Facebook: “I did some holiday shopping”, “I’m getting married in December”, “I love the author who wrote the Alchemist…whats his name again?”…fuck off, idiot I’m not interested to do what you’re doing in your neck of the woods. However, I don’t blame them for their silly posts. After all, if I meet them in person, they’ll be talking the same. It’s just that I would rather tolerate your small talk in my direct presence than in Facebook first thing in the morning.
As soon as things came to a head, I simply decided to delete half my contacts, except most of the beautiful girls! I guess I can put up with some of their shit. Only, beautiful girls are allowed to stay in my profile. I generally avoid any new male contacts except 3-4 really close friends coz 1) the others are mostly lame and 2) they talk gay and 3) I never connected with them anyway despite spending several years with those same people in various walks of life.
I also generally avoid commenting on someone’s wall posts. Not that it isn’t worth commenting on sometimes. But, I hate the torrent of follow-up comments in my contact’s wall (lamer, each one than the rest) from people I never knew or if I knew them, hated those assholes with all my guts. I have also re-adjusted my Facebook settings so I don’t get annoying emails when some idiot decides to add me on Facebook or send some message or replied to a wall post 2 years back!
As of now, I have at least 16 pending friend requests from undesirable idiots who I actually hated in the past! I don’t want to wake up in the morning to see their fucking faces for the rest of my life.
Lastly, I have also limited the amount of time spent on Facebook. Even six months back, I used to waste 4 hours a day on that gay site. Today, I check my account once in three days or even 2 weeks!
The world was a happier place before that idiot son of a bitch called Mark Zuckerberg decided to create Facebook. Relationships were more meaningful and people were more genuine.
And, I hate this Facebook-addict generation. Either get out and meet me in real, or just fuck off! I dont need you in my life.
I totally agree with you Sahil…I have friends who post almost ‘everything’ about themselves in their facebook…”Oh, I went clubbing last night…”, “I had this super deluxe burger at…”, “I had a bad day today…” I mean, who the fuck cares? They are so self absorbed and such celebrity wannabe…they posted their stupid pictures, even the meal they take, cloth they bought…really…like you said, attention seekers…They totally misused facebook as place to connect with friends and families…
That’s why up till today, I still don’t have facebook…I have no intention to let the world know about my live and most definitely have no desire to know what those idiots are doing with their lives…being a private person is far better off than those seeking spotlights…
I hate facebook. Check out my blog for the reasons… http://hightrying.wordpress.com/
It’s just that facebook is too much information for everyone and it’s like a big high school reunion from hell.
It’s not just facebook. It’s actually the people in it that get sucked in the whole “Validate me”, “Sympathize with me”, “Pity me” and so on.
If you want check my posts about why facebook sucks in my blog: http://dumbpeopleannoyme.blogspot.com
I ‘ve deactivated mine like 2 years ago. I can’t say I miss it. I have more time and I don’t see what the dumbasses type in my screen.