Facebook killed the internet & I’m pretty sure that the vast majority of people didn’t even notice

[KoKo]

Death by Ten Billion Status Updates
How Facebook Killed the Internet
by DAVID ROVICS

Facebook killed the internet, and I’m pretty sure that the vast majority of people didn’t even notice.

I can see the look on many of your faces, and hear the thoughts. Someone’s complaining about Facebook again. Yes, I know it’s a massive corporation, but it’s the platform we’re all using. It’s like complaining about Starbucks. After all the independent cafes have been driven out of town and you’re an espresso addict, what to do? What do you mean “killed”? What was killed?

I’ll try to explain. I’ll start by saying that I don’t know what the solution is. But I think any solution has to start with solidly identifying the nature of the problem.

First of all, Facebook killed the internet, but if it wasn’t Facebook, it would have been something else. The evolution of social media was probably as inevitable as the development of cell phones that could surf the internet. It was the natural direction for the internet to go in.

Which is why it’s so especially disturbing. Because the solution is not Znet or Ello. The solution is not better social media, better algorithms, or social media run by a nonprofit rather than a multibillion-dollar corporation. Just as the solution to the social alienation caused by everybody having their own private car is not more electric vehicles. Just as the solution to the social alienation caused by everyone having their own cell phone to stare at is not a collectively-owned phone company.

Many people from the grassroots to the elites are thrilled about the social media phenomenon. Surely some of the few people who will read this are among them. We throw around phrases like “Facebook revolution” and we hail these new internet platforms that are bringing people together all over the world. And I’m not suggesting they don’t have their various bright sides. Nor am I suggesting you should stop using social media platforms, including Facebook. That would be like telling someone in Texas they should bike to work, when the whole infrastructure of every city in the state is built for sports utility vehicles.

But we should understand the nature of what is happening to us.

Continued at............

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/12/24/how-facebook-killed-the-internet/

[Initech]

1. I definitely noticed.

I won't participate on any message board or comment section that requires you to log in with your Facebook account. Facebook is the end of internet anonymity.

[on point]

3. Me neither. I dropped Facebook as soon as they thought they owned their customers.

No more Facebook posts, no Facebook access. Their lack of concern for privacy means they are dead to me as well.

[Initech]

6. I also won't play any game or use any app that requires social media access.

I love playing Angry Birds, but Rovio has practically killed the franchise by making all the new applications require social media account log ins, in app purchases (which I'm convinced are the devils) and access to permissions on your phone / tablet that give them way too much information. I'm not cool with that over a fucking cell phone game. I'd much rather play my old Nintendo systems, I can play those games without the whole world knowing what I'm doing.

[brooklynite]

56. You're not a customer; you're a user...

...you haven't paid them a penny; if you don't like the free service they provide, use something else.

[Ex Lurker]

5. I use it, but I remain keenly aware that it's a very public forum, regardless of privacy settings

and others will see it, including, perhaps, others I may not be aware of. I post with that in mind. My profile is intended to project the image I want the world to see, and everything I post is done deliberately and with forethought. Used in that way, Facebook is an effective tool. Used haphazardly, it can be dangerous.

[Initech]

7. Yup it can be very dangerous.

I swear every day a story comes up where some moron who is unaware that anyone can view what they post on social media, gets fired or arrested because of something they say on these sites. I very rarely use my Facebook page. I'll make the occasional status update but otherwise I don't post anything that could get me in trouble with the wrong people.

[yeoman6987]

11. I find it easier to use Facebook to log in other

Sites. Personally Facebook is the best website out there with regards to getting a message out to a vast number of friends and family. Of course the younger kids are on Instagram and snap chat which I joined to converse with them. Overall, I like social media.

[hollysmom]

29. Why my dog signs in with her account and comments on every thing ha ha <--- true story sort of

[Agschmid]

2. I don't use it really.

I have it but I don't use it.

[KoKo]

4. I have it but don't use it, either. But, the article goes into more detail

about how we use the internet these days and the changes in society. Unfortunately the snips I could give from the beginning of the article don't describe the whole thing. Maybe I will edit it to explain.

[ismnotwasm]

8. Hmm not sure I agree

I've had Facebook for just over a year, and other than the simplest communications It's fairly useless-- it's like reality TV or something. What's more interesting to me are news app sites, where I can fine tune my interests, go global, or local. They can introduce me to different POV's. I'm a reader--there are book groups like Goodreads. I can read articles from the Business insider. I can find references to scholarly articles in different blogs. Many, but not by all means all have a share button for Facebook or other social media. In fact what's surprising is how many don't.

Many of The friends I have on Facebook use it infrequently or not at all

The Facebook phenomenon is more about laziness that a dead Internet. I'm not sure people are less involved than they ever were if they don't care in the first place

[hfojvt]

9. was it facebook?

Or was it the cell phone and a multitude of video games? And twitter.

[RadiationTherapy]

10. The solution may be to recognize that near-instant, near-global sharing

of text, images, audio, and video and an open forum for doing so may be best served as a public utility.

[Hutzpa]

12. Now look where you're trying to take this to

public utility? Please God NOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooo

[RadiationTherapy]

19. I'm sorry near-instant communication between anyone anywhere in any medium

frightens you. Good luck.

[MicaelS]

13. Just imagine DU or one of its Conservative imitators..

Where the only login accepted was Facebook.

[SwankyXomb]

18. That's the Huffington Post. nt

[djean111]

26. I have a facebook account that I never use, and I never log in to sites that require me to use

facebook or gmail as my login. I clicked on a site today that wanted me to use my PAYPAL login. Um, nope. Good grief.

[Renew Deal]

57. I wouldn't use it.

Spotify has a Facebook option. I don't use it. I use the native login instead. I had a tripadvisor account that existed prior to Facebook. One of my friends pointed out that "anonymous" reviews were showing up on Facebook years after I made them. I went in and unlinked them as well as anything else.

[GusBob]

14. As I read this link about the death of the internet on a web forum I'm pretty sure I am confused

So instead of people sleeping or reading books on trains they are looking at their hand held devices and the internet is dead.

Because facebook. Or something

[Xithras]

27. Web forums like DU are a dying paradigm

With very few exceptions (e.g. Reddit), most web forums have been seeing declining participation and new enrollment numbers for a number of years now.

The writers complaint, if I understand it correctly, is about the death of Internet communities, and he has a very valid point. 15 years ago, participating on the Internet generally meant interacting with others on large forums or in online communities that exposed you to new ideas and publications, and where you were able to regularly interact with a large number of strangers. This allowed ideas to flow and spread easily.

Social media is largely responsible for the decline of that model. Nowadays, most people only get exposed to new ideas online if they happen to be "following" the person who is trying to spread it. We've become far more isolated and insular online, and the online interactions of the vast majority of Americans are now limited to people in their own social groups, a carefully curated list of people they are interested in "following", and major media centers. Want to talk about a news event? 10 years ago the DU model was still widely popular, and people would bring them back to a forum like this one to discuss and disseminate to others. Nowadays most people just post comments directly to the article itself, limiting its visibility to people already on whichever news site posts it. While online communities are far from dead, and will probably never completely vanish, they are no longer a central part of the online experience for the majority of Internet users. And even when people do seek more generalized interaction online, they're increasingly turning to more generalized forums (again, like Reddit) where they can cover many different topics without having to jump from site to site.

tl;dr: As my 21 year old daughter put it, "Dad, forums are for old people stuck in the '90's. The rest of us have moved on." She's a huge Tumblr junkie.

[GusBob]

31. Thanks for the explanation. I see it now

The books and naps on trains threw me off.

[Xithras]

38. The author took a confusingly circuitous route to his point.

Even now, I'm actually not 100% sure that it was the point he was trying to make, but that was my takeaway. It sort of meandered from idea to idea without ever really reaching any well defined conclusion.

A basic outline of the article seems to be:
* Facebook is bad
* The elites like Facebook.
* The 90's were better.
* People quit responding to my emails
* People quit posting on my favorite sites.
* Self publishing is bad because people post meaningless crap. Moderators made things better.
* I used to post things that made me feel cool and relevant. Nobody reads my stuff anymore.
* People in Japan like cellphones.
* Facebook is bad.

It actually reminds me of the kind of thing that I'd write after a few too many beers, after I'd convinced myself that I was the next Kerouac. Ultimately though, it's just a new twist on the old "things were better when I was young, and are worse now because they have changed" meme. Also known as, "Quit using the Internet in ways I don't approve of!"

[Lex]

42. Yes, that is how it came off to me too.

Facebook killed his band. Or something.

[GusBob]

52. Well said

the tag line "I'm pretty sure I know better than you" is ironic given the word and thought salad that follows.

Maybe the reason people stopped following this guy is he has trouble making sense?

[KoKo]

41. I guess you could read it that way...But, what registered with me...

is that we are all into "Selfie Living" and we don't care about the "Commons" anymore because we are Distracted by Distracting Opportunities that contribute very Little to Society as a Whole.

[GusBob]

51. I hear ya

it seems to me this is more of "the smart phone killed the Internet" vs. facebook. Hell even FB is passe' anymore...instagram, vine, snapchat, etc...all self indulgent to the max

I am with Xithras as he posted above ^^^^^ the article's message is garbled and poorly written ( hey everyone's a critic right?)

[flamingdem]

15. For people with an distant / international cause or circle or family

Facebook is nothing short of a money saving and connecting miracle.

For all of it's negatives it's absolutely revolutionizing communcation and relationships.

Personally I used a fake version of my name and don't put details in my profile as a layer of protection. Those who don't seem just fine however and in fact receiving multiple benefits from being themselves online.

The greater negative repercussions are perhaps yet to be seen but FB is popular for very good reasons.

[Blanks]

33. I live in Arkansas and grew up in Idaho and lived in Kansas for 16 years...

Prior to Facebook it would have taken a thousand letters to know what all of the people that I have met over the years are up to.

I get to converse with people that until recently I could only see at high school reunions.

Facebook has made the Internet different, I don't agree that it has necessarily made it worse.

I tried setting up an MSN message board for my home town a couple of years ago, but it was just too hard to make people aware of its existence.

[Hutzpa]

16. Ofcourse it's dead

people are quite comfortable Facebooking. What is Facebooking I hear you ask, well facebooking
is the act of playing games. chatting, sharing pictures while signed on all devices that is available to
you, all the while thinking it makes you look cool to your friends. Just the thought of that make me
laugh out loud.

If you don't think about your own privacy no else will.

[RadiationTherapy]

20. "all the while thinking it makes you look cool to your friends" What a silly assertion.

[Hutzpa]

23. To you it may be a silly assertation

since I'm speaking from a research standpoint and having seen, read and partly experience how people use
facebook, you and I will have to agree to disagree.

[RadiationTherapy]

47. I am a media and communication scholar and I certainly am interested in your research.

Particularly in the area of being "on facebook" as having an association with "looking cool." I personally am not really sure how one would research that. Please go on.

[Iggo]

48. In your research, these people have told you that they think they look cool?

[flamingdem]

43. How about high level academic and art discussion groups? There are tons on FB

It's quite stimulating if one can find groups that share ones interests.

Not only that it serves to promote artists and projects that are very political and / or socially redeeming in nature.

[nichomachus]

17. But without Facebook

How will someone know what some person they met twice is having for lunch?

Don't tell me I have to go back to the days where I had to take a photo of my lunch, go to the drug store, have the film developed, and then drive around to 257 houses to show people what I ate.

[GoneOffShore]

21. Where did I hear about Charlie Hebdo this AM

Facebook.

And where did I respond?

Facebook.

#CharlieHebdo #JesuisCharlie

[nichomachus]

22. Then you've done your part

A grateful nation thanks you for your service

[GoneOffShore]

63. Well aren't you just the most perceptive person I've ever met?

Actually, no.

And this is why my time on DU becomes less and less.

If I want real snark though I'll head over to Yahoo comments or Discussionist.

[adirondacker]

24. Thread win!

LMAO!

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

28. Well, yo could always keep your circle of friends

to a minimum, which is what I do.

I think I'm one of the few people in the world who declines most friend requests. I simply write back and tell the person that my Facebook is for keeping in touch with my children who live out of state. I love that I get to see photos of the grandkids every now and then.

[nichomachus]

30. Actually, that's what I do

I have very few FB friends -- and half of those I've excluded from my news feed, mostly because I'm not interested in where they're eating or drinking.

[hunter]

25. I've never visited the place, much less signed onto it.

Aside from my posting here on DU I'm pretty much a Luddite about "social media," and that includes telephones and email too.

[Coventina]

32. You & me both!!

I don't "get" Facebook.
The whole thing seems really silly and almost creepy to me.

But then, I have a 2003 'dumb' phone that doesn't even text, or have a camera.

So, if Facebook has killed the internets, I guess I haven't noticed.

[alc]

34. youngsters need to learn history

AOL killed the internet (in the 80's before it was the internet). At least that's what some people said when AOL got access and "we" had to start doing things different since our methods of communication were disrupted.

Communication is constantly changing and society adapts and improves.

[NYC_SKP]

35. Recommended. (nt)

[Blanks]

36. It's evolution.

The fact that not as many people are paying attention to the author is hardly proof that people have stopped thinking.

Just like anything, you have to change with the times. I read all kinds of stuff on the Internet, any time I'm curious about something - I just look it up.

If anything has killed the Internet it's the right wing echo chambers that google picks up when you're trying to see if the moron that posted a link to some bogus site is out of his mind. There are so many of these sites that it's hard to find out just who it was that made it up in the first place.

[KoKo]

37. Oh, I agree! But, you needed to read the rest of his post....

I could only give the first 4 or 5 Snips of the article...and the Full Article...went way beyond Facebook. It was about "Societal Changes" in how we Read and View News these days.

[Blanks]

39. I did read the entire article.

He really didn't start complaining about the attention that he was no longer getting until towards the end.

[KoKo]

40. Okay..for your view of it...but, I didn't think it was about HIM but about his observations..

which I think many of us who have been on the "Net," since he has, might agree with--as we've watched it all EVOLVE.

What is Your Experience?

[Blanks]

44. I see Facebook as a gathering place.

It's comparable to a virtual party. Where people post articles from anywhere and discuss them. To me it's reminiscent of the kind of social gatherings that I went to when I was young.

The author seemed to feel that people aren't getting the depth of information that they used to. I suppose that's gonna depend on your friends' interests.

My wife believes that the emotional turmoil that teenage girls suffer through is exacerbated by the 24 hour shit storm that used to die out with a lone teenage girl crying in her room alone. She suggests that this stifles their emotional growth by keeping them engaged when the best thing for them would be to just cry it out, dust themselves off and face the world. This is among the evils that she posits have been brought into the world by Facebook. Obviously, that's not my area of expertise.

I find it easy to walk away from a discussion that I find uninteresting. I just mingle with a different group for a while.

Human methods of communication have evolved over time. I'm kind of saddened by newspapers going under, but at the same time - the system uses so much more resources than email, blogs and twitter and isn't anywhere nearly as efficient. I like trains too, but they don't seem to be able to compete and that's really what it's about: competition.

I don't think that Facebook can be blamed for killing the Internet, because I think the Internet is just as alive as it's ever been. There are some things that I liked about the MSN message boards, and obviously I like DU, and I absolutely hate Yahoo (even though my oldest email address is a yahoo email address). The internet has changed over the past 20 years to be certain, but there's as much content as there has ever been, and for the most part none of the content has been deleted.

I think what is bothering the author is that it wasn't too long ago that it took some effort to put your opinions out there, and now you can take a picture, post it and write a couple of paragraphs to go with the photo. Anyone can do it, the only difference is that it doesn't take a professional to publish opinions, anyone can do it and they can do it on the fly. This isn't where people are getting their news though, they're just touching base with their pals. It doesn't seem all that bad to me, and most of the people that I see on Facebook weren't interacting on the Internet at all before Facebook (at least not socially).

[greyl]

45. "...it's hard to find out just who it was that made it up in the first place." Lol, so true. nt

[greyl]

46. Sensationalistic hyperbole is killing journalism. nt

[Orrex]

49. ^^That.

[GusBob]

53. Big Time

mention "sideboob" or "facebook" in the headline for the clicks baby!

[Orrex]

60. Suggestion

If we mention "boobbook" instead, we score a triple-double for letter combinations.

Count it!

[randome]

50. Microsoft killed the Internet when they decided that pretty colors were more important than data.

Our web pages crawl past at a snail's pace and we no longer care about information, just how it is presented.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Everything is a satellite to some other thing.[/center][/font][hr]

[Atman]

54. And video killed the radio star.

And SiriusXM killed radio.

Just give it time...something will come along and kill Facebook.

Remember AOL and MySpace and Friendster? Yeah...me neither.

[bluedigger]

55. Every time I read people slamming Facebook I think one thing.

"These people need better friends." It's 7:22 AM here in CO, and I've already communicated with friends from Maine to Bangkok on FB.

[DetlefK]

58. I don't understand what he's talking about...

He's complaining that community is no longer bundled through dominant media outlets. Because community is now spread out on many small outlets, like blogs.

Information gets blurred out by the many amateur content providers. Except nobody reads blogs anymore.

Because people are on Facebook all the time.




Personally, I have no Facebook-account, I read a few select blogs and I stay informed through news-sites. There are more ways to meet and talk to people than social media. Like, having a hobby that makes you meet people in real life, for example?
I... I just don't get what he's talking about.

I was recently at a small gaming-convention. "Quick question, who has a Facebook account?" About 10% of people raised their hands.

[Orrex]

59. If only someone could have written this 44 years ago

They could have called it Future Shock or something, and in a few short years it would seem a comically obsolete luddite rant.

[carolinayellowdog]

61. Cyber Mobs and Trolls Killed Pseudonymous Forums, Facebook took their place

I'm no fan of Facebook and have recently disengaged from all groups I belonged to there, because dogmatic, aggressive bullies have managed to ruin every discussion of the topic that these groups were founded to discuss. But this ugly behavior is done almost entirely under people's real names, whereas the earlier horrors of Usenet and Yahoo groups and sites like DU were largely unleashed by pseudonymity.

Here is an excellent article from Newsweek a couple of months ago, How Cyber Mobs and Trolls Have Ruined the Internet-- and Destroyed Lives. I have very fond memories of the "Golden Age" of 1995-2005, and have been especially sad about what has happened to DU since then. But it seems symptomatic of far larger trends. People came together in various sites, discussing politics, religion, and other topics in ways that alarmed "powers that be" and evoked a lot of retaliation via disruption. They were driven apart by the destructive behavior of people whose appetite for confrontation was relentless.

IMO Facebook's anti-pseudonym policy attracted people who had suffered abuse from various pseudonymous trolls. The problem is much larger than usually recognized, according to the article. But as people fled from pseudonymous discussion sites to Facebook, there was a corresponding loss of seriousness and information value.

[Orsino]

62. Seven paragraphs of question-begging...

...that fail to establish either the diagnosis or the pathology.

Is the Internet dead? Perhaps so, if the author can't clearly state a position.