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Re:Facebook's Aggressive Moves on Startups Threaten Innovation by jdale27 on Wednesday October 25, 2017 @03:41PM (#15553408)
Okay, but do we really need a "future Facebook"? Are innovation and creativity in social media really something the world will suffer for a lack of?

In any case, the next big thing is usually not just a better version of the last big thing.

Re:Facebook's Aggressive Moves on Startups Threaten Innovation by aaron-lebo on Wednesday October 25, 2017 @03:47PM (#15553463)
Of course we do. >1 billion people shouldn't have their lives dictated by a proprietary, opaque Skinner's box with no regard for privacy or rights.
Re:Facebook's Aggressive Moves on Startups Threaten Innovation by karllager on Wednesday October 25, 2017 @04:10PM (#15553687)
> 1 billion people shouldn't have their lives dictated by a proprietary, opaque Skinner's box with no regard for privacy or rights.

Of course they should not. Or should they? We live in a free society and you are voluntarily participating. Or not. It's your choice. And that's wonderful.

People do not realise, how simple it is to stop. As with cigarettes the real trick is to just not do it anymore. You need some willpower and some plan to cope with the temporary withdrawal effects.

Single datapoint: I briefly used FB for a few weeks about ten years ago, but never saw its value. Today, thanks to dusty email and many other (more open) sites, I have a growing number of friends around the globe and locally.

There are places (like Central Asia), which are already operating in a Free Basics mode in that basically anything beyond facebook is an extreme hurdle to use. But anyone in the western world with lots of choices can stop feeding FB today, if they cared.

Re:Facebook's Aggressive Moves on Startups Threaten Innovation by geebee on Wednesday October 25, 2017 @04:31PM (#15553921)
I agree with you that it's possible to stop using Facebook. It isn't like food or water.

However, Facebook really is, at this point, a clear monopoly. The reason I use facebook is because that's the social network that everyone else uses. If I want to see baby pictures, hear about my friend's band's upcoming show, get updates on how people are doing after the norCal fires, or get trolled politically repeatedly by my insular political bubble, Facebook is the only place where I can do this. The next best network is nearly useless to me - not strictly because it's worse in terms of features or reliability, but because nobody else is using it.

I can't say it's absolutely impossible to do this without facebook - I agree that people can, with effort, patch it together, as you've done.

However, I think the "voluntary" participation aspect you've identified, while not entirely inaccurate, should recognize the coercion that results from a monopoly.

Re:Facebook's Aggressive Moves on Startups Threaten Innovation by karllager on Wednesday October 25, 2017 @07:07PM (#15555061)
> However, Facebook really is, at this point, a clear monopoly.

But here's a point: The zero-cost marginal cost characteristics of many software businesses makes this sector prone to be monopolistic. Acquire: data, users, or intellectual property and from there, competition will have little chance until a new wave washes clean the shores or you mismanage your company.

So the only way to stop this is to - do what? The political will and instinct, that would be required to redirect technological progress by not allowing monopolies is enormous. Not to mention the economical dynamics that come from companies competing on how to destroy privacy faster.

Re:Facebook's Aggressive Moves on Startups Threaten Innovation by sharemywin on Wednesday October 25, 2017 @04:26PM (#15553867)
your data point of one doesn't really validate that addiction effects people differently and hence different outcomes. My wife stopped smoking for 5 months, then she started again. ooops, some much for just quit and all will be happy in the world.
Re:Facebook's Aggressive Moves on Startups Threaten Innovation by wheresmyusern on Wednesday October 25, 2017 @07:20PM (#15555137)
do you care to become penpals?
Re:Facebook's Aggressive Moves on Startups Threaten Innovation by wskinner on Wednesday October 25, 2017 @03:58PM (#15553567)
Then they shouldn't use the proprietary, opaque Skinner box. :) It's not like they have a gun to their heads.
Re:Facebook's Aggressive Moves on Startups Threaten Innovation by bearmobius on Wednesday October 25, 2017 @04:40PM (#15554043)
Some thoughts about the "no one's forcing you to use it" arguments (of which I'm also partial to, having removed myself from Facebook). Humans do have a need to socialise/connect with other humans, just as we have need food and water - we quickly lose sanity in isolation. To give an example, the worst punishment in prisons is solitary confinement (being separated from the other criminals!). The link between social isolation and health problems and ultimately early death has also been demonstrated. It seems to follow from this then that we do really need Facebook to the degree to which they control all means of socialising, and online communication is only becoming more and more primary over time. In other words, imagining the extreme case where FB is only means to connect with the world (and this is their stated mission), we can no longer choose not to use them anymore than we can choose not to breathe and eat, insofar as physiological well being goes.
Re:Facebook's Aggressive Moves on Startups Threaten Innovation by Karunamon on Wednesday October 25, 2017 @05:34PM (#15554478)
>It seems to follow from this then that we do really need Facebook to the degree to which they control all means of socialising

And therein is the fallacy. Facebook might be popular, but they are absolutely not the controller of all means of socializing. Everyone I'm friends with on Facebook, I also have the email (and often phone, and often other IM service) contact info.

You confuse generalized control with control in their own walled garden. Anyone is free to step outside of that garden whenever they please.

Re:Facebook's Aggressive Moves on Startups Threaten Innovation by whyever on Wednesday October 25, 2017 @04:05PM (#15553637)
It's not so easy. You might have to give up a big part of your social life, depending on how much of it happens via the box.
Re:Facebook's Aggressive Moves on Startups Threaten Innovation by nunez on Thursday October 26, 2017 @08:54PM (#15564679)
Not having a facebook account is a negative social signal these days. The gun is metaphorical.
Re:Facebook's Aggressive Moves on Startups Threaten Innovation by marcusestes on Wednesday October 25, 2017 @04:05PM (#15553638)
Neither did the rats.
Re:Facebook's Aggressive Moves on Startups Threaten Innovation by 659087 on Wednesday October 25, 2017 @03:55PM (#15553532)
What we need to fix that is more of a future "not Facebook", though.
Re:Facebook's Aggressive Moves on Startups Threaten Innovation by pascalxus on Wednesday October 25, 2017 @04:12PM (#15553712)
It's a good question. I wish innovation could be opened up in more important areas like housing, transportation and healthcare costs. But it's all locked up from laws, zoning, political gridlock and barriers to entry.
Re:Facebook's Aggressive Moves on Startups Threaten Innovation by sharemywin on Wednesday October 25, 2017 @04:32PM (#15553939)
it sucks but I don't like houses falling on me, air bags exploding in my face, or experimental drugs... oh wait the healthcare market is too far gone for even regulation to help it.