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Re:Show HN: Slow Social, a social network built for friends,... by grumple on Saturday April 16, 2022 @03:16PM (#31055204)
When Facebook was first created, there was no feed. We flocked to it because it was useful for a few important reasons: 1) communicating with friends, 2) finding events to go to, 3) organizing groups, 4) storing and sharing photos, and 5) meeting new people (sometimes). It was great as a tool to supplement your social life.

When they introduced the feed, Facebook gradually became worse at all of those things. Facebook became less about being a useful tool and instead became a media sharing instrument for serving advertisements. Your entire post is about that aspect of it though, and really it's the problem with all social media. The feed design is fundamentally incompatable with providing the utility that was initially offered by Facebook. The feed is purely a tool for distribution and consumption, not forging connections or otherwise improving the lives of users.

Re:Show HN: Slow Social, a social network built for friends,... by scarface74 on Saturday April 16, 2022 @03:23PM (#31055270)
The feed was introduced in 2006. Facebook was founded in 2004. Not many people “flocked” to Facebook before the feed.
Re:Show HN: Slow Social, a social network built for friends,... by jimkleiber on Saturday April 16, 2022 @03:53PM (#31055547)
I think the feed was chronological for a while. Did it switch to being non-chronological in 2006? I thought it was later than that.
Re:Show HN: Slow Social, a social network built for friends,... by scarface74 on Saturday April 16, 2022 @04:04PM (#31055636)
The algorithmically generated feed was introduced in 2011.
Re:Show HN: Slow Social, a social network built for friends,... by grumple on Sunday April 17, 2022 @09:24PM (#31066321)
Those first few years when it was limited to certain edu addressed fueled the hype and growth.