Ask HN: Who actually enjoys using Facebook products?

2 points by Puer 7y ago ↗ HN

I've noticed lately on HN there's been a lot of negative attention towards Facebook and their products. This doesn't surprise me and I think it's deserved given their actions, but I find the tendency of HN to dismiss FB's products as "useless" to be narrow-minded.

I personally don't agree with a lot of what FB does, but I still find their products very enjoyable and useful. Contrary to popular opinion here, it hasn't made me unhappier to use FB or Instagram. I've only ever used FB for close friends and I still engage with them regularly on the platform. Furthermore, Messenger has been great for maintaining contact with my closest friend groups throughout the years. I also really enjoy browsing Instagram as a photography and I've made some really awesome and genuine friendships with other people in the community through it.

I'm not trying to excuse FB's actions as a company, but I'm interested if other people on HN also have similar experiences. I can honestly say that my life would be undoubtedly worse if services like Messenger did not exist in it and that it would be much more difficult to maintain some of my most important relationships otherwise.

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Jun8 7y ago ↗

Although there's intersection, enjoyable and useful can be quite distinct. Case in point: facebook and messenger apps. I don't enjoy using these but they definitely provide value. A lot of my friends back in my home country do status updates on FB, it's nice to passively catch up with these every 2-3 weeks.

OTOH, I use Messenger every day to talk to my mom and relatives, again back in my home country. We could also use Whatsapp or some other video calling app but they are mostly old and it's very hard to get them to use another app, however easy its use may be.