Ask HN: Will all this anti-FB coverage amount to anything in the long-run?

None of my younger family members use facebook. I think that's a problem for facebook.

As far as privacy violations, etc., I don't think the general population care much.

Another way to think of this is, will humans find a (different,better) source of dopamine? When they do, they will switch away from Facebook (et al)

Simply put, no. Existing FB users generally do not care enough about privacy violations, dark patterns, algorithmic manipulation, centralization, or censorship to switch from the platform. What is to be seen is how FB will deal with changing demographics or generational differences. FB is not as popular among gen Z/young millennials. As they age and gain more market share, will they move to FB just as their parents did or will their current social media preferences (Instagram, TikTok) follow them? This remains to be seen.

Probably not because Facebook is taking on a really hard problem. Connecting people at global scale.

Compare this to Google which increasingly silos information...if you live in the US, you have to work to get results from England or Australia or even Canada. Never mine Turkmenistan, the Philippines, or Mexico. Same for Wikipedia.

On Facebook however, if you know someone half way round the world, sending a friend request is the same as to your next door neighbor. And pictures of their breakfast have the same weight as someone you went to high school with.

Outside the tech bubble, ordinary intuition recognizes privacy theater for what it is...even if people don't articulate it that way. You only have to use a run of the mill ISP's DNS server...like most people do...to see how obviously outgunned, out spent, and out lawyered we are.

Coal made people's lives better too.

If you are a business looking to market your product/services in this day and age, what are your options? Will you buy bus stop ads? Billboards? TV commercials?

Facebook is where you go. I’m not saying it’s the only option, but it’s a major one.

Communities collapse slowly, then suddenly. The first sign is when people complain that it's dead, when they hate themselves for using it. Eventually one person makes the move to drop it, then more people drop than stay, until certain people are no longer using it and there's no reason to stay.

Community deaths are often undocumented because people often stop using it quietly. When you come back for a visit, you just find nobody there and stop visiting again.

The main problem is that there's no real replacement at the moment. A lot of my friends have agreed to leave Facebook, but we have nowhere else to hang out.

Facebook, the website, is dying a slow death. Everyone knows it. Certain core target demographics no longer see the website as essential or even relevant.

Facebook, the company, is probably going to survive through its acquisitions.

I think many people just like to critique the big thing of the day. Most people critiquing don't create anything significant, or take action. They just like to comment about what is out there.

When I was growing up government was the main focus of people's dissatisfaction. The internet has now brought the focus on large internet companies.

If a person doesn't want to use facebook then they shouldn't.