One factor has to be the network effect: people are there because their friends and relatives are there and they don’t want to miss any content from them. They are not necessarily aware of the negative effects of social media, the problems plaguing Facebook as a company or any viable alternatives.
The second factor has to be simply ignorance: the active userbase of Facebook these days consists of older people (like old and middle-aged), who are not usually technically so savvy. Even if they hear about Facebook’s privacy scandals and problems, they brush it off with “I don’t have anything to hide” and simply don’t care.
They are not necessarily aware of the negative effects of social media
I have a lot of friends who firmly refuse to even try to use an alternative to a Facebook service despite being shown the evidences of how evil of a company Facebook is. I am regularly being called a paranoid or even a conspiracy theorist because I don’t want people to write me on WhatsApp if they have a Signal/Telegram account, and I didn’t want people to tag me on Instagram when I had an account. No matter how many “”“mistakes”“” a company does or how immoral and harmful its practices are, these people will simply shrug at data collection and happily continue to use the service if that means not having to abandon “what everyone is using”. This is beyond frustrating
There’s also the factor that lots of small businesses (single person or family business) use it as a website and to advertise themselves without needing to be or hire a technical person, and to build a following easily. Same for artist trying to promote themselves.
yeah my friends and family are on insta and it’s their main way of communicating. I can use other platforms but I can’t expect an answer any time near what I could get on insta, sometimes up to a week so I just containerize it as much as possible and cope.
My refusal to use fb, ig, zoom, community google docs and google photos, as well as aversion to alexa, google home, and being on family wifi with those devices has been annoying to some.
One factor has to be the network effect: people are there because their friends and relatives are there and they don’t want to miss any content from them. They are not necessarily aware of the negative effects of social media, the problems plaguing Facebook as a company or any viable alternatives. The second factor has to be simply ignorance: the active userbase of Facebook these days consists of older people (like old and middle-aged), who are not usually technically so savvy. Even if they hear about Facebook’s privacy scandals and problems, they brush it off with “I don’t have anything to hide” and simply don’t care.
I have a lot of friends who firmly refuse to even try to use an alternative to a Facebook service despite being shown the evidences of how evil of a company Facebook is. I am regularly being called a paranoid or even a conspiracy theorist because I don’t want people to write me on WhatsApp if they have a Signal/Telegram account, and I didn’t want people to tag me on Instagram when I had an account. No matter how many “”“mistakes”“” a company does or how immoral and harmful its practices are, these people will simply shrug at data collection and happily continue to use the service if that means not having to abandon “what everyone is using”. This is beyond frustrating
When Facebook’s failings lead to their information being compromised and more severe consequences, their minds may change.
There’s also the factor that lots of small businesses (single person or family business) use it as a website and to advertise themselves without needing to be or hire a technical person, and to build a following easily. Same for artist trying to promote themselves.
my whole family is on IG sharing.
yeah my friends and family are on insta and it’s their main way of communicating. I can use other platforms but I can’t expect an answer any time near what I could get on insta, sometimes up to a week so I just containerize it as much as possible and cope.
My refusal to use fb, ig, zoom, community google docs and google photos, as well as aversion to alexa, google home, and being on family wifi with those devices has been annoying to some.
Yeah I can’t do that unfortunately