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So long Facebook, see you never, until one day I inexplicably need to use your platform to get updates from my kid’s school.
This makes me so fucking angry.
Anger is pointless without action. Either accept the situation as it is, or start regularly attending school board meetings. If you want a policy changed, speak out about it. Don’t just give them vibes either, give them good reasons to change the rules and processes. Have a solution at the ready which is idiot-proof, accessible, and well-supported. Oh, and also, make sure that your clear solution is zero-cost, which is why schools fell into using Facebook and municipal groups used Twitter.
If you want to change the situation, you have to understand why it became the way it is and address the pain points that led here, as well as their pain points that both prevent moving and/or encourage moving. If Facebook suits the needs of the school and the majority of parents, stop being angry and realize that there’s a value in the platform for the purpose.
I don’t have any kids. But I’ve been in similar situations. My previous employment place used Facebook for company comms. I spoke out about it many times. I’ve volunteered for multiple orgs and asked them to move to Nextcloud several times and they just refused. I’ve even turned down volunteer opportunities because they refused to communicate over anything other than Google Chat. No one cares.
I get your frustration. Why don’t they care? Have you asked people directly what benefits they get from Facebook and why they won’t move?
I expect you’ll get the following, based on my experience:
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Exposure - Most people can access Facebook regularly.
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External Accessibility - Facebook can be accessed on multiple devices, by people who are not tech-conscious.
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Reliability - Facebook outages are rare enough to be newsworthy, so no matter what conditions the school or the org is in, it will stay up and be exposed and accessible.
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Internal Accessibility - Everyone in the org, even the people who aren’t regularly involved in marketing or community comms, knows how to post to Facebook.
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Cost - Facebook’s non-monetary costs are subtle and mostly apply to private users. To any organization with a tight budget, Facebook and Twitter are godsends, because they don’t need to have a P&L line that can be scrutinized and audited. I’m sure you understand as a volunteer how important it can be to dodge the accountants while getting messaging out.
Of course there’s also experience, knowledge, and negative inertia built up over time. Until you can cover all 5 of those points at least, you don’t have a viable option. Nextcloud is neat, but who will administer it without pay? Facebook runs the platform without being visibly paid by the school or the org. Facebook has widgets prebuilt to integrate with the website (that the org also outsources administration of). Nextcloud doesn’t natively have that. Facebook is hosted on a massive network of data centers, Nextcloud would have to be run on one mistakenly undiscarded computer acting as a server in the basement. And it would have to be that way because the org doesn’t have the budget approval for AWS or added hosting. And yes, everything will always come back to that cost issue. Until you can beat that, you have nothing.
Why don’t they care?
Because the status quo works for them. Anything else is a you problem.
This answer applies to a broad swath of topics.
I mean, yes. But I was trying to get at why it works and what would be needed to change the status quo. Tbh if Facebook or Twitter could be prosecuted for their role in harm to children or sex trafficking, schools would very quickly be ready for change.
what would be needed to change the status quo.
One of the following:
- widespread media literacy
- competent understanding of technology
- a gun
I’ve recently accepted that the vast majority of people who use technology daily will never question or understand how it works, but will act as if it is indispensable, omniscient, and impenetrable.
In other words, it’s a god
External Accessibility - Facebook can be accessed on multiple devices, by people who are not tech-conscious.
External accessibility is actually shit. you won’t have access to even read most content without an account.
what? you don’t have a facebook?
you weirdo, ewww
If I ask or tell them anything at all, they just get annoyed because they don’t care.
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We need a dumb browser.
This browser doesn’t work for most shit, making it the best browser available for most shit you actually need to do.
That’s a browser I can get behind.
+1 for NetSurf, I wrote the Amiga GUI for that.
I can’t stand how many companies and organizations only have a presence on Facebook. When I reach out to them to ask if there is another way to stay connected I usually get a big NOPE.
I missed out on a lot of communication for my kids’ extracurriculars because they were only on Facebook and I don’t use it. It’s infuriating, but less infuriating than the other platforms that a couple of the groups used to attempt to communicate schedules and requirements.
It’s ridiculous that this sort of thing isn’t a solved problem. Schools need to communicate with parents in an effective way, yet none of the platforms I’ve used work well. I’ve been in tech for decades and I still have trouble with their shitty UI.
OTOH you may have missed the communication even if you were on Facebook. These days your feed is just 1/3 the groups you’re in and pages you’ve liked, 1/3 is the “recommended for you” random garbage, and 1/3 is ads. I’ve missed many notifications for events that interested me, they’d pop up a few days after the event actually took place.
Is there a reason an emailing group isn’t a good solution?
They tried that but as spam filters got more prevalent people would miss things.
Then you have the threads where some replies to all and then everyone else replies to all telling them not to reply all.
It’s the silly meta icon in WhatsApp that really gets on my nerves. Really needs to go away
Most socia media traffic is just bots commenting on Ai slop. And those “real” posts have their humans thinking thousands of people actually give a shit about their selfies. Completely cooked society.
And those “real” posts
Albert Einstein
What mine shows me is mostly racism and xenophobia. I mean, they know I’m white. Figured they might as well just shoot their shot.
Meanwhile it’s utterly terrible at the one thing it’s supposed to do. I’m got a few old friends and family members on there. Not super close or anything, but the kind of people you’d be vaguely interested in seeing if they had cancer or had babies or anything. Didn’t show me those events at all.
Like, what is even the point of it other than a US far-right psy-op?
So long Facebook, see you never, until one day I inexplicably need to use your platform to get updates from my kid’s school.
Screw any school or PTA that distributes information by Facebook. That should be outlawed.
The Facebook feed is an advanced algorithm that knows a shit ton about what to feed you to keep you engaged. It’s not just the cookies from sites you visit. They track what thumbnails get you to stop scrolling. They track the way a human eye moves and how far your thumb glides across the screen.
Point is, if it’s all scantily clad thirst traps, thats what gets your attention. If you see one, and you stop to take a screenshot for an article you’re writing about how it’s all thirst traps, then every third item will be another thirst trap.
Facebook doesn’t care if you want to see that content. Their goal is to keep your eyes on Facebook. If it makes you mad enough to comment, that’s engagement.
I didn’t read the whole article, so maybe the author addresses this, but what you see on Facebook is a funhouse reflection of your own interests.
When I was still using Instagram reels, I was always amazed how quickly the algorithm figured me out. If I hesitated for even a second on a reel, it would amend my next ones immediately. I assume the real trick is comparing it to the average time spent on a reel, everyone spends longer on a wall of text reel, but when I stop on a Linux reel for an extra second, I’m immediately in the 1% for engagement.
I read something years ago about how your phone keyboard tracks your recommended words, it knows if you’re more likely to type apple or Apple, or if you type soup more than average, and any app that gets that data and compares it to the baseline has an instant, in depth profile on you.
Who needs Fakebook when there is moltbook
Which has more bots?
Guy opens dumpster, is amazed by the amount of trash in there, writes an article about it.
Wow, really low hanging fruits here.
Idk I thought it was an interesting article. I haven’t logged in since like 08, so I had no idea what it is like now.
Everyone should not know what’s going on on Facebook. Or Instagram, tiktok, etc.
YouTube ass title.
Anytime any article or video says that, what ever the subject is get by just fine.
It’s like that journalist law, the one where the answer is always “no” if the headline has a question in it.
My Facebook feed looks nothing like that, nor most of the (exaggerated?) complaints in the replies.
Mine is full of content from people I know, local community groups, and pages I follow.
If I scroll long enough to run out of actual local/ subscribed content it will start feeding me other stuff, but it’s usually at least somewhat relevant. If it’s not I just hit the X to say not interested and usually take the opportunity to get off the damn thing for a while.
Facebook does a lot of stupid crap but these sort of lazy observations smack of some nerd pandering to the cool kids about how lame their parents are to get some acceptance or something equality as cringe.
I’ve stayed away from Facebook since forever. It was a principle for me, for a long time.
Then I realised that, at least here where I live, whether I like it or not, if I need to engage with something local (local game group, neighbour discussion, updates from the council etc.) Facebook is actually the better place to do it, because it solves a discovery problem that WhatsApp hasn’t really (and where a lot of local stuff also congregates).
I still deeply dislike it and stay away from it. But on the odd occasion I need/offer something from/to the local area, it’s the only game in town.
Town being south
ofin the UK.Town being south of the UK.
Like underwater in the channel? Or even worse, in France?
