Comment by doytch | Hacker News Reader

Comment by doytch | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

You're getting downvoted rather than replied to which is a bummer, because I understand your POV but have recently changed my stance on this.

I used to be the standard kind of user of FB and Instagram who had friends and occasionally posted, etc. Then I realized it makes me feel like crap being on there and hated their business practices so stopped using it.

Lately though, I've had a few experiences that made me rethink how optional it really is. I recently sold a car and FB Marketplace has /so many more people/ along with a higher degree of trust than Craigslist. I got a bunch of offers from FB and none from Craigslist despite the same listing.

But even more significant is how businesses interact with the platforms. Because a bunch of people use FB/Insta, a lot of local businesses post new things or updates or specials there. Lately, new businesses are not even bothering with a website and just setting up an Insta. If I'm looking up what a store's hours were this past holiday weekend in the USA, then I know it's most likely going to be best to look it up on their Insta page. And just go ahead and see what the experience is to do that when you're not logged in!

Sure it'd be GREAT if those businesses didn't do that, but the alternatives aren't great and I'm not going to pressure them into reforming social media when they're just trying to make money off of selling an ice cream cone; they've got it hard enough!

It is hard for those businesses, but I think we need to realize why they post their info on Instagram. It's because that's where their customers are. If more people are on there, they will cater to them on that platform (for the business). If people were to start using other services, the businesses would cater to them that way. If you'd rather businesses not post their info on whatever app, then don't use that app. That's the reason they do it.

I've been without Facebook or Instagram for over 6 years, it's totally optional. I sell stuff on Nextdoor and the dozens of other buy/sell/trade apps. I connect with my family via text/calls/video or other apps. People don't want to be the first to get off of a platform and convince others, and then we get into this situation where we think it isn't optional.

Facebook marketplace is such a gold mine, it's so annoying.

I had 3 pieces of lightly used Ikea furniture I wanted to get rid of. 2 weeks of craigslist with no bites. 2 hours of facebook market place and I offloaded them easy.

Completely anecdotal here, from within a small city. But people trust FB market place much more than CL for what that's worth.

As someone who has never used Facebook, why is their marketplace more trustworthy than Craigslist?

Beats me! It sure moves product faster though.

What's stopping you taking a purely transactional approach to using those sites? You can post on FB Marketplace or stay logged into Instagram without ever needing to scroll the feed, give out likes, or engage in pointless arguments. It's not like you get reputation points for engaging in all the toxic behaviors.

Nothing is, so that's exactly the approach I take with them! I recommend it! My response is to absolutist positions like "delete your account" and "well it's not a /necessity/ so they should be able to do whatever they want."

Reply on news.ycombinator.com