I know this has been a regular topic of discussion lately, as Facebook users are looking for alternatives, but there is a harsh reality I think netizens of the fediverse need to acknowledge that will keep the majority of Facebook users locked in. That is the personal social graph that Facebook has built up for users over the years. No other site on the web has a way to find nearly anyone you have ever known, from high school friends to long lost family members. The reason for this is because of the format of Facebook being “you” on the web. Your profile is your name, your personal info, and it is even linked to your phone number and contacts, making social networking incredibly easy.
The closest that exists for this on the fediverse is Friendica, but it is more of a reddit/twitter hybrid imo, and while you can make your profile page personal, the posts you make will go to the entire fediverse. This lack of privacy and tailoring of your messages to a particular audience is what is going to make Facebook unbeatable for the foreseeable future. People want alternatives, but these alternatives simply do not exist.
I would be very curious to hear about efforts to make sites on the fediverse more personalized and enabling of people to control their audience, because this (along with improving user experience) is the biggest thing I think is keeping people from making the switch.
Leave Facebook for a month. Tell people how to reach you on there before you go. You’ll forget why you ever went to that site.
I just lost my cat. I made a post about it. Dozens of people who would have never heard about it otherwise reached out to me to comfort me. Sorry, but I don’t think I’m going to forget about how helpful that level of connection is.
Sorry about your loss
If zero effort bits posted to your page make you feel that connected, then Facebook might be for you.
Sorry I don’t view social media as a second job that should require a whole lot of effort to engage in. What even is that take, for real?
That for me, receiving a crying emoji on a post doesn’t make me feel more connected to people.
I said that if that works for you and makes you feel connected, then Facebook would indeed offer connection for you. It doesn’t for me.
I am not sure why you seemingly got mad about it.
I thought you were referring to the posting itself. I see what you mean about the emoji. It’s not some super high level of connection, but it is connection none the less. Someone I know gave me their thoughts. I may not have seen them or even talked to them directly in a number of years, but they still thought of me. That is meaningful, and if you can’t see that, then I guess I don’t know what to tell you. Feel free to minimize the experience all you want.