this post was submitted on 17 May 2024
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Privacy
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The question is, why there still people using this shit ?
Depending on the research subject, people built networks on Twitter. It's hard to move on another platform as you will loose your network.
People are still using that shit because other people they want to interact with are still using that shit. Network effects are hard to break.
Same reasons why people still use Facebook - too many folks who think it's still a good thing.
Do people think it's a good thing, or simply the thing where those they know are?
This. I know FB/Meta is awful, but I have a ton of hobby and interest groups I participate in on the platform. So that’s why I stay. However, I have all sorts of browser add-ons that strip the site of all kinds of trackers, suggestions, and all sorts of annoyances. My FB is closer to FB a decade+ ago than what a “normal” user sees.
Do the add-ons you use specifically target Facebook? If so, what are you using to mitigate its manipulative/predatory designs?
Some. Other than basic anti-tracking add ons, Facebook Container is one, and so is Social Media Fixer, which will block whatever you tell it to on FB. I block all “suggested for you” as a keyword and it removes so much junk from FB. I have a couple more I think that help FB be more like its old self, but unfortunately I’m not home and can’t look them up right now on mobile.
I'm honestly just there for Facebook marketplace
Agreed, it's unfortunate that some people rely on it for work.
Personally I only go on there unintentionally when I don't look at the link I am clicking on beforehand
Because of inertia. There are entire industries that were built around Twitter. For years, it was an incredible networking opportunity that you were missing out on if you weren’t active. For example, many artists used twitter for discoverability; They could post their art on Twitter, and it would get much broader reach than on other social networks.
This is why substitutes like Mastodon have struggled to take off, and it’s why even the early adopters still crosspost everything to both twitter and Mastodon. Mastodon simply doesn’t have the user base required to have that same kind of discoverability. It would need to reach a critical mass level where it’s able to sustain itself without twitter. And it’s unfortunately not there.
Whether it will ever reach that point is up for debate; The same way Reddit’s scummy practices were a huge boon for lemmy, only time will tell if the same will happen to twitter. The issue is that the vast majority of users simply don’t care about a negative experience on the site. Sure, there are vocal critics, but those are often the minority who are extremely incensed and will be the most likely to change. But once those critics have fled, the vast majority still remains on twitter and now there aren’t any critics pushing for change.