Researchers Compare Facebook To Disease, Say Die-Off Is Coming

[Idlemessiah]

Odd that they would base this on the SEARCH TERM "Facebook". Maybe people are just getting smarter about actually entering the URL rather than having to search for Facebook in Google and then click on the link?

Or did I misread?

That's a pretty good point. Consider the vast number of people who use Facebook on mobile devices, which runs through an app instead of a browser. No Google search needed so of course Google search data shows a declining trend.

 

[MASTACHIEFPWN]

Odd that they would base this on the SEARCH TERM "Facebook". Maybe people are just getting smarter about actually entering the URL rather than having to search for Facebook in Google and then click on the link?

Or did I misread?

That's a pretty good point. Consider the vast number of people who use Facebook on mobile devices, which runs through an app instead of a browser. No Google search needed so of course Google search data shows a declining trend.

I haven't googled facebook in probably 2 or 3 years, just because my address bar automatically goes to it when I press 'f' or its on my most visited websites list when I open up my browser.

OT: The only thing that I could see bringing facebook to its knees is a better social networking website, that's what ended myspace. Myspace was also a lot smaller, and no where near the span of facebook. Someone earlier mentioned that around half of all internet users use facebook.
What other social media websites could rival facebook anyway? Google+? They've had to force that onto youtube.

 

[Daaaah Whoosh]

I just hope that the horrors of Facebook will lead to some sort of social change, like how the Black Death led to the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, and Protestantinism.

 

[Vigormortis]

So every time I've said that social sanity has been "plagued" by Facebook's existence I wasn't speaking hyperbolic-ly?

Good to know.

 

[J.McMillen]

I know people give Google+ crap, but I actually like it. I like that I can group stuff the way I want it, so I can keep family, friends, and whatever in separate feeds instead of one huge one. I also like that most of the geeky YouTube channels and personalities I want to follow post there as well. And if that becomes to crowded, I can break them up into separate circles how I want them arranged. Plus the interconnection with things like YouTube make it easier to see if someone replied to a comment I made, or what videos my friends or family liked.

I just hope that Google sees all the complaints that people have about Facebook, and makes sure not to make the same mistakes.

 

[misg]

Facebook still offers something that is arguably very important at this point - Finding ways to communicate with other people when you only know their name. Phone books aren't as useful now that quite a few people (especially College students) don't have home phones and there isn't even such thing as an Email Book. I know quite a few people (myself included) who have a Facebook and never use it except as a way to contact people who I otherwise don't have a line to.

That is all I use it for, a couple friends I wouldn't have contact with if I didn't have an account. I've made and deleted accounts twice and come back to find that odd person I would like to get in contact with. But I could see a massive drop in daily use by many people, moving to where they simply use it more as a phone book for friends.

 

[Extragorey]

I stopped using facebook, and most other 'social' networking site a good few years a go. When your Grandma can see pictures of you drunk, naked, doing drugs and having sex you know there's absolutely no need to use it.

If you've got pictures like that on a social networking site then clearly the site isn't the one with a problem.

Anyway, haven't similar predictions been made about WoW? I've yet to see them pan out.

 

[Hero of Lime]

So I guess I should be happy that I don't go on Facebook much anymore? I used to be really into it, feeling somehow obligate to post every day to stay interesting. Good to know I'm cured I guess, though I suppose all the time I spend here on the forums could be seen as equally pointless.

I have nothing against social networks, but I do wish people would stop looking at smart phones while walking around to check said websites, even though it gives me plenty of opportunities to mess with those goofy iZombies.

 

[oldtaku]

Anyway, haven't similar predictions been made about WoW? I've yet to see them pan out.

WoW has definitely been experiencing calcification and huge subscriber loss (down to 7M from 12M). But it can take forever to die, especially with nothing better to actively steal them (yes, I'm sure some people will defend their favorite MMORPG as way better than WoW, but to me they're almost all boring variations on proc and press a key, or have other major weaknesses).

Facebook could similarly live on 'forever' till all the old people die. Hell, AOL is still around, and so is AOL dialup service.

 

[lunavixen]

The only reason I have a facebook account is to keep up with people that I don't have phone numbers or email addresses for but still want to talk to on odd occasions, I usually only post something once every few months and maybe the occasional comment, but that's it. So it's a giant digital contact book for me.

 

[lacktheknack]

I wonder when the world - hell, even just the scientific community - will figure out that not everything has to be analogous with everything else.

Since Facebook does not disable the user's movement, kill them in droves or "contaminate" without intention, that's about as non-analogous as you can get.

 

[Strazdas]

Its good that i chose to be "immune" to this disease then, isnt it?

Anyway, haven't similar predictions been made about WoW? I've yet to see them pan out.

WoW has definitely been experiencing calcification and huge subscriber loss (down to 7M from 12M). But it can take forever to die, especially with nothing better to actively steal them (yes, I'm sure some people will defend their favorite MMORPG as way better than WoW, but to me they're almost all boring variations on proc and press a key, or have other major weaknesses).

Facebook could similarly live on 'forever' till all the old people die. Hell, AOL is still around, and so is AOL dialup service.

to be honest there are plenty of new MMOs coming out that seem to have fanatic following (star citizen anyone?) that may bite into that crowd. it will certainly take long to die, heck, the oldest graphic MMO is still alive and kicking (it came out couple moths before ultima online!), but its been on staedy and slow decline for a long time. i played it for 7 years (ill let that sink in) and the game is on life support by 95% of players being bots competing with other bots.
No MMO is perfect, and neither is WOW, and i think its going to be a MMO thats DIFFERENT from WOW thats going to finally kill it, not a clone that keeps failing to survive a year.

Also the fact that dialup is alive makes me cry.

As fun as it is to draw connections between unrelated things, it seems like a poor idea to assume that since one disease matched the pattern of growth and remission seen in one social network that you can apply this to all social networks.

well, the pattern follows for other now dead social networks. thought i agree that corelation does not mean causation.

I think I've got four or five separate G+ accounts at this point, because they just get tossed in every time you make an account for one of Google's other services, and I make a point of never using it because of how obnoxious they've been about it.

I have been force to conenct to google+ and used same G+ account for all of them (it wasnt a choice, it jsut told me it automatically connected. sigh). i recently actually opened G+ just to see how it looks like there and turns out everything i ever done on google services is posted there with my real name. my reaction was similar to the rage meme.

Most people willingly join social media sites because they want to join them. Most people don't willingly infect themselves with the plague. This analogy seems pretty off.

Not necessarely. I use Skype. I hate Skype. The reason i use it is because everyone else in my country use it and for most people that is the ONLY way i can contact them and i NEED to contact them and thus i am forced to use skype. I have been in this skype slavery for 6 years now. If it was up to me, i would move them all to a better service instantly, however i cant. thats why i always put all my other contacts before Skype in hopes they will choose a different service instead. however they always have skype.
So you see, like a disease, facebook can be spread by other people, and you would be infected agasint your will. as been pointed by couple other posters in here as well.

I also like that most of the geeky YouTube channels and personalities I want to follow post there as well.

do they actually do that? because i recently found out that by never entering google+ site i still managed to post hundreds of messages in there somehow because apparently anything i do in any other google service, like youtube, is automatically uploaded there like im some sort of exhibitionist.

 

[ungothicdove]

Back when I was a freshmen starting college, facebook was fun, cool, and entertaining. Now my mom comments on the things I post. If that isn't a reason to quit using it, I don't know what is.

 

[J.McMillen]

do they actually do that? because i recently found out that by never entering google+ site i still managed to post hundreds of messages in there somehow because apparently anything i do in any other google service, like youtube, is automatically uploaded there like im some sort of exhibitionist.

What I meant was that when The Nerdist,Geek and Sundry or someone like Bonnie Burton announce something, it ends up on my Google+ page. And since I put all my geek stuff in one circle, I can select just that and easily see all their posts.

As for YouTube comments ending up on Google+, just uncheck the box under the comment window.

 

[Lethos]

I have friends all around the world. Facebook is currently the best method of staying in contact with these friends. Until something provides a better method of staying in contact with these friends I won't leave Facebook.

 

[Strazdas]

do they actually do that? because i recently found out that by never entering google+ site i still managed to post hundreds of messages in there somehow because apparently anything i do in any other google service, like youtube, is automatically uploaded there like im some sort of exhibitionist.

What I meant was that when The Nerdist,Geek and Sundry or someone like Bonnie Burton announce something, it ends up on my Google+ page. And since I put all my geek stuff in one circle, I can select just that and easily see all their posts.

As for YouTube comments ending up on Google+, just uncheck the box under the comment window.

yeah but my point was that this stuff ends up on thier google+ invoulantarely and they arent so much as using it as you are just syphoning information due to google being evil.

You have to uncheck the box every single time because it refuses to remmeber the setting and the box does not even show up before you write the comment so its set up in a way to be as hard as possible.

 

[FalloutJack]

I dunno, man. I mean, I WANT Facebook and the like to die, but you know how it is with vaccines. You kill about 99.9% of the threat and the remaining smidgen of virus breeds a survival trait and multiplies, requiring a new vaccine.