I’m surprised to hear that so many people you speak with feel that way. My experience of using Facebook (with an ad blocker) is that it’s a mix of interesting thinkposts from friends in EA or other academic circles + personal news from people I care about, but would be unlikely to proactively keep in touch with (extended family, people I knew in college, etc.).
I certainly scroll past my fair share of posts, but the average quality of things I see on FB is easily competitive with what I see on Twitter (and I curate my Twitter carefully, so this is praise).
As a random sample, when I open Facebook now, the posts I see are:
A question in an EA group about making wills (I’d have answered it if someone else hadn’t already, and I’m glad that my friends in the group are seeing that post)
A cute, nerdy parenting anecdote from Scott Aaronson
A nice personal update with a lovely photo from an acquaintance (scroll past, but happy to see he’s well)
An irrelevant update from a page I followed in high school — I unfollowed it immediately and won’t ever see it again
A post from Ozzie Gooen on Zvi’s recent SFF grant writeup (I happened to know about this already, but if I didn’t, I’d be really glad I saw his post)
An amusing Twitter screenshot
A post from a friend about her recent sobriety and the journey she took to get there (I hadn’t been aware of her struggles, but this is someone I really like; I read her story with interest and came away feeling hopeful)
I wonder whether FB looks different for people who see it as a time sink, or if they just have a higher bar for “good use of idle time” than I do.
I’m surprised to hear that so many people you speak with feel that way. My experience of using Facebook (with an ad blocker) is that it’s a mix of interesting thinkposts from friends in EA or other academic circles + personal news from people I care about, but would be unlikely to proactively keep in touch with (extended family, people I knew in college, etc.).
I certainly scroll past my fair share of posts, but the average quality of things I see on FB is easily competitive with what I see on Twitter (and I curate my Twitter carefully, so this is praise).
As a random sample, when I open Facebook now, the posts I see are:
A question in an EA group about making wills (I’d have answered it if someone else hadn’t already, and I’m glad that my friends in the group are seeing that post)
A cute, nerdy parenting anecdote from Scott Aaronson
A nice personal update with a lovely photo from an acquaintance (scroll past, but happy to see he’s well)
An irrelevant update from a page I followed in high school — I unfollowed it immediately and won’t ever see it again
A post from Ozzie Gooen on Zvi’s recent SFF grant writeup (I happened to know about this already, but if I didn’t, I’d be really glad I saw his post)
An amusing Twitter screenshot
A post from a friend about her recent sobriety and the journey she took to get there (I hadn’t been aware of her struggles, but this is someone I really like; I read her story with interest and came away feeling hopeful)
I wonder whether FB looks different for people who see it as a time sink, or if they just have a higher bar for “good use of idle time” than I do.