The obstacles I hear for getting off Facebook is “there is no good alternative for <X>,” where X is:
* Private groups (school parent groups, etc.).
* Event mgmt.
Market opportunity will create alternatives, but only if ppl leave Facebook.
@cleverdevil I remember yahoo groups ... I belong to google groups .... what works is where people are ... not the tools - so yes leave FB is the first step ... but it seems it is easier for people to think to leave the European Union than to leave Facebook.
@cleverdevil It’s a bit of a catch 22 though, people won’t leave until there’s a viable alternative but that won’t be created until people leave. Someone needs to take a punt.
@colinwalker and wherever that new world is ... what will people be prepared to pay, because if they aren’t it will be the ‘same as it ever was’
@colinwalker well, there are already viable alternatives for most things. But, friction is preventing their adoption. It just takes a small amount of courage from a large amount of people to drive the change.
@colinwalker “viable” isn’t an attribute of these tools, it describes the user networks. Facebook is rarely the best tool for any job, but it’s the one where everyone already has an account and won’t forget to check.
@cleverdevil I totally agree, and would also add SSO. Facebook and Google have become the defacto SSO options for most every other smaller service. I’d delete my FB account if I could figure out how to migrate my Spotify account to have a username and password of its own without needing to call Spotify 😑
@cleverdevil @colinwalker @JohnPhilpin I agree with @gerwitz. Facebook is good enough for normal people to do what they have (now) come to depend upon Facebook for.
Here's the thing; Facebook initially targetted people beyond just the tech crowd, as compared to Twitter and the like, and so from the start they've been forced to see the world from a wider POV. They at least appear to be less user hostile than, say, having to get your head around web tech such as feed formats and blogging engines.
@simonmumbles yes ... people go to where they know their friends are ... and where least friction is ,,, all else is secondary.