I've seen more people who use @withknown #deletefacebook this past week than any other platform's users.
It's obviously much easier to leave when you've got somewhere valuable and worthwhile to go to.
@JohnPhilpin micro.blog is certainly a simple, easy, and smart place to go as well, particularly for those without lots of technical skill.
I've yet to see or hear about examples of people quitting Facebook for it though I've recommended it to several in the past weeks and months.
Part of the unseen context of this post included a prior one on my site which included a notification about Known adding multi-photo support at the same time the founder of Known quit Instagram.
@c I would agree but I woukd also say that micro blog today is at the equivalent adoption of the Harvard dorm for Facebook - as in numbers - not community
My challenge to us all is whether we can unite to present a simple clear message that humans can understand around owning your own content, internet identity, privacy / security et al - stuff that Most people don’t care about and are anyway used to free ....
I envisage a haves and have nots future ... where the have nots will be in the walled gardens, with no privacy, owning nothing, and wondering where they went wrong ... that is if they recognize they did go wrong ... after all we used to manage the population through opium dens ....
@JohnPhilpin You can't have stuff like this on your sites: withknown.com/pro/
Any potential alternative to Facebook must be as easy as signing up to Facebook, at a minimum.
Second, I think the average Internet user doesn't care about owning content or identity. Privacy will only matter when it becomes personal, and the CA scandal isn't that. Security doesn't matter until it personally hits and your liable.
@frankm That Known Pro page is targeting institutions that want to set up their own private/public Facebook-like services. Once set up, it's generally easy for the mass public to use as you indicate. When it comes to the masses someone somewhere has to do some set up and maintenance work. As an example, imagine what the world would look like if Facebook were open sources and distributed. That general model is supportable under Known's architecture. In fact, one could potentially run Known instances to create a distributed version of micro.blog.
Your second point is surely the harder issue though.
@jeremycherfas well we - the brits - did in places like Hong Kong ... will dig some references up for you
@JohnPhilpin I know a bit about the opium wars, tea, silver and all that. I just thought it was a bit of a stretch to call that forth in this context. I’m inclined more to a version of Marx’s notion that FB and its ilk have replaced religion as the opium of the people. Which itself suggests that it was the aristos, rather than the people, who enjoyed the real thing.
@jeremycherfas good point .. and maybe my analogy was a ‘stretch too far’, if you will pardon the mixed metaphor.
And yes, a lot of ‘real life' is actually done through the internet ... i just finished this podcast yesterday … towards the end is a discussion of same.
But for ‘real world internet benefits’ - well that doesn't come through the likes of Facebook, it comes through utilizing ALL aspects of the open internet - so maybe the Marx extension was onto something…
Indie Webbers being the ‘have’s' ... a different slice to 'the aristos' maybe - but in percentage terms - maybe ‘1%' is still the right sizing?
@jeremycherfas we gotta think big and not so literally we are in a post truth era ... where stories are more important than facts …. at least that is what I am told 😂