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What is the difference between social media apps?

Started by roadman65, May 28, 2018, 10:01:03 PM

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J N Winkler

#25
I am not sure my phone even has the Facebook app installed.  If it does, I deliberately uninstalled or disabled it long ago.  Facebook mobile prompts me to install Messenger whenever someone sends me a PM, but I just check "Retrieve desktop site" if I absolutely must read it on my phone.

I don't bother with sort order of Facebook posts:  with ~150 Facebook friends, I know there will be more posts in my feed in any given day than I care to allocate the time to read.

I have FB Purity on my PC and while it does help remove the temptation to click through on "Suggested posts," "X commented on this," "Y likes this," "Sponsored posts," etc., it lacks features I would consider useful, such as filtering out all posts that are set to be world-visible.  I have a few Facebook friends who routinely choose this setting for all of their posts and then do little to curate the ensuing discussion, with the result that food fights routinely erupt.

I've given up on Twitter--don't want to give headspace to it.

I don't have an Instagram account, though from time to time I get asked if I have one and have toyed with the idea of getting one just to set out my shingle.  It comes as news to me that Instagram accepts photos only from mobile devices.

In the comments upthread I sense a tendency to regard screenshotting as a tool favored by those who mean you ill, comparable to the knife they carry with the intent to bury it in your back.  I view it in more neutral terms, as one implementation of the analog hole and as something that has to be accepted as part of the landscape.  It can also be mediated by a script with little to no human intervention.  I am sure there is at least one computer somewhere that is running a script 24/7 that takes screenshots of Donald Trump's Twitter account at regular intervals (say once every five to ten seconds) and then does some type of pixel test to check for changed content, just to counteract his tendency to rewrite history by tweeting and then deleting tweets (as happened with the "covfefe" tweet).  What can happen to Trump can happen to anyone else whose political opinions are strongly colored or who is widely disliked.
"It is necessary to spend a hundred lire now to save a thousand lire later."--Piero Puricelli, explaining the need for a first-class road system to Benito Mussolini


roadman65

I found one called MeWe but still have not figured out how it works, but it seems like FB but with no pop up like FB is known to have.
Every day is a winding road, you just got to get used to it.

Sheryl Crowe

SSOWorld

I tried to force Facebook to open the desktop site on my phone today but it just redirects back to the mobile url.  I used the browser function to forcefully request desktop site and deliberately typed "www"  in the place of "m" . 
Scott O.

Not all who wander are lost...
Ah, the open skies, wind at my back, warm sun on my... wait, where the hell am I?!
As a matter of fact, I do own the road.
Raise your what?

Wisconsin - out-multiplexing your state since 1918.

J N Winkler

I pick "Desktop site" in Chrome on my phone but don't change URL part from "m" to "www."  This is enough to allow messages to load, which is the functionality I want.  If I load messages and then unpick "Desktop site," Facebook almost instantly redirects to the feed.

I haven't tried a Tamper Data-like plugin for Chrome or an IP traffic sniffer on my phone to determine exactly how Chrome requests desktop pages.  I presume there is some switching of user-agent header involved.  Facebook is an Ajax-driven website and I suspect there is Ajax functionality that is designed to detect mobile user agents so websites can be mobile-responsive, which Facebook abuses to try to push Messenger (through Google Play) on people who want only to resolve new-message flags.
"It is necessary to spend a hundred lire now to save a thousand lire later."--Piero Puricelli, explaining the need for a first-class road system to Benito Mussolini

jwolfer

We already have NSA snooping via Google and Facebook

Z981


hbelkins

There's an app called Friendly that will allow you to load Facebook and have access to messages.


Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.

Scott5114

Quote from: abefroman329 on June 04, 2018, 07:28:25 AM
It's probably really expensive, in terms of money and resources, for FB to maintain a mobile site and apps for the various smartphone/tablet operating systems. I agree that the iOS app is absurdly bloated at around 600 MB.

As someone that maintains a site with a mobile version, I kind of doubt it. The correct way to do mobile sites in 2018 is to take the desktop site and use CSS rules to shunt the page around to fit on smaller screens. There's nothing that really has to be OS specific.

Facebook wants to be able to make system calls that the browser isn't allowed to. That's why they push their app.
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

J N Winkler

Quote from: Scott5114 on June 08, 2018, 06:10:20 AMFacebook wants to be able to make system calls that the browser isn't allowed to. That's why they push their app.

When they do this, they have the gall to tell you, in Facebook PR-speak (there is a definite register here that I am still trying to classify but which seems pitched to a fourth-grade reading level and exudes tech-bro obliviousness to how condescending it sounds), that it is because they are trying to make your user experience better.
"It is necessary to spend a hundred lire now to save a thousand lire later."--Piero Puricelli, explaining the need for a first-class road system to Benito Mussolini

SSOWorld

Quote from: J N Winkler on June 08, 2018, 09:24:56 AM
Quote from: Scott5114 on June 08, 2018, 06:10:20 AMFacebook wants to be able to make system calls that the browser isn't allowed to. That's why they push their app.

When they do this, they have the gall to tell you, in Facebook PR-speak (there is a definite register here that I am still trying to classify but which seems pitched to a fourth-grade reading level and exudes tech-bro obliviousness to how condescending it sounds), that it is because they are trying to make your user experience better.
Scott O.

Not all who wander are lost...
Ah, the open skies, wind at my back, warm sun on my... wait, where the hell am I?!
As a matter of fact, I do own the road.
Raise your what?

Wisconsin - out-multiplexing your state since 1918.

In_Correct

A few more Apps that I did not mention earlier:

Reddit: This is also a web site. It is a general purpose forum. Some people probably consider it a Social Network. And as any Social Network, I hate it.


BitMoji: A very stupid avatar service. I have seen BitMojis from SnapChat contacts turning on BitMoji and Snap Map location at the same time. It can be amusing to see avatars drinking coffee in the morning and driving in convertibles if they are on an Interstate Highway. But other times BitMoji is annoying.


Snap Map: Despite my criticism for SnapChat, (and BitMoji) there is a feature (and a Web Site) called Snap Map. This is a very catchy name for it, and it might be helpful in expanding SnapChat. There is no profit in throw away "Stories" especially if Snap Chat runs commercials. At the same time, it seems to be a "Youthful" competitor to Google Maps. The Map has multiple viewing modes but they are basic in comparison to Google Maps.


I could try to find more "Social" Apps, but one of the many things I hate about Smart Phones is that there is not enough space for them. Some of these Apps take more space compared to a Computer App!
Drive Safely. :sombrero: Ride Safely. And Build More Roads, Rails, And Bridges. :coffee: ... Boulevards Wear Faster Than Interstates.

formulanone

Quote from: SSOWorld on June 09, 2018, 02:35:54 PM
Quote from: J N Winkler on June 08, 2018, 09:24:56 AM
Quote from: Scott5114 on June 08, 2018, 06:10:20 AMFacebook wants to be able to make system calls that the browser isn't allowed to. That's why they push their app.

When they do this, they have the gall to tell you, in Facebook PR-speak (there is a definite register here that I am still trying to classify but which seems pitched to a fourth-grade reading level and exudes tech-bro obliviousness to how condescending it sounds), that it is because they are trying to make your user experience better.


Apps can also conveniently remind one every time that you have restricted access to a feature which you accidentally selected in the first place (camera, microphone, mass spectrometer).



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