Billions of people use Facebook regularly. It's a tiny minority of us who would not use a useful product because of privacy concerns. I think you are wrong. It's not they who are a "special kind of stupid." It is us who are a "special kind of paranoid." Justifiably so, I would contend.
This is exactly right and has been proven over and over again. People do not care about sharing their info. Lots of people particularly around these parts pound the table that they should but they are simply fighting the market.
hacker news has a alive tradition if fighting the markets and losing
Special kind of stupid was indeed unduly harsh but I think you could make the case "A special kind of unaware", Meta has frequently been in the news for many of the sketchy things they've done (most recently the big fine for harming kids).
That said the presumption on my part there is that most people read the news widely and based on conversations with the people I meet in life that may well not be the case.
Honestly, I think most people just don't care as much about privacy as you and I. I have many friends who are perfectly aware of all of the security and privacy concerns re Facebook, and continue to use it because they just don't care. Or at least, the value they derive is worth far more than how much they care about privacy.
It's easy to slip into the mindset of "if only I could enlighten these unwashed masses, they'd see how right I am!" I think the bottom line is that sometimes people just have different values.
No, they're not wrong. There are just a very large number of people who are a special kind of stupid.
Not you though. You're the only smart one, huh?
No?
> It is us who are a "special kind of paranoid." Justifiably so, I would contend.
It's not even that. The average HN user would gladly use it even if it was privacy-invading. Just like they use Gmail every day and have no qualms to upload gazillion private docs to OpenAI and Anthropic.
It's just that Facebook isn't cool anymore.
> would not use a useful product
My problem isn't privacy or Meta spying on me. The product isn't useful.
My partner's algorithm gets more updates from my family than I do. Dunno why. "How did X do on the marathon?" they ask. And I go "X ran the what now when, huh?".
Same with all groups. Forums died, people moved to FB groups and now conversations are in an eternal September and impossible to follow.