dy/dan

Did You Know?

January 7th, 2009 by Dan Meyer

If Facebook were a country, it would be the eighth most populated in the world, just ahead of Japan, Russia and Nigeria.

Marco Arment:

Right, except its demographics would be a bit skewed.

There would be no children and no elderly.

Half of the population would be dead, flopped over in their houses, with nobody noticing or caring. But they’re still counted in the census!

A quarter of the population would be marketing consultants yelling advertisements at everyone. They’re counted, too.

And nobody, including the government, would be making any money or producing much of lasting value.

14 Comments »

14 Responses to “Did You Know?”

on 07 Jan 2009 at 11:45 am1 Morgante Pell

And nobody, including the government, would be making any money or producing much of lasting value.

Clearly, someone has a grudge and doesn’t really bother to actually investigate the things he is lambasting so easily.

People do make money on Facebook.
And people do things of lasting value.
on 07 Jan 2009 at 4:14 pm2 Nick

I don’t buy the whole “if Facebook was a country” argument… it’s just the social networking hype-mongers trying to do what they do best… hype web 2.0. No one ever says, if Facebook was a country… but if TV viewers were a country, they’d be the largest country in the world.
on 07 Jan 2009 at 4:16 pm3 Morgante Pell

Nick, I’m almost 100% positive PR flacks with networks have talked about “if TV viewers were a country” before.
on 07 Jan 2009 at 5:59 pm4 Hadass

There are both children and elderly on Facebook … the former having lied about their age .

I know people in their seventies who make good use of Facebook. People are just biased.
on 07 Jan 2009 at 6:40 pm5 Chris Lehmann

Whatever quibbling we may do about the actual numbers, the sentiment of the retort is spot on.

Yes, Facebook is popular, and yes, it’s incredible that so many people use it… but being a member of a social networking site is a lot more ephemeral than being a living, breathing citizen of a country.
on 07 Jan 2009 at 10:22 pm6 Mr. K.

I’ll second Chris’s sentiment, but add the fact that the argument even gets made is a big part of what gets in the way of the whole Ed2.0 thing.

Sure the political debates are fun, and get your readers riled up and get you a high technorati score. But when the dust settles, no one’s moved, which means no one has actually gotten better at what they do, which means there are probably better ways for me (at least in a professional sense) to spend my time.
on 08 Jan 2009 at 5:41 am7 Dina

Were you saying something about a litmus test post awhile back, Dan?
on 08 Jan 2009 at 6:10 am8 ken

what’s a ‘living, breathing citizen of a country’?

that sounds hard, complex, and something that one needs to pull off without a username and password.

and I bet one can’t get by on 140 characters or less.

(sorry for mixing up platforms)
on 08 Jan 2009 at 7:47 am9 dan

For the record, this dude Marco Arment invented a little slice of Web 2.0 called Tumblr (maybe you’ve heard of it) so it ain’t exactly like he’s some axe-grinding Luddite like yours truly.
on 08 Jan 2009 at 7:58 am10 Why I Don’t Do Facebook | The Line

[...] Dan had a bit about Facebook up this week, and it coincides exactly with several days of holiday-induced pleading from old college friends and colleagues I love to please, get a frickin’ page up, would you, what is your problem? [...]
on 08 Jan 2009 at 10:28 am11 Morgante Pell

dan, that’s exactly why I think he does have some inherent bias.

Tumblr, in some ways, competes with Facebook–especially for people’s attention. No doubt he would like to think the Facebook crew never makes anything of value. Except people actually use Facebook; not many use Tumblr.
on 10 Jan 2009 at 10:01 am12 Doug

Mrmeyer fans-

I teach in New York, and we are in the process of going through some serious cuts for this upcoming school budget vote in March.

Has anyone else gone through this before?

I am most curious about what other schools have done in the past and are going to do this time around. I’m trying to find innovative ideas for what areas to cut.

Can anyone shed light on this?

Doug
on 10 Jan 2009 at 1:11 pm13 Mike

What a strange discussion. I don’t even use facebook, but I’m trying to understand why this discussion is even taking place. Strange.
on 06 Oct 2009 at 1:20 am14 dy/dan Blog Archive Did You Know? | Senior Citizen Review

[...] A nice web master placed an observative post today on dy/dan Blog Archive Did You Know?Here’s a quick excerptmug: 2000: 8.5: 1.7: 753806460539: GENERIC DISPOSABLE LIDS: 1198/8714: Lid for 9 oz. Plastic Bowls (33) Plastic Cups and Plastic Lids (231) Plastic Food Containers (102) of paper, plastic and foam disposable products for the foodservice industry. Full contact details and searchable online catalogues for US (United States) companies supplying Disposable Plastic Bowls- free with Kellysearch. Disposable dome lid for China fruit bowl and dessert plate. Disposable, compostable and biodegradable bowls made from 100 bagasse: using the bowls with lids for take out is not recommended for hot liquid foods. Olive, N.J, has introduced a new HIPS that offers improved disposable plates bowls cups. Made from sturdy highdensity material the DX4300 disposable lid is. Price: 4.95 BASF Corp.’s styrenics business in Mt. Deep 8 oz bowls are ideal for meals or snacks. Both flat lids and dome lids fit securely on each bowl, sealing in freshness and Dome lids allow for packaging high [...] [...]