I tried leaving Facebook – I couldn’t(theverge.com)
theverge.com
I tried leaving Facebook – I couldn’t
https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/28/17293056/facebook-deletefacebook-social-network-monopoly
29 comments
This. Facebook becomes what you let it. We’re humans. We have the power to form and maintain friendships.
I left facebook around a month ago. It hasn't made a difference in my life. Although it was a non-trivial amount of work to purge it from all my apps and websites. App sales are the same - a few ppl commented that they were happy i'd removed fb. My social life is exactly the same as it was before - now I can easily just concern myself with what is happening in my tiny part of the world.
How do you do it though? My social bubble uses Facebook (FB groups, events and Messenger) exclusively.
It's going to be a combination of asking people to get in touch with you over another service and letting go of some people who aren't willing to do that. This would also mean getting fewer updates, but depending on you, your age and circumstances, it may not be a big deal not getting to know certain things. You could also ask a few trusted people who continue to stay in touch to pass on anything important from Facebook and its services.
I'd recommend Telegram because of its superior UX, though normal chats are not end-to-end encrypted. I wouldn't recommend Signal for anything other than voice calls (mainly because it purposely prevents backing up information, thus preventing moving conversations from one device to another). If you prefer a free and decentralized option, Matrix (matrix.org), with the Riot (riot.im) client on multiple platforms, is something to try.
I'd recommend Telegram because of its superior UX, though normal chats are not end-to-end encrypted. I wouldn't recommend Signal for anything other than voice calls (mainly because it purposely prevents backing up information, thus preventing moving conversations from one device to another). If you prefer a free and decentralized option, Matrix (matrix.org), with the Riot (riot.im) client on multiple platforms, is something to try.
His apparently doesn't. Same for mine: If you asked me whom of my friends and family use Facebook, I could not name anyone. Only indirectly: Whatsapp is pretty dominant.
I put facebook and instagram at about the 5th screen away from my home screen. So if I want to load them I have to swipe past 5 other pages of apps. Went from checking them 4x a day to about 2x a week. Much better!
You should start using the search feature to open apps and see how easy or difficult it makes things for you. Though I do launch apps from the home screen, launching by search is something I use quite often so I don't have to track or remember which page an app is on.
I don't use the app for Facebook, since a browser gives a lot more control (on things like blocking ads, trackers, and still having messenger in the same tab). Sometimes I use mbasic.facebook.com from the browser for a messenger-integrated experience, but it's somewhat painful in certain ways.
I don't use the app for Facebook, since a browser gives a lot more control (on things like blocking ads, trackers, and still having messenger in the same tab). Sometimes I use mbasic.facebook.com from the browser for a messenger-integrated experience, but it's somewhat painful in certain ways.
I don’t understand these kinds of articles. I left Facebook two years ago. My mobile phone battery life has improved.
About 2 years ago I decided to "stay" on facebook on new terms: my interaction with it was reduced to checking messenger less than once a week (I have messenger lite installed and notifications turned off) and login into its mobile page around once a month to check for any important @mentions or photos people may have posted of me. I also have facebook cookies blocked. Everyone on facebook who needs to contact me urgently or more directly knows of alternative ways to do so.
I do feel strongly that facebook as a tool has evolved to become more toxic than beneficial. I don't think being worked up against it will solve anything so I find that my ignoring it is way more useful in the long term and trying to leave and having to decide what to keep, who to notify, etc. From my perspective facebook can very well become slowly irrelevant and now one will care.
I do feel strongly that facebook as a tool has evolved to become more toxic than beneficial. I don't think being worked up against it will solve anything so I find that my ignoring it is way more useful in the long term and trying to leave and having to decide what to keep, who to notify, etc. From my perspective facebook can very well become slowly irrelevant and now one will care.
The issue here is facebook has critical mass and another site needs to gain critical mass to unseat facebook. It's possible but difficult, especially as facebook buys out any other social media service with large numbers of users.
Facebook knows that a competitor could pivot to replace facebook, so they purchase the others.
Facebook knows that a competitor could pivot to replace facebook, so they purchase the others.
The beauty of FB’s dirty laundry finally making a difference (possibly, hopefully) is that the next big social network won’t sell to them. It’d be bad publicity and there would be a mass exodus.
Furthermore, I think the next popular network would bill itself as being anti-FB.
Furthermore, I think the next popular network would bill itself as being anti-FB.
> Furthermore, I think the next popular network would bill itself as being anti-FB.
They can try to claim that, but any business that stores people's photos, personal profiles, posts, messages, etc. would have everything it needed to become just as bad for privacy as Facebook if they wanted to. They would need to convince people that they would not do bad things with the data. But even if we trusted them, they could change their minds at any time, or hackers could steal the data.
The only way to prevent such data from being stolen is to never collect it -- but a social network without that kind of data would not be very social.
They can try to claim that, but any business that stores people's photos, personal profiles, posts, messages, etc. would have everything it needed to become just as bad for privacy as Facebook if they wanted to. They would need to convince people that they would not do bad things with the data. But even if we trusted them, they could change their minds at any time, or hackers could steal the data.
The only way to prevent such data from being stolen is to never collect it -- but a social network without that kind of data would not be very social.
The first part of your argument is true but it's missing a key reason why FB's data collection is so troubling — they run on advertisements and use all the user data collected to sell more of those ads.
A new social network doesn't have to be advertising-focused or based.
A new social network doesn't have to be advertising-focused or based.
I think what really disturbed people was not the ads, which are pretty obvious, but rather the idea that Facebook shared user data with a company that influenced the outcome of an election.
Yeah hopefully you're right.
One of the ones I'm looking at is taking registrations while in closed beta. I think it is to generate a userbase who can all begin to access it at the same time when invites are sent - to hopefully gain a large amount of popularity quickly.
One of the ones I'm looking at is taking registrations while in closed beta. I think it is to generate a userbase who can all begin to access it at the same time when invites are sent - to hopefully gain a large amount of popularity quickly.
That's a good approach. I have a semi-open beta for my network. What's this one that you're looking at? I'm curious to see what other new social sites are doing.
start by turning all notifications off... as a bonus, your battery life will extend dramatically...
I just removed the app altogether and created a link to the URL on my home screen. I really feel this is the best way to use FB for me. I don't have to worry about it tracking my location, notifications, or any other nonsense. I only ever used FB to share and view photos from family that doesn't live locally, and FB is still the best platform for that due to its network effect. Depending on your use of FB, I definitely recommend considering going app-less. It's the way the new web was supposed to be anyways.
The only nuisance is that FB constantly nags me to install the app. Well, it started nagging me to install the app. Then it gave up on that and suggested the "FB Lite" app. No thanks...
The only nuisance is that FB constantly nags me to install the app. Well, it started nagging me to install the app. Then it gave up on that and suggested the "FB Lite" app. No thanks...
I switched to using SlimSocial. It forces me to launch an app, so I'm consciously deciding to go to Facebook, while avoiding the notifications and battery drain that plague the regular Facebook app. Thankfully, I don't get the nags.
https://f-droid.org/packages/it.rignanese.leo.slimfacebook/
https://f-droid.org/packages/it.rignanese.leo.slimfacebook/
> Facebook is one step away from buying my kids their Christmas presents because I’m too busy to choose them.
That's actually a sorta neat business idea: If all these data krakens know everything about my friends and family anyway, they could make gift suggestions. I'm absolutely horrible at choosing gifts, mostly because I despise getting gifts.
That's actually a sorta neat business idea: If all these data krakens know everything about my friends and family anyway, they could make gift suggestions. I'm absolutely horrible at choosing gifts, mostly because I despise getting gifts.
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What you suggest would be way too complicated for ordinary people to deal with. Heck, I'm a software engineer and I wouldn't even want to do it for myself.
Besides, I don't see how your solution would hurt Facebook any more than just using Facebook without clicking on the ads.
The value of Facebook is that it's easy to use and almost everyone you know has an account. Any competing solution needs to get both of those things right.
By the way, getting those things right at the scale of Facebook requires highly skilled people, and some of them are going to make $240k a year or more -- why are you citing the Facebook median salary like it's a bad thing?
Besides, I don't see how your solution would hurt Facebook any more than just using Facebook without clicking on the ads.
The value of Facebook is that it's easy to use and almost everyone you know has an account. Any competing solution needs to get both of those things right.
By the way, getting those things right at the scale of Facebook requires highly skilled people, and some of them are going to make $240k a year or more -- why are you citing the Facebook median salary like it's a bad thing?
Why the altered headline? That makes no sense
Submitted title was "I tried leaving [social network]. I couldn’t". Since the article's title is neither misleading nor linkbait, we've changed it back to the original, as the site guidelines ask.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
But that's exactly the thing that makes Facebook worthless to me.
I have maybe half a dozen of real friends, add a dozen of acquaintances to this list.
It's absolutely worth my time and I value those friendships deeply enough to invest time and energy into them.
I cannot - in seriousness - maintain "friendships" with dozens or hundreds of "friends" and I couldn't care less what my class mates from high school did last summer. I'm absolutely not interested in a machine, which maintains such non-friendships for me.
Being a baby boomer this may be a generational thing, but I just don't care for that shallowness that Facebook defines as friendship.