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What should you think about when using Facebook?

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Re: What should you think about when using Facebook?

#201

Post by zeroer »

aantix wrote: post #132
djrogers wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I get to see their children grow up, new jobs, comfort them when they lose a parent.. Do you though? I mean do you really get to see all those things? Having been through the loss of a parent and the arrival a new baby in the past couple of years I can tell you from this end of things there is no value in any online "presence" of friends and family. The people who come to meet our new baby, who brought food, and wh…

So after the death of a parent, an old, close childhood friend that lives far away sends you a message saying "your mom was a second mother to me" and it means nothing...? It means something to me. So I continue to use the service.

Maybe he means that the person who said "your mom was a second mother" also came to the funeral?

Re: What should you think about when using Facebook?

#202

Post by zeroer »

rak00n wrote: post #155
city41 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I deactivated my account over a year ago. Facebook will not delete your account, deactivate is the best you can do. Interestingly I went to a Facebook event at their headquarters and when I signed in, there was my profile picture staring back at me. I thought pulling it out of my deactivated account was in poor taste. Anyway, I can say I'm happier without it. I'm now seriously considering deactivating my Twitter acco…

I thought Facebook does delete your account. Do you have a source?

My guess is that they don't delete anything due to regulatory and legal reasons.

Re: What should you think about when using Facebook?

#203

Post by zeroer »

afandian wrote: post #43
macintux wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found it interesting for the opposite reason: I've avoided Facebook up to now, but there are enough inconveniences that my resistance is wearing down.

They might be clunky, but I'm sure there are adequate means of doing everything you'd want to do. The problem many people have is convenience. For example if you are forced to use Facebook in order to log into a Hotel Wifi (as I recently was) then you have to say "I don't want the Wifi more than I want to log in with Facebook". It's not an essential. Or, it might be more difficult to spend the effort keeping in touch…

I keep a dummy Facebook account for precisely this purpose.

Re: What should you think about when using Facebook?

#204

Post by NetOpWibby »

riebschlager wrote: post #93
afandian wrote: post #37

This is an excellent blog post, though it made me sick reading it. I recently made the switch. I went from trying to limit how much I log in (to once or twice a week), to actually not logging in. I've been cold-turkey for two months (except for a couple of times when I had a very specific reason to check something). I thought it would be difficult. Turns out it's not so hard, and it's the fear of reduced social conta…

I'm now over one year Facebook-free. As with most things (especially online things) I don't even remember why it was so appealing in the first place. The fear of missing out fades really fast. And as someone else mentioned in this thread, I feel like I value actual friendship a bit more. If anyone's interested in really ditching Facebook and preventing it from injecting junk into the sites you visit and tracking you,…

Nice post! I deleted my Facebook account about 2 or 3 weeks ago and I haven't been happier. Before pulling the plug though, I spent a couple days babysitting a post deletion script that wasn't as autonomous as I've hoped. However, I was able to delete my first 3 years and last 5 years of Facebook posts and a decent amount of recent likes/reactions.

I think if you really want to make sure Facebook doesn't have data directly from you, you'd need to take the time to delete every possible interaction you can, delete browser cookies, wait a couple days, then initiate account deletion (Facebook makes you wait 2 weeks until your account is actually deleted, just enough time for you to change your mind).

Re: What should you think about when using Facebook?

#205

Post by NetOpWibby »

bblough wrote: post #142
afandian wrote: post #37

This is an excellent blog post, though it made me sick reading it. I recently made the switch. I went from trying to limit how much I log in (to once or twice a week), to actually not logging in. I've been cold-turkey for two months (except for a couple of times when I had a very specific reason to check something). I thought it would be difficult. Turns out it's not so hard, and it's the fear of reduced social conta…

I also just took the plunge. I guess I'm at about 3 weeks (late next week is one month). For the past several months, I spent some of my free time going through my history, deleting almost everything I ever posted (note, there's a way to view your timeline by specific year, which seems to include more than the regular timeline view). The few things I couldn't delete (because it didn't give me an option) or that I did…

I did the same as you about the same amount of time ago...interesting. A month prior, I requested an export of my Facebook data so I at least have that should I feel the need to look at old pics.

Re: What should you think about when using Facebook?

#206

Post by NetOpWibby »

pimeys wrote: post #188
afandian wrote: post #37

This is an excellent blog post, though it made me sick reading it. I recently made the switch. I went from trying to limit how much I log in (to once or twice a week), to actually not logging in. I've been cold-turkey for two months (except for a couple of times when I had a very specific reason to check something). I thought it would be difficult. Turns out it's not so hard, and it's the fear of reduced social conta…

I've also been out from Facebook over a month now. The last time I did it I was out three years, but needed to join back when I moved to a new country. This time I also stopped drinking alcohol, quit nicotine (in the form of snus) and deleted several of my accounts, e.g. Gmail and Linkedin. This feels suspiciously easy...

Nice!

Re: What should you think about when using Facebook?

#207

Post by glitchdout »

OliverJones wrote: post #55

Another comment has mentioned poisoning the FB database with fake clickstreams, etc. It looks like skillful black hat marketers have already succeeded at poisoning FB's content. Read this Vice story, then delete your FB account and delete the cookies from your browser. Friends don't let friends use FB. https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/big-data-cambridg...

The video referenced in that article is truly amazing/disturbing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8Dd5aVXLCc

Re: What should you think about when using Facebook?

#208

Post by DashRattlesnake »

afandian wrote: post #37

This is an excellent blog post, though it made me sick reading it. I recently made the switch. I went from trying to limit how much I log in (to once or twice a week), to actually not logging in. I've been cold-turkey for two months (except for a couple of times when I had a very specific reason to check something). I thought it would be difficult. Turns out it's not so hard, and it's the fear of reduced social conta…

> I'm not at the point of deleting the account yet. Small steps.

I'm in the same boat. I hardly use it, but I keep it around because it is the favored way to contact certain people and organize events, and I don't want to miss out.

I console myself by deliberately injecting noise into my profile (e.g. fake likes) every once in awhile.

Re: What should you think about when using Facebook?

#209

Post by djrogers »

aantix wrote: post #132
djrogers wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I get to see their children grow up, new jobs, comfort them when they lose a parent.. Do you though? I mean do you really get to see all those things? Having been through the loss of a parent and the arrival a new baby in the past couple of years I can tell you from this end of things there is no value in any online "presence" of friends and family. The people who come to meet our new baby, who brought food, and wh…

So after the death of a parent, an old, close childhood friend that lives far away sends you a message saying "your mom was a second mother to me" and it means nothing...? It means something to me. So I continue to use the service.

Those people sent letters and sympathy cards - actual handwritten ones! And they called too - actually spoke on the telephone. I know, it's a little wacky, but it works.

Re: What should you think about when using Facebook?

#210

Post by DashRattlesnake »

zeroer wrote: post #202
rak00n wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought Facebook does delete your account. Do you have a source?

My guess is that they don't delete anything due to regulatory and legal reasons.

My guess is they don't delete it because your data is valuable to them and they don't want to lose it, though they may use fake regulatory and legal excuses.
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