Don’t Let Facebook Make You Miserable • Hacker News Board

Re: Don’t Let Facebook Make You Miserable

#31

Post by artifaxx » Sat, May 06, 2017, 9:28 PM UTC

kstenerud wrote: post #16

It's interesting how the vast majority of responses to this post are from people who have either left facebook entirely, or severely crippled it. Are the majority of HN folks off facebook, or is it just the vocal ones?

Different people are trying to get different things from Facebook. I use facebook but disable notifications and unliked all pages/companies. Crippling the annoying parts to them allows people to have their Facebook cake and eat it too. Without being bothered by stupid notifications mid bite.

Re: Don’t Let Facebook Make You Miserable

#32

Post by aleyan » Sat, May 06, 2017, 9:28 PM UTC

Perhaps we should take NYTimes advice a step further and stop letting them make us miserable either. There is nothing actionable in the news; next to no utility. News is simply a time sink that depress your spirit. Whenever I think of reading "legitimate" news like the NYTimes, I am reminded of this quote from a Soviet novel by Bulgakov. In it a doctor gives advice:

    If you care about your digestion, my advice is [sic]
    never read soviet newspapers before dinner.[1]

Over the past few years, motivated by the above quote and other reasoning, I taken a few experimental fasts from the news. During those weeks I found myself at no disadvantage that I could detect, but I did feel better and more productive.

[1] https://medium.com/@antonkovalyov/never-read-soviet-newspape...

Re: Don’t Let Facebook Make You Miserable

#33

Post by [deleted] » Sat, May 06, 2017, 9:28 PM UTC

brightball wrote: post #19

trevyn wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. It used to be closer to the former, but today it seems like all my "friends" are just raging about the latest ragefest. I am not envious of being overtaken by these emotions. :-)

That's actually why I deleted my account. The constant anger about everything was just unnecessary in my life.

[deleted]

Re: Don’t Let Facebook Make You Miserable

#34

Post by feocco » Sat, May 06, 2017, 9:28 PM UTC

brightball wrote: post #19

trevyn wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. It used to be closer to the former, but today it seems like all my "friends" are just raging about the latest ragefest. I am not envious of being overtaken by these emotions. :-)

That's actually why I deleted my account. The constant anger about everything was just unnecessary in my life.

This comment thread hits the nail on the head for why I deactivated my social media.

But I haven't found a good alternative "productive" time waster for when my mind needs a short break.

Re: Don’t Let Facebook Make You Miserable

#35

Post by jpttsn » Sat, May 06, 2017, 9:29 PM UTC

_m8fo wrote: post #20

cylinder wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfollow everyone

I don't use facebook, but that seems like silly advice. if you're going to unfollow everyone, then the primary value prop is gone. each time you bother to manually check on someone, you could've just called/emailed/messaged them. at that point you might as well delete your account imo.

People assume you have Facebook. Still having my account keeps things smooth.

Re: Don’t Let Facebook Make You Miserable

#36

Post by jpttsn » Sat, May 06, 2017, 9:31 PM UTC

siliconc0w wrote: post #17

Slightly ironic that the article has social media buttons. It's much better to let the media make you miserable.

On a cynical meta level, the article is like Beer telling you not to let Wine make you miserable.

Re: Don’t Let Facebook Make You Miserable

#37

Post by Animats » Sat, May 06, 2017, 9:33 PM UTC

That's more like Instagram than Facebook.[1] There are paid "Facebook influencers" [2] but it doesn't seem to be as big a thing as on Instagram.

Remember, sharing is spamming.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/may/05/earn-a-living-... [2] https://socialix.com/facebook-influencers

Re: Don’t Let Facebook Make You Miserable

#38

Post by meddlepal » Sat, May 06, 2017, 9:33 PM UTC

I deleted my Facebook account a few months ago and it has felt great to not waste time on their.

Re: Don’t Let Facebook Make You Miserable

#39

Post by denzil_correa » Sat, May 06, 2017, 9:34 PM UTC

geppeto wrote: post #24

nissehulth wrote: post #13

I did leave FB for awhile. But I realized that there are groups on Facebook that I do find interesting. I do get the occasional event invite on FB, sometimes personal, sometimes even work related. And, there are some people I enjoy communicating with, on Facebook. But, I really don't have much interest in what most of my friends post. Luckily, it's easy to just "unfollow" them to declutter my feed. They are still on…

Maybe a groups and events app would have a lot of utility. They could probably bake it into messenger.

> Maybe a groups and events app would have a lot of utility.

Facebook has stand alone apps for groups and events, individually.

https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2016/10/introducing-the-events-...

https://groups.fb.com

Re: Don’t Let Facebook Make You Miserable

#40

Post by [deleted] » Sat, May 06, 2017, 9:35 PM UTC

feocco wrote: post #34

brightball wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's actually why I deleted my account. The constant anger about everything was just unnecessary in my life.

This comment thread hits the nail on the head for why I deactivated my social media. But I haven't found a good alternative "productive" time waster for when my mind needs a short break.

[deleted]