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Don’t Let Facebook Make You Miserable

nytimes.com

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Re: Don’t Let Facebook Make You Miserable

#171

Post by henrikschroder »

simonsarris wrote: post #89
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?

I use it and really like it to share photography and keep in touch, but I think its degraded a lot recently. So many people share articles that they've never read, they're really just sharing a headline. Or post from useless meme pages (I can go to reddit or something for that). So I have hidden almost every article source ("Hide all from Buzzfeed/NYT/science memes page" etc) All I want to see are people's mundane li…

I wish there was an easier way to block out "external" content, I'm really, really not interested in re-shares of clickbait from newspapers and other sources, or the inevitably political outrage and bullshit that people share.

I just want the unique thoughts and photos of my Facebook friends to see what's going on in their lives.

Re: Don’t Let Facebook Make You Miserable

#172

Post by fsiefken »

nindalf wrote: post #115
pavlov wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like reading the newspaper -- print, rather than online -- specifically because it comes out only once a day. It's not an endless stream of pretend-immediate attention-grabbers, but a curated collection of the important stuff that happened yesterday. If the print newspaper were invented today, it would grab hundreds of millions of VC money in Silicon Valley as the cure for news overload. (I guess the pitch would ha…

I read an app that updates once a day with 6 short news items. Takes less than 5 minutes to read when I'm on the pot and I'm done with news for the rest of the day. Works pretty well, I don't think I'm less informed than other people I interact with.

I use the teletext service for that, around 18 items per day. Titles have 34 characters max, body max 100 words. http://nos.nl/teletekst#101 Radio news takes 5 minutes, and 1.5 speed television news takes 10 minutes. I prioritize local news. It would be nice if you could have such a format for social 'news', twitter comes to mind, but few use it that way - a few newsworthy oneliners a day.

Re: Don’t Let Facebook Make You Miserable

#173

Post by kkleindev »

harryf wrote: post #168
thewhitetulip wrote: post #160

I cut facebook out of my life three momths ago when I realized a pattern of my activities. Something hapened and I ranted there about my thoughts, others were offended ao they commented & we would fight not understanding each other. Then I used to ignore them and continue. Then one fine day, I sat on a bus, there was something going on about Kashmir and Indian military and I found that the guy next to me was also pos…

Been free of Facebook for more than 3 years. There's never been a single moment where I felt I was missing out. Even the staying in touch - for those that matter we found other ways to stay connected. The final straw for me was actually a girl from my elementary school who wanted to friend me. The chat went like this... Me: I have to ask you something. So we haven't seen each other for decades, the last time being wh…

I agree that there are ways to stay connected with the ones who 'matter'. However to me, there are many people who 'don't matter', yet with whom I'd like to stay in touch. In other words, I see three types of relations instead of 2. And for this type of inbetween 'people who matter' and 'people who I generally know but whom I don't want to meet', I am not willing to pay the extra effort of maintaining the connection without facebook.

Re: Don’t Let Facebook Make You Miserable

#174

Post by JamesAdir »

waibelp wrote: post #167

Just a simple question: If Facebook is harmful why not cut it out of life and cancel the account? Done this some years ago being a lot more happier as a result... No need to read untrue postings from people claiming that they are the "winners of life" while everybody knows that they did not achieve anything for real...

I do think that like any other tool, it's should be handled with care. I do find Facebook useful for events (shows and concerts) and it's invaluable as a replacement for forums. Find it much less useful as a way to connect with friends.

Re: Don’t Let Facebook Make You Miserable

#175

Post by Broken_Hippo »

jventura wrote: post #47
hkmurakami wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instagram might be a better fit though?

Probably, I don't really know what Instagram is.. Edit: I've checked it, thanks, it seems good, but I'm wary of adding another app to my list. As long as I can add photos and my closest family/friends can see them, FB is enough for me. :)

FWIW, I finally signed up for instagram a few months back - mostly to post artwork. I had hesitated: I don't have facebook on my phone, after all, and figured facebook was enough.

Much to my surprise, It seems to be a much better platform for artwork and photography (most of my followers are posting the same, so generally interesting to go through as well). It will also post to facebook from the instagram app.

Re: Don’t Let Facebook Make You Miserable

#176

Post by XorNot »

thewhitetulip wrote: post #160

I cut facebook out of my life three momths ago when I realized a pattern of my activities. Something hapened and I ranted there about my thoughts, others were offended ao they commented & we would fight not understanding each other. Then I used to ignore them and continue. Then one fine day, I sat on a bus, there was something going on about Kashmir and Indian military and I found that the guy next to me was also pos…

Except the problem doesn't seem to be the technology, just the way you were using it. You engaged in behavior there you don't engage in in real life (for pretty much the same reasons we don't do it in real life).

The problem with the internet and social media is a lot of people not realizing they aren't that different to real life, and have been getting less and less different.

Re: Don’t Let Facebook Make You Miserable

#177

Post by XorNot »

0xfaded wrote: post #90

Facebook makes me miserable because it has become the defacto medium for social communication. When decent alternatives arrive offering end to end encryption, Facebook goes and buys them. Say what you will, but WhatsApp/Messenger usage statistics correlated with Facebook usage statistics of less privacy conscious contacts can still paint a pretty damn good picture (read marketing profile). You literally can't use any…

Any of those services for shipping you binary blobs with no open source code. None of them were trustworthy.

Re: Don’t Let Facebook Make You Miserable

#178

Post by aembleton »

makecheck wrote: post #72

I liked Facebook early on when it was set up in a way that was pretty easy to customize (even with plug-ins). It felt easier than creating a custom web page — even as someone with the skills to do so — and it was more likely to actually be seen by people that I knew. Then they started compartmentalizing everything. After awhile, if you wanted to mention something that didn’t have a field in their form, there wasn’t r…

Don't you find that when you meet people in real life, they then refer to something on their or your Facebook feed?

Sometime ago, I put up a music video and yesterday I was chatting with a friend who had seen it.

Re: Don’t Let Facebook Make You Miserable

#179

Post by sgt101 »

Substitute "World of Warcraft" for "Facebook" in the comments below! There were so many similar discussions about WoW years ago. I am afraid the fact is that some people are very vulnerable and games and social properties do not account for or accommodate that fact.

Everyone else is reading this and thinking - "Oh yeah, I suppose I shouldn't be so bothered".

Re: Don’t Let Facebook Make You Miserable

#180

Post by salesguy222 »

harryf wrote: post #168
thewhitetulip wrote: post #160

I cut facebook out of my life three momths ago when I realized a pattern of my activities. Something hapened and I ranted there about my thoughts, others were offended ao they commented & we would fight not understanding each other. Then I used to ignore them and continue. Then one fine day, I sat on a bus, there was something going on about Kashmir and Indian military and I found that the guy next to me was also pos…

Been free of Facebook for more than 3 years. There's never been a single moment where I felt I was missing out. Even the staying in touch - for those that matter we found other ways to stay connected. The final straw for me was actually a girl from my elementary school who wanted to friend me. The chat went like this... Me: I have to ask you something. So we haven't seen each other for decades, the last time being wh…

Honestly that's de facto a pretty dick move, despite whatever might make sense in an ideal world
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