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Why I deleted my Facebook account

blakewatson.com

41–50 of 327 posts

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#42

I regret deleting my original Facebook account. I made it around the time they opened to every college in the US and there was a lot of history there, photos and videos and text. Sure most of it was worthless and maybe even embarrassing but that data is gone now.

Just create several accounts and segment your social life.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#44
post #32

I quit Facebook right around the time my son was born. It wasn't for privacy reasons (and frankly, it never bothered me), but rather for the enormous energy and time sink it had become. Truly, it was as if I was a dopamine junkie and Facebook was the pusher of those sweet, sweet red circles with a number in them that meant someone, somewhere vaguely agreed with something you posted. I noticed I was not present in the…

Forget "friends". Sharing with your family/relatives is a different thing though. No wise "quips" required. A picture says a 100 words :)

Good point... for this, I'm still using Google+. One circle for immediate family, another for wider family... I don't think I bother sharing photos to any wider circles than that at the moment.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#45
The crucial argument for me was that I have to trust Facebook forever. Facebook intends to keep your data forever, so you have to trust them for just as long.

I don't think Facebook will go forever without some major data leak. I don't like to count on the competence of corporations in handling secret information.

Similarly, I don't think any human ever looks at Facebook's statistical models for any individual. Facebook likely considers this data of the upmost secrecy. But I'm not sure they'll remain as upstanding decades from now, if they're ever in dire financial straights. In my view, Facebook is only going to get eviler.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#46
post #26

This might be an unpopular opinion in the tech-savvy crowd of HN, but while I agree with pretty much 100% of the points brought up in this article, I still disagree that leaving facebook is a net positive. I simply believe that as privacy violating as facebook is, as scary and orwellian their statistical analysis of my life and habits are, they have solved a very real problem for real people: social networking online…

Ideally could have an "ad financed network" that is open-source and distributed p2p, allowing anyone to install the server in their home on a raspberry pi and still be somewhat in control.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#47
"... one of the last things that kept me on Facebook—after I had largely stopped posting and reading the News Feed—was simply checking my notifications. I unconsciously craved that little hit of happiness one gets when they see, So-and-so liked your post. But that’s not real happiness. It’s an unhealthy addiction."

This is true, especially of my current use of Facebook.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#48
"... one of the last things that kept me on Facebook—after I had largely stopped posting and reading the News Feed—was simply checking my notifications. I unconsciously craved that little hit of happiness one gets when they see, So-and-so liked your post. But that’s not real happiness. It’s an unhealthy addiction."

This is true, especially of my current use of Facebook.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does that even mean? Do you even know what you're talking about? I don't pay for a lot of things of which I'm certainly not the product. FYI resorting to such banalities is rather pathetic

Let me rephrase: if you are not paying for it, you are the product, but you probably don't know it, and even if you did know it, you probably don't care. If I was to go one step farther, I'd say the entire powerbase of companies like Facebook and Google is founded on a large mass of people not caring about their privacy. Maybe a step too far, but I'm not so sure.

I'd say you are probably right on this - it's interesting to consider how these companies actually function - sometimes the core product has been free - for a long time - and yet for services like YouTube - now there are paid options.

Can you imagine an internet search engine with a paid option? Perhaps a personal search assistant who sorts through all the junk to find what you are actually after? It may well happen.

As someone whose started a company with a "free product", seeing how it's been monetised has certainly been eye-opening.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#50
post #33

I use Facebook as a Google Reader replacement. I don't care what my contacts share. Twitter was my go-to site for this use case (news consumption). But that platform is too polluted now. Feedly was another site I used regularly. Is there any good news reader alternative to the platforms mentioned?

There are a variety of RSS readers for each platform, is there something specific you're looking for?
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