Why I deleted my Facebook account • Hacker News Board

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#61

Post by tomduncalf » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 7:44 AM UTC

fastbeef wrote: post #17

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…

I felt the same - I was alarmed when I realised how much time I spent scrolling through a feed of inane posts, and how Cmd-T, f, down, enter had become almost a reflex.

Most of my "real" friends seemed to have stopped posting on there, yet I was still addicted to scrolling through the feed while waiting for code to compile or whatever (clever design on their part, I guess!).

However, also like you, the privacy side doesn't worry me too much (although as time goes by I do start to think about it more), and I still get some value from communicating with certain people on FB Messenger and being able to access photos from events etc., so instead of quitting, I unfollowed everyone (using a bit of Javascript - I'll try and dig it out).

My feed is now totally blank, so I now only visit maybe twice a day for a few seconds to check for messages (I refuse to install their app - mbasic.facebook.com all the way!). I did think I could refollow people if I felt I was missing out, but surprise surprise, I don't at all.

Of course, I've now replaced reading Facebook with reading Twitter while stuff compiles but at least that's relevant to my work ;)

I'd highly recommend this approach if you feel uncomfortable with your use of Facebook but also value your network of friends on there.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#62

Post by 2845197541 » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 7:44 AM UTC

I deleted my Facebook, created a new one with 0 friends and now only use the messenger as a second email to communicate with my actual friends if I have a message that's too long for text. And I'm so glad to not care anymore what ____ who I met at a St. Patrick's day party five years ago is doing on vacation in ____. I also enjoy not seeing my good friends falsely display their lives. There's been so many times where I was with _____ for some outing and the next day saw a different, composed representation on Facebook. Facebook is an extension of the obscurantism of photo albums of the past. It used to be that photo albums were these things that you looked into and got a sort of false narrative where in every picture everyone is smiling and you can't see the metastasizing cancer in grandpa's lungs as he stands next to Niagara falls in 1978 months shy of his divorce from grandma. Now you're not looking at a photo album's exclusion of life's complexities once in a blue moon when someone's grandmother pulls it out you're looking at it every day, several times a day, in 2d, 3d, 4d, 5d, with footnotes and notifications in an endless feed. Not to mention it's created a culture of poisoned narcissists.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#63

Post by ljk » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 7:45 AM UTC

jsemrau wrote: post #5

Usually I don't like these "why I left [company]" post. However, for this one it struck a nerve. I am not even on Facebook and since about a week ago receive emails along the line "Jan see what [real friend of mine]" has posted. I flagged is as Spam in this is where the emails now land. But WTF is going on ? This is a severe intrusion of my privacy. What's next. Install camera's wherever I physically go ? Is that the…

> What's next. Install camera's wherever I physically go

how about camera in your home? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X_fP4pPWPw

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#64

Post by kleer001 » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 7:46 AM UTC

avaer wrote: post #30

kronos29296 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And privacy isn't worth anything. Nobody cares. Because everybody is on Facebook.

If privacy isn't worth anything, someone should tell the advertisers spending billions to buy it.

Someone really should. Also tell them that 90% of what they do doesn't work. In fact we should get rid of most advertizing.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#65

Post by Swizec » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 7:46 AM UTC

avaer wrote: post #56

Swizec wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I too feel exactly this way with almost everything. Facebook, Twitter, Slack, Email, Messages ... it's kind of tough to escape. Impossible even. And here's the worst part: We grew up with this shit. My generation was one of the first (1987) to have their formative social years immersed in this shit. That means we'll never escape. Ever. We're literally wired to seek approval of strangers on the internet instead of the…

Impossible is hard to square with the people in this thread (myself included) that did it. You don't have to tell your boss you're not reading notifications. You just have to eliminate the notifications that serve no purpose except a high. Facebook still spams my email; it's filtered to the trash. Business carries on.

"You can totally quit heroin! Just stop taking it"

"Oh and if all your friends are doing it and are wondering why you're not having fun with them, just ignore them"

Sure you've quit Facebook. But did you quit dopamine-seeking technology use?

What I've found in myself is that when I pry myself away from Facebook, I spend more time on Twitter. When I pry myself off that as well, suddenly my HN engagement goes up. When I manage to ignore all those, then I check Slack every 2 minutes. If I avoid even that, then I refresh my email all the time.

The medium isn't the problem. The behavior is the problem. There's always another medium you can switch to.

I mean, it's not like I was on Facebook when I got hooked to social media at 14, 15, 16. I was on internet forums and MSN Messenger. The draw was and still is that it broadened my horizons, exposed me to different people, and sometimes I learned really useful things. Hell, it helped me build my entire career.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#66

Post by sasvari » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 7:47 AM UTC

grx wrote: post #10

It's too late to join the Leaving Facebook party. If you were a regular user since 2005 and leave now, it does not make any difference anymore. The collected data about you is enough to interpolate your profile for the next decades. Of course, decentralization is a valid point and it's really important to get people who are kinda "new" to social media on distributed platforms. Twitter is centralized as well and also…

  If you were a regular user since 2005 and leave now, it does not make any
  difference anymore. The collected data about you is enough to interpolate
  your profile for the next decades.

Does it really matter if you have been on facebook at all? Even if you never joined, people upload their addressbooks with all of their contacts, they upload pictures of people never been on facebook and tag them (and share other information about everyone, which facebook probably is able to use as well). So essentially facebook builds your social graph no matter if you have ever been a member or not.

It does make a difference. Just not to care and to give up is no solution either.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#67

Post by grx » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 7:47 AM UTC

em3rgent0rdr wrote: post #46

hnarn wrote: 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.

Problem could be that implementations for ad networks are notorious for tracking. You would need privacy sensitive, distributed ad networks as well.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#68

Post by gcoda » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 7:49 AM UTC

Jaruzel wrote: post #40

jakebasile wrote: post #35

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.

I'm sure if you ask REALLY nicely, they'll just 're-activate' your 'deleted' account and magically all the stuff that was 'deleted' will suddenly be back. /sarcasm

Why sarcasm? Sounds reasonable

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#69

Post by kbar13 » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 7:52 AM UTC

i quit facebook because honestly it's not even good for what it's intended to do. i want to know about what my friends are doing? snapchat, instagram, sms, twitter, old friends are on irc. want to stay in on communities? discord, slack, real life facetime with people. facebook just isn't really that useful for me anymore, a lot of the posts on my feed were from people i don't care about.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#70

Post by stevewillows » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 7:52 AM UTC

For most people I know, we're only using facebook for events and as a centralized location where I can basically contact anybody. The sooner someone creates a standalone, sustainable event organizing application that doesn't spam you to death, the sooner the exodus can begin.