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Why I deleted my Facebook account

blakewatson.com

131–140 of 327 posts

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#131
post #38

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 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…

> 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.

Yeah, I am only a year away, born in 1988. Our family's first home computer was put in my room when I was 6 years old and my parents were hands-off about using it, so I grew up on multi-player gaming, forums, chat rooms, porn, etc. It's difficult to express how strongly the internet shaped the direction of my life, and I'm not even as addicted as most people.

Not having a phone helps with staying off Facebook...

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#132
post #66
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 informa…

I read somewhere that Facebook actually buys more personal data than collects. Now that's a scary thought.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#133

I quit Facebook around 2011. One funny/shocking thing that happened is I got email notifications even after 14 day grace period. I had to go and click the unsubscribe link manually to stop that even though I don't have a valid fb account at this point of time. Not sure, if it is happening still. Another one - I created a dev account some time back with dummy email Id, but gave my mobile number of deleted account. Voi…

I'm fairly certain such data retention is illegal in Europe. Afaik the eu, like Norway, considers ip addresses to be personal information - and storing them in a database without (valid) user consent would run up against privacy directives.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#134

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 quit my Facebook account around ten years ago, but somehow regretted it because I've got out of touch with many people - especially those I never knew so well. FB is definitely nice to somehow superficially keep in touch with acquaintances and old friends.

However, in my opinion their EULA is totally unacceptable, so I cannot use it.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#135
post #8

I stopped using facebook when i graduated from college, i couldnt accept to have my whole life archived somewhere in the internet.

No one uses Facebook enough to actually have their whole life archived on the internet. You're running from a fantasy.

Maybe you don't, but what about you and the sum of your friends and friends of your friends? That doesn't just mean tagging pictures or facial recognition - that includes collating ips and times - in someone checks into Starbucks with a NATed ipv4 ip from Starbucks wlan and your visit fb from the same external ip...

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's never too late. The day you quit FB is the day you reclaim a lot of time you spend on FB. I haven't updated my FB account since I graduated college and it feels great. If FB wants to obsessively and endlessly analyze the profile and posts of my college-self, it's free to do so.

Is there a good browser extension that measures how much time one actively spends on various sites?

[deleted]

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#137
I have deleted my Facebook account, because must of my feed is stupid and doesn't make any sense. Ever thought to read a post on Facebook without having an account. You probably can't read , due to their very big banner saying you to "connect with friends". That doesn't go away it keeps re-visiting for every 3 to 5 seconds.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#138
post #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?

Do people still use RSS readers? Honestly curious. I thought that was a thing from the past.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best thing I ever did was to disable all notifications on my phone, other than text messages and direct instant messages. No Facebook, email or other app notifications. It has severely reduced my tendency to constantly check my phone, and it doesn't buzz in my pocket all the friggin time.

Done that. If only somebody told me how to disable facebook (and slack and gmail etc) starting blinking the browser tab when they think something happened that I need to note, that would make my desktop life much less distracted.

Just close these tabs. Or use something like The Great Suspender.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#140

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'm off all social media today (except LinkedIn)

You really should quit linkedin as well. Their security is like a screen door on a submarine.

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