Why I deleted my Facebook account • Hacker News Board

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#151

Post by GuiA » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 10:09 AM UTC

kvgr wrote: post #149

I unfollowed every page and all of my +-400 friends. Now I follow only my wife, mother and brother. They do not post much. This cleaning helped me a lot. But every time I add new friend, I need to remember to unfollow him, because than my wall is constantly cluterred with random post from viral pages and friends interaction on the site. I wish there still was the option to deactivate facebook and keep messenger. I do…

You can very much disable FB and keep Messenger.

Your account will get reactivated if you click through one of their emails or use FB login though.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#152

Post by foota » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 10:09 AM UTC

kvgr wrote: post #149

I unfollowed every page and all of my +-400 friends. Now I follow only my wife, mother and brother. They do not post much. This cleaning helped me a lot. But every time I add new friend, I need to remember to unfollow him, because than my wall is constantly cluterred with random post from viral pages and friends interaction on the site. I wish there still was the option to deactivate facebook and keep messenger. I do…

I'm not sure how it works, but I think you can create a separate messenger account at https://messenger.com

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#153

Post by aninhumer » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 10:12 AM UTC

wuschel wrote: post #130

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…

What about HN (Reddit and like)? May sound funndy, but there are the also reward mechanisms at play when we visit these sites, and they can be affecting work/private life negatively as well.

Yeah, I feel like a lot of people here are confused by the notion of Facebook addiction because they don't personally find the content on Facebook particularly engaging. I certainly don't, but I have experienced the same time sink addiction on reddit and HN.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#154

Post by HenryBemis » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 10:13 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…

Like you I also dropped it and never looked back for the following simple reasons:

1. It offers nothing while it takes a lot.

2. When something is free, then YOU are the product.

3. Massive violation of privacy (that "like" button on most websites and any other facebook element which now I block with ABP and NoScript)(and all known FB URLs on my hosts file).

4. I can still be in touch with my friend without informing FB (via facebook, instagram, whatsapp) who is my friend and when are we texting.

5. FB is the devil :)

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#155

Post by chippy » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 10:14 AM UTC

Tehnix wrote: post #147

While I certainly get why you’d get off Facebook for privacy reasons, I feel like a lot of the “addiction” comments here and in similar posts as OP’s are a bit of a weird thing to me. Are people nowadays not capable of moderation? Purely anecdotally, but I mostly see older generations being the ones that hop off. Is it because they didn’t grow up with this kinda of social media and can’t seem to balance what is a per…

I think that certain people get addicted in this way, and the lack of self control is an indicator of it. Logically it's seeking short term reward over long term, but I think its bio chemistry too - dopamine.

So I think the thing that makes them addicted and the thing that stops them regulating themselves is the very thing that Facebook uses and promotes.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#156

Post by kvgr » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 10:19 AM UTC

GuiA wrote: post #151

kvgr wrote: post #149

I unfollowed every page and all of my +-400 friends. Now I follow only my wife, mother and brother. They do not post much. This cleaning helped me a lot. But every time I add new friend, I need to remember to unfollow him, because than my wall is constantly cluterred with random post from viral pages and friends interaction on the site. I wish there still was the option to deactivate facebook and keep messenger. I do…

You can very much disable FB and keep Messenger. Your account will get reactivated if you click through one of their emails or use FB login though.

I tried to do that, but it seems the option is not available when I was trying to deactivate facebook.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#157

Post by rcdwealth » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 10:24 AM UTC

Well Facebook has stolen US $400 from us, in a single click, as they have been thinking we are not watching the campaign. There was absolutely no support or answer on incident.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#158

Post by Hasknewbie » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 10:24 AM UTC

rajadigopula wrote: post #141

onion2k wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use nexus 6p phone and I am seeing youtube recommendations these days based on my phone conversations! The implication of this is that Google listens in and recommends things based on your phone conversations. A much more likely explanation is that you talk on the phone about the same things you look at online, and you're making an incorrect assumption about Google's source of data.

I know what I talk on phone and what I search online. I have observed this so many times - not once. So I am confident in what I imply.

Doing voice processing is much much more computationally expensive than scanning text, and has a much higher error rate, so it would make little sense for Google to do that.

More likely explanations could be:

- Your topic is a common/popular one, so it's statistically likely that Youtube mentions it.

- Other people that (text-)search the same things as you tend to watch these videos (i.e. you have been put is some category or other).

- You did not search for it, but your phone correspondant did, and Youtube/Google tries the same suggestions on you because you're linked (see: there are other and less costly ways for Google to be creepy!).

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#159

Post by konart » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 10:31 AM UTC

submeta wrote: post #138

rhizome wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Well... no real alternative as many see it. How else can you get updates\aggregate articles from the blogs you want to follow?

>I thought that was a thing from the past

Just like I can't understand how Facebook or something similar can be such a problem for people. Always though that you just keep it to stay in touch (in other words have their contacts info) with some people you met over the time.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#160

Post by konart » Fri, Jul 07, 2017, 10:36 AM UTC

submeta wrote: 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?

RSS for blog. Telegram thematic channels for everything else.