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Why I deleted my Facebook account

blakewatson.com

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Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#161

Post by Hasknewbie »

I have to ask: do people really believe that "2 billion users" claim?

I live in Europe, and yes the majority of people I know have an account, but nowhere near all of them, and they're often unfrequent users. But more importantly: with the places where FB is banned, all of the people too young to be on it, all the people too old to have an interest, and all of the people who have in general a limited/difficult Internet access and have more important things to do than get facehooked? Being told that 2 out of every 7 human being manually created their account and are 'active users' who log in at least once a week (or is it month?), somehow leaves me skeptical.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#162

Post by Bakary »

I stopped using Facebook for a variety of reasons years ago and I am starting to regret it. In my case it had a clear negative effect on my social life, since friendships are heavily based on repeated unplanned interactions and many of these now occur on the service. If you add to this the friction of contacting someone outside of the service (in a context where they are a clear minority), the slight difference builds up and affects how friendships develop during student life.

The privacy issue is certainly a factor but over time it feels more like an expression of vanity. I am just a face in the crowd, what matters is the relationships I can build with others in the present before my pubes turn grey. If Zuckerberg becomes the Dark Lord it will be a collective problem anyway.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#163

Post by eludwig »

Swizec wrote: post #38
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 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…

I watched the video and the speaker spends a great deal of time making some very elegant (if somewhat obvious) points. But then at the end he comes to the wrong conclusion, Imo. He blames the corporations where millennials work and passes the responsibility for fixing their attention/relationship deficits off to them! This is totally backwards.

Every generation has their dopamine hits. Of course, as society creates more leisure time, the number and (arguably) complexity of these increase. That is the trend. But, as always, the responsibility should be squarely on your own shoulders! You were not "dealt a bad hand." If that's a truth, then everyone ever born was dealt a bad hand. If being born at the time when the length and quality of life (health-wise) is at its longest, then deal me in! There are many, many benefits to being born in this time and as always, it is up to us to find the life we want and the balance we need.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#164

Post by s_kilk »

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.

HN at least has relevant and educational content, much more so than the stream-of-minions-memes-and-baby-pictures that is Facebook.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#165

Post by k-mcgrady »

dannysu wrote: post #83

If you're not sure you want to delete your Facebook account completely, but think maybe you might want to reduce your use of it, then uninstalling the app from your phone is very helpful (Assuming you have it on your phone). That worked very well for me. I used to have it on my phone and would check it all the time. Then I decided I didn't want to do that so I uninstalled it from my phone. Doing so helped me reduce a…

An alternative to hiding the news feed is unfollowing (not unfriending) people. I've unfollowed all but my immediate family and about 10 of my closest friends. None of them really post memes, only interesting life events/travel. Deleted the app from my phone too. For me this is the best solution. My main Facebook use case is photos. I don't like to take them and my friends aren't going to waste time emailing me them when they can put them on Facebook for everyone. If it wasn't for photos I would have deleted it.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#166

Post by calafrax »

Hasknewbie wrote: post #161

I have to ask: do people really believe that "2 billion users" claim? I live in Europe, and yes the majority of people I know have an account, but nowhere near all of them, and they're often unfrequent users. But more importantly: with the places where FB is banned, all of the people too young to be on it, all the people too old to have an interest, and all of the people who have in general a limited/difficult Intern…

I do. Facebook peaked and is decline in its early markets but still very strong and growing in other parts of the world.

Interesting question is do they actually make any money in emerging markets and are those billion users actually an asset.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#167

Post by [deleted] »

sasvari wrote: post #66
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 informa…

[deleted]

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#169

Post by Nekorosu »

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?

I disabled retweets for every user I follow and it helped a lot. Now my twitter feed looks like a proper news feed.
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