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Why I deleted my Facebook account

blakewatson.com

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Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#171

Post by Delmania »

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 find the posting, sharing, and status updates on Facebook to be not valuable, outside of keeping up to date with some family members. I've found the real value of Facebook to be Messenger and groups.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#172

Post by thinbeige »

Key is to reduce FB usage to the minimum while still using its features to socialize and network. FB is like alcohol. Once in a while it's great but FB or alcohol 24/7 makes you sick. Having the app installed on your phone is a no-go.

FB is super crucial when it comes to networking. It is so easy to follow up/stay in touch with people you just met, thanks to real names, a complete social graph, a smooth Messenger experience and a good DNA for that use case ('hey we are friends now', compare this to Linkedin).

What are the other options? Getting the business card and writing an email or text the next days? Works as well but it's more formal and not that subtle. And if you don't have a topic to follow-up with people will forget you and be surprised about your awkward email six months later. Not with FB.

Linkedin is a strange thing, connecting there feels somehow wrong and the messaging experience is subpar.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#173

Post by Draiken »

Bakary wrote: post #162

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 build…

You say "friendships" but I don't believe that's the exact word.

Real friendships will continue to survive and thrive, as they did before Facebook, as long as both parties keep trying. If a "friend" of mine won't invite me to a party because I don't have Facebook, he's not really my friend. It's as simple as that for me.

Of course we probably differ on what we define as friendship, but I believe you'd agree that having a fake number of Facebook "friends" is not going to change who your real friends are.

Facebook is one of many ways to talk to people (even tho I don't consider clicking "like" on something is in any way meaningful) but it is not the only one. If people force you to communicate through one mean they are, pardon my french, inconsiderate jerks.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#174

Post by gorhill »

> This article is all about Facebook, but I have also scaled back my use of other big services like Google

The issue is with whatever 3rd parties which are ubiquitous enough.

The difficulty is, how do we find which 3rd parties are ubiquitous enough so as to warrant that we take action against it?

This is why I wrote uBO-Scope[1], its whole purpose is to inform users of which 3rd parties out there are ubiquitous, according to their own browsing history, and according to which 3rd parties were allowed to connect on any given site.

The extension observes network traffic on all pages you visit and from the data it collects over time, and will inform you about which 3rd parties are in a position to collect how much of your browsing history using a per-base domain heatmap of privacy exposure.

It's a side-side-project, and hopefully I will find time again to further improve it. The whole motivation is that I want people to become aware of what is happening when they browse the net, and in the spirit of informed consent, to encourage them to take action to reduce their privacy exposure.

[1] https://github.com/gorhill/uBO-Scope#preamble

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#175

Post by tvanantwerp »

grx wrote: post #53
adrianN wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The collected data about you is enough to interpolate your profile for the next decades. Did Facebook recently hire Hari Seldon?

Heh, nice reference. Of course I am exaggerating. But IMO people vastly under estimate how similar their own behaviour is to other people. Meaning, if Facebook "knows" me since 12 years (!) it can very precisely categorize me into a group of people. And those other people do not leave Facebook but feed it more information.

Funny how Facebook can have all of this information about me, my preferences, my social groups, etc., and has not once served me a remotely relevant advertisement.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#176

Post by piotrkubisa »

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…

Could you also explain me if test users generated by dashboard for developers are counted in this 2 billion users claim? I've noticed these accounts aren't in any way logically separated from real accounts. I think there is a lot of apps which uses Facebook services (i.e. OAuth2) which were somehow tested, maybe even by such users.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#177

Post by breakingcups »

piyush_soni wrote: post #143
breakingcups wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the original poster, but I think he is quite right. IF you are getting a product or service for free, continuously, the company providing it usually has a different motive, a different way to make money. Usually that means selling your data, thus you are the product being sold in the statement the original poster made. Can you explain why you consider the statement a banality instead of a rule of thumb? What kind…

It has just reduced to the new "cool kids" thing to say "if you're not paying for the product, you're the product". You are saying it usually means "selling your data" - while most of these websites clearly state in their policies that they DON'T sell your "personally identifiable" data in any manner to third parties. So that's that. Of course, it means they could aggregate the data and sell that, but then it really…

Them not selling data doesn't mean you are not "the product". You are being advertised to based on what Google know about you. To use another hyperbolic term, your "eyeballs" are being sold to others. You are the product.

Google not selling personally identifiable information is not out of benevolence, but because it makes their own position stronger. They are optimizing how to sell what you are giving them.

Not that there is anything inherently wrong with that, my point is that "If you're not paying for the product, you are the product" is usually true. Resigning it to the parenthesized cool-kids corner is (unjustly) diminishing the value of the sentence.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#178

Post by dixonge-2 »

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…

Yes - Mastodon! I've been there a couple of months now and I never go on Twitter any more. Find an instance you like, hang with like-minded people, or dip your toe into the Fediverse stream for a firehose of toots. Yes, toots. You know, like a Mastodon would toot....oh nvm.

Any way, it's pretty engaging. Check it out.

http://joinmastodon.org

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#179

Post by darrmit »

I too have quit Facebook (and all social media) for long periods of time, but recently got back on. In the past I've felt pressure (from myself) to post witty things or drive up my friend counts. But now I see the value in just being a "consumer" - groups, articles, etc. Plus the added benefit of being able to see business pages, videos people send, etc.

I still agree it's crazy intrusive and addictive, I just think it's possible (though difficult) to find a middle ground.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#180

Post by piyush_soni »

breakingcups wrote: post #177
piyush_soni wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has just reduced to the new "cool kids" thing to say "if you're not paying for the product, you're the product". You are saying it usually means "selling your data" - while most of these websites clearly state in their policies that they DON'T sell your "personally identifiable" data in any manner to third parties. So that's that. Of course, it means they could aggregate the data and sell that, but then it really…

Them not selling data doesn't mean you are not "the product". You are being advertised to based on what Google know about you. To use another hyperbolic term, your "eyeballs" are being sold to others. You are the product. Google not selling personally identifiable information is not out of benevolence, but because it makes their own position stronger. They are optimizing how to sell what you are giving them. Not that…

There's just one difference. "You are being advertised" is technically wrong. A product is being advertised to me, and yes, I have to look at it as a cost of using their service. They are advertising masses to the product companies, and product to the masses, but not 'personally me'. There's a huge difference here. I look at it more like a mutual contract between me and the 'free' service. They're not selling "me", it's more like you scratch my back, I scratch yours.
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