291–300 of 327 posts
The one thing keeping me on Facebook are events / RSVP. I don't know any good alternative. For example it's still missing in Diaspora: https://github.com/diaspora/diaspora/issues/1359
The one thing keeping me on Facebook are events / RSVP. I don't know any good alternative. For example it's still missing in Diaspora: https://github.com/diaspora/diaspora/issues/1359
The one greatest internet life hack I discovered in the last couple of years is to delete browser autocompletes (cmd + shift + delete or similar). Once I became aware of the "slot machine" effect of websites I deleted the default autocompletes for Facebook and Hacker News, for example. Prior to doing this, if I typed "F" into chrome I went to my Facebook news feed, and "N" in chrome took me to HN. I deleted those def…
The one greatest internet life hack I discovered in the last couple of years is to delete browser autocompletes (cmd + shift + delete or similar). Once I became aware of the "slot machine" effect of websites I deleted the default autocompletes for Facebook and Hacker News, for example. Prior to doing this, if I typed "F" into chrome I went to my Facebook news feed, and "N" in chrome took me to HN. I deleted those def…
People are going to start thinking I'm associated with this extension because I bring it up every time Facebook's addictiveness comes up, but Newsfeed Eradicator is a pretty elegant (and more complete) solution to this problem for me. It just removes the newsfeed and puts a daily quotation there instead.
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Would you really be surprised to learn that others use technology differently than you? Why do you need Messenger on your phone at all? Snapchat/iMessage/etc is enough.
What's with the sarcasm? I asked why somebody keeps a purely entertaining app while trying not to get distracted by it. The Messenger argument is completely unrelated because it's a useful app to stay in touch.
I think the characterization of the FB app as "purely entertaining" in a way Messenger isn't is inaccurate. Maybe I'm mistaken, but Messenger doesn't have every feature of Facebook that can't be classed as distracting entertainment. For example, events and group postings (not group messages). The latter two are the main reason I ever open my Facebook app, and it's a stretch to find a definition of "pure entertainment" that includes them and not messaging.
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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…
> 2. When something is free, then YOU are the product. Debian Linux, Firefox, gcc, visual studio... The list goes on. I think the "you are the product" quip has become an overplayed meme of late. Mutually beneficial / co dependence and such themes are more applicable in more cases than not when it comes to free products and services, in my own view anyways.
It's been overplayed for years. The problem with pithy phrases, even when true in their original narrow sense, is that they allow those who aren't willing (or capable) of thinking for themselves to substitute something that superficially looks like wit without having to actually think about what they're talking about.
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> 2. When something is free, then YOU are the product. Debian Linux, Firefox, gcc, visual studio... The list goes on. I think the "you are the product" quip has become an overplayed meme of late. Mutually beneficial / co dependence and such themes are more applicable in more cases than not when it comes to free products and services, in my own view anyways.
I think it gets twisted partially because the quote is wrong. It should be "if a _service_ is free", not "when something is free." I don't think any of the examples you've listed would be considered a service, but rather either a platform (OS) or product. The quip is certainly overplayed, but I think the notion still stands. It is important to be aware of what intentions service providers and product sellers have. It…
This took literally two seconds to think of off the top of my head. The quotation is _still_ not accurate. It's a useful perspective on how to think about free services, but it's not a substitute for thought.
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 don't think that's really true. I'm about your age, and you were ~20 when the iPhone came out, right? Facebook was just settling in as the tool of choice for every college student, but even then it was mainly just photo-sharing and event-planning. The fact that we missed out on social networking in our entire teenage and preteen years means that we narrowly escaped this.
If you spend any time around people a bit younger than us, the contrast is particularly stark. My cousins are about a decade younger than me (just started college), and throughout high school, Snapchat/Twitter/etc were simply a must-have. The amount of time they spent sharing content and scrolling through others is insane, and if you talk to them about it, they're very aware that it's somewhere between a chore, an addiction, and good ol' fun.
That's the kind of "hardwired into your formative social years" thing that we never really had to deal with.
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 havi…
The concept may seem strange but it's actually no different than someone growing more distant from a group of friends because they habitually miss out on the weekly Quiz Night or something.
It's not so much that people force you to communicate by one means, but rather that the friction involved reduces the amount of interaction in an automatic way. As kinkrtyavimoodh pointed out, it's an organic process and not really a conscious choice by people to isolate others.
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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…
The heroin analogy is lazy and irrelevant. The reason people say stuff like "try doing X to quit or cut down" is that, unlike heroin, a fairly large chunk of people who've recognized the problem have been pretty able to easily cut down or stop their "dopamine addiction" to the level that they're comfortable with.
If heroin had such a high success rate from going cold turkey, you can be damn sure that people would be saying "try going cold turkey" or "try this specific path to quitting", because it's worked for so many others. There are successful suggestions on this thread that amount to "I deleted my dealer's number from my phone and poof problem gone".
That isn't to say that these will definitely work for everyone: some people have a more severe problem when it comes to their relationship to dopamine. But it's awfully self-centered to complain about people talking about things that have been successful for them and others.