Ask HN: Why, you all intellectual people not quitting Facebook?

I'm on it. But it doesn't mean I log in or use it. I also have 2 fake accounts that I use more than my real one.

I got family on Facebook I can't find anywhere else. Some of them died and their account memorized with pictures and comments. I find new family members too.

Facebook is like Microsoft Windows, you want to get rid of it for Linux but the apps you need and people you know still run Windows and need help.

B/c breaking a habit is really, really hard. Like asking smokers why don't they quit even in light of known risks. It is not a matter of users being intelectual or not, it is a matter of rewards that reinforce the habit. Think of that silly moment when a person shares a picture of a mundane act, like a meal about to be eaten. What is the reward?

FB is an epidemic. It will go away when ppl (most likely new generations) develop resistance to it.

- I'm able to use the tool in a way that is responsible and provides value to me. It's a rolodex of all the different people I've met in my life with up-to-date methods of communication to easily reach them. That's valuable.

- At times, I have certainly abused the tool, but I'm quick to catch myself when I feel this happening.

- I only post things that I would be comfortable saying in public. It's like a public scrapbook for me. I have people added from all different parts of my life, including work.

- I don't use it that much. It's a bit like personal email in terms of pace. High frequency communication doesn't happen on Facebook for me, it happens on iMessage. I know some people who use FB Messenger or Facebook itself for high-frequency communication, which is fine if that's what they prefer, but that's not me.

Sorry if the title gives you the feeling of condescension in the title but by Intellectual, I mean people who can assess the situation and can act according to it. The people who know right and wrong about it.

I am from India and here I can guarantee you that 95% of people are not even aware of whats going on in this social media ecosystem. What it does, what the impact of it and everything. And hence I felt like why people who know that it's bad why they cant get rid of it.

Now coming to your points.

- The human need for social connection (I really feel that nobody really get some valuable interaction out of any social media. The only exception being when you talk to someone special and someone you won't have access directly in your circle.) I think what most people relate to social interaction is via liking other people's posts and also getting your post being liked in return which is equivalent to your 4 point getting the dopamine hit and boosting your ego.

- Ignorance point is right but its also being complemented with the fact that they are being bombarded with these values that these companies have cooked to tell that whatever they are doing clicking and scrolling is somehow adding value to their lives.

- I agree with your 4th point Ego is the only thing that we get as in case of dopamine hit. But do you really want to go that path?

- Fast food equivalent of catching up but again my same argument ? are you really catching up ? or is it the just fake perception of catching up?

- I am running out of time but I also disagree with your last two points about losing contact and detachment because I don't think these things are fulfilled by them. It's just fake values that we start believing in and start perceiving how to be in contact and detachment the way these big companies want us to believe.