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Facebook exodus: Nearly half of young users have deleted the app

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Re: Facebook exodus: Nearly half of young users have deleted the app

#101

It was the notifications that were the last straw for me. If I can't figure out how to 100% disable your notifications in 5 minutes, your app is gone. I'm sure it's possible but apparently as a software engineer I'm not smart enough.

You can easily do that at the OS level.

I reiterate: if it's not obvious within 5 minutes of poking around the app settings, I'm uninstalling the app. If they cared about user autonomy they would have a note in the app settings explaining how to do what you suggest at the OS level.

Re: Facebook exodus: Nearly half of young users have deleted the app

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly how my leaving facebook started. After a few months without the app I logged out on desktop, and then it wasn't long until I deactivated my account. I'd like to delete it entirely but at the moment too many people still use messenger to contact me.

Anytime I speak with someone on Messenger, I mention my cellphone # and email. Gotta prime that OOB comms pump, otherwise you'll never break free. If only there was a Messenger API to setup an autoresponder with alternate contact info...

It's nice that phone numbers are so stable these days.

Re: Facebook exodus: Nearly half of young users have deleted the app

#103
I would like to wholesale get it off my phone but I find that other apps require fb login and so I have to reinstall it... I really do not want it on my phone and I also reject their recruiter inquiries every other month too.

Every once in a while I get an alert about a birthday for someone I met once when I was in college 20 years ago... one day I'll figure out how to shut all of that off it's really annoying.

Re: Facebook exodus: Nearly half of young users have deleted the app

#104
post #6

Anecdotal obviously, but I'm surprised at how pervasive the "Facebook listens to your conversations through the app" rumors are, even among the more technically literate. I'm curious how much of an effect that rumor had on this finding.

When anyone technically inclined tries to explain the difference, laypeople just hear a lawyer saying: "Well, they don't do exactly that, but they do the entire list of other things you could ever brainstorm that are in the same class as that. And a dozen more gross things you are just learning exist as part of this clarification."

Re: Facebook exodus: Nearly half of young users have deleted the app

#106

It was the notifications that were the last straw for me. If I can't figure out how to 100% disable your notifications in 5 minutes, your app is gone. I'm sure it's possible but apparently as a software engineer I'm not smart enough.

iOS: Settings -> Notifications Android: Settings -> App Notifications

I'm on Android. I have no doubt something like this is possible there as well, but again if the app doesn't explain to me how to do this then it's obvious they have no respect for my agency and I'm uninstalling their crap.

Re: Facebook exodus: Nearly half of young users have deleted the app

#107

I did this. In the following sequence, over a few years, and am now to step 5: 1. Turn off notifications for the Facebook app on your phone; 2. Turn off notifications for the Facebook Messenger, Instagram, et cetera apps on your phone; 3. Delete the Facebook app from your phone; 4. Delete the Facebook Messenger, Instagram, et cetera apps from your phone; and finally 5. Log out of Facebook on your desktop. It took me…

I wrote a script:

  #  ~/unfuckfacbook.sh
  #!/bin/bash

  sed -i '' s/'^127.0.0.1 facebook.com'/'#127.0.0.1 facebook.com'/ /etc/hosts
  sed -i '' s/'^127.0.0.1 www.facebook.com'/'#127.0.0.1 www.facebook.com'/ /etc/hosts
  sed -i '' s/'^127.0.0.1 m.facebook.com'/'#127.0.0.1 m.facebook.com'/ /etc/hosts

  sleep 30
  say "Hey asshole, get off Facebook"
  sleep 30
  ~/fuckfacbook.sh
~/fuckfacbook.sh just undoes the hosts file work

It helpped for a while but at some point I had to just commit to not checking it. I have some legitimate business I have to do on there sometimes (I'm a musician and I need more side-guy gigs), so I post updates from insta (which is less addicting to me) or if I open it I commit to not scrolling and browsing but just checking alerts.

It's so fcking creepy though... I mean, I'm legitimately an alcoholic but I can (when I want to, which is usually all the time these days) at least not _start_ drinking... but if I stopped drinking for a couple of days and the bottle of scotch in my cabinet sent me an email trying to get me to drink, I'd have to pour it out.

Re: Facebook exodus: Nearly half of young users have deleted the app

#108
post #6

Anecdotal obviously, but I'm surprised at how pervasive the "Facebook listens to your conversations through the app" rumors are, even among the more technically literate. I'm curious how much of an effect that rumor had on this finding.

> Anecdotal obviously, but I'm surprised at how pervasive the "Facebook listens to your conversations through the app" rumors are, even among the more technically literate.

They were slurping up text massages and collecting call logs, IIRC. So the rumor isn't too far from the truth.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/03/faceb...

Re: Facebook exodus: Nearly half of young users have deleted the app

#109
post #18
post #10

I still use Facebook regularly but I deleted the app and the regular Messenger app because they were using too much RAM on my phone.

Same here, but s/RAM/battery/ for me

Same. I deleted Facebook a couple years ago when it was revealed that it was reducing battery life by a double digit percentage even if you never launched the app -- its background processing was that greedy. Anecdotally my phone definitely lasted longer once I deleted it.

The mobile web version works for those rare occasions when I need to check it on the go. I'm definitely never installing their app again; I simply don't trust them to prioritize my needs over theirs (even in regards to mobile resources).

Re: Facebook exodus: Nearly half of young users have deleted the app

#110
A new survey of more than 3,400 U.S. Facebook users finds that 44 percent of users ages 18 to 29 have deleted the app from their phones in the past year.

Overall, 26 percent have deleted the app, while 42 percent have taken a break of several weeks or more.

Something's off. I don't know. How many people are we talking about? 80 millions? In the US alone? Really? We need more source here.

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