Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Leave Facebook

om.co

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 117 posts

Re: Leave Facebook

#61

Post by [deleted] »

paulgb wrote: post #37
bedhead wrote: post #32

The hyperbole of this is almost incomprehensible. The absurdity of this latest "controversy" - Zuck not wrapping some form of token and meaningless censorship around a single Trump tweet - is proof that this isn't about Trump. Hell, all this did was give Trump more exposure. No, it's clear that this is about breaking Zuck for political purposes, and taking control of Facebook for a single "side." Not one person genui…

> Facebook isn't the problem, human nature is. This is almost exactly the line of thinking that the story The Weapon by Fredric Brown warns against. http://www.digital-eel.com/blog/library/The_Weapon.pdf

[deleted]

Re: Leave Facebook

#62

Post by Mediterraneo10 »

mercacona wrote: post #42
HenryBemis wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget WhatsApp. Many people I talk to don't realize it's also part of the FB ecosystem.

Leaving WhatsApp is not as easy, in many countries you need it to do things like buying to local producers or communicating with a client. The network effect is more unavoidable than in other FB products.

When traveling West Africa overland, I found that Whatsapp was essential for contacting guesthouses down the road. Due to inconsistent electrical supply in the region, accommodation proprietors don’t have constant mobile phone availability, so trying to contact them on the phone is often fruitless. Instead, they all ask to be contacted over Whatsapp, so that when they get a chance to charge their devices they can catch up on whatever messages have been sent to them in the meantime.

Also, I found in South America that almost no one would respond to an SMS sent to them. Apparently, SMSs used to be extremely expensive, so a culture developed of never answering them. If you want any kind of reply, then people insist you use Whatsapp.

Re: Leave Facebook

#63

Post by malwarebytess »

beart wrote: post #30
supernova87a wrote: post #17

I think Facebook is merely the conduit of human behavior that happens when lack of regulation / social norms or the incentives of profit create a new space much faster than we're used to before. So leaving Facebook and going to some other platform will not fundamentally solve the problem. As long as: 1) people want to socialize freely (as well as privately) with each other in an online rapid medium, 2) the online for…

I disagree. There were millions of people socializing on many different platforms for years before anything like Facebook was created.

I also disagree. The "curation" algorithms and other systems clearly have a serious influence. Facebook is not responsible for human nature, but they are responsible for intentionally guiding it for profit and ignoring the consequences. It's not as if Facebook is merely tabula rasa; they meddle.

There have been many examples of executives and engineers who have spoken to this effect:

https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-engineer-resigns-tr...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6e1riShmak (Chamath Palihapitiya)

Re: Leave Facebook

#64

Post by partyboat1586 »

vzidex wrote: post #7

A baby step you can take if you want to leave Facebook is to disable (I forget if that's the exact term, it might be deactivate) your account. This removes your access to the site, and hides your profile - while leaving the Messenger half of your account untouched: messages, contacts, etc. I've done it before for mental health reasons, and found it really refreshing.

I didn't need to do this to get the same effect. I just deleted the app from my phone.

Now I check Facebook maybe once a month and only for events or to sell stuff. I think it helps that I only ever used it on mobile to begin with. After being away for over a year the feed looks like a dumpster fire. I wouldn't touch it with a 10ft pole. There is some genuine cases of people connecting on there no doubt but it's buried under a pile of anxiety inducing crap. And not the constrictive kind of anxiety either, the hollow kind.

Re: Leave Facebook

#65

Post by mixedCase »

beart wrote: post #30
supernova87a wrote: post #17

I think Facebook is merely the conduit of human behavior that happens when lack of regulation / social norms or the incentives of profit create a new space much faster than we're used to before. So leaving Facebook and going to some other platform will not fundamentally solve the problem. As long as: 1) people want to socialize freely (as well as privately) with each other in an online rapid medium, 2) the online for…

I disagree. There were millions of people socializing on many different platforms for years before anything like Facebook was created.

And not all of them combined were as successful as Facebook was at its peak.

Re: Leave Facebook

#66

Post by [deleted] »

supernova87a wrote: post #17

I think Facebook is merely the conduit of human behavior that happens when lack of regulation / social norms or the incentives of profit create a new space much faster than we're used to before. So leaving Facebook and going to some other platform will not fundamentally solve the problem. As long as: 1) people want to socialize freely (as well as privately) with each other in an online rapid medium, 2) the online for…

[deleted]

Re: Leave Facebook

#67

Post by goldforever »

Kapura wrote: post #51

I shared this post, and I'm deleting my facebook account tomorrow. Most of the people I care about already have my phone number any way. I will miss the concert notifications for bands I follow, but I guess I'll just have to put slightly more effort into following them :)

See ya! LOL

Re: Leave Facebook

#69

Post by krm01 »

I’ve never been a FB user and only have a throwaway account to login quickly into certain services (I use it pretty much like Apple Sign In works).

Calling a platform evil may be a bit out there, however, in the case of FB, the word toxic is the best way to describe it. HN users, I assume, can handle the toxic FB feed. But I’ve heard numerous times from people (usually older generation) claiming that a certain (fake)news article was real.. because it was on FB. People who can’t distinguish between real or fake news, real or misleading ads, are becoming victims of fraud, misinformation and all sorts of bad stuff.

Is FB to blame for all of that? Maybe not. But serving the world brings about a certain responsibility that they clearly don’t seem to take serious enough.

Leaving FB so your friends and family members will leave may be the least you can do to help.

Re: Leave Facebook

#70

Post by mark_l_watson »

Facebook and most other social media make money by capturing peoples' attention for very long periods of time. One way to push back, in a weaker form, is to set a maximum amount of time per month that you will be on Facebook. I set a 20 minute a month limit on myself. I get to occasionally look at my feed and also use the platform to announce my new book releases. I also use a single container for Facebook (and others for single use on specific web properties).

I suspect that Facebook makes very little money off of me. On the other hand, I have relatives who love Facebook, and as long as they don't try to use it as a way to contact me I am fine with whatever they want for themselves.

Post reply on HN