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

91–100 of 117 posts

Re: Leave Facebook

#91

Post by staycoolboy »

I left Facebook Nov 10th, 2016 after being on it for about 3 years.

That was easy because it was clear where it was headed. Getting friends to quit took some time, but about 40% of my friends are off completely, and another 20% mostly read instead of post (so they claim).

Now if I lived in certain parts of the world like Myanamar [1] where the Facebook -IS- the internet, I'd be hosed. This is some serious Dole / DelMonte level stuff Zuck is doing.

[1] https://seasia.yale.edu/myanmar-facebook-internet-and-intern...

[2] https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/facebook-is-the-internet-f...

[3] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/01/facebook-free-...

[4] https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/facebook-is-the-internet-f...

Re: Leave Facebook

#92

Post by ken »

renewiltord wrote: post #35

Absolutely not. Facebook is the last major social network where people are able to speak their minds. And since I can select who I want to listen to, I like it. As it so happens, everyone who I follow on Facebook speaks their minds by posting pictures of their babies. This is perfectly fine by me. I am sceptical that the paternalists will let me be when they're done dealing with Trump et al.

> Facebook is the last major social network where people are able to speak their minds.

Do LinkedIn or Reddit or Medium not allow you to speak your mind? In what way?

Re: Leave Facebook

#93

Post by ken »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #19
chishaku wrote: post #2

People want to leave but stay for the network. How can we leave and take the network with us?' Edit: I actually didn't have "friends" in mind. Small businesses, formal and informal groups of interest, event discovery, the use cases are far beyond what I'm aware of. Also, organizing and protests...

Last post: "Here's where you can find me in the future. I'm not on Facebook anymore." (And optionally: "Here's why.") If people want to get in touch with you, they'll do so. If people want to broadcast information only to those following them on one service, then you'll stop getting that information. That's fine. Other information will take its place.

What if (hypothetically) those 'people' are an organization that needs to organize work, and they're using it because they've tried email and other methods for years, and found that those didn't work?

A lot of us use FB for organizing, not just for seeing what our friends ate for dessert last night. It's not reasonable to tell people abandon one channel without suggesting a replacement. You might as well ask people to give up email, or their phone.

Re: Leave Facebook

#94

Post by AgentME »

donkey-hotei wrote: post #24

On one level, Trump's statements about mail-in voting are just flatly untrue, pure propaganda, and completely irresponsible. But isn't it weird as well how much people are willing to let these massive tech companies essentially become fact-checkers for the content posted on it? I that that's also frightening to think about.

>But isn't it weird as well how much people are willing to let these massive tech companies essentially become fact-checkers for the content posted on it?

* If someone criticized newspapers for yellow journalism and inciting violence with sensationalism, would it seem so weird to push the newspapers to "essentially become fact-checkers for the content posted" on them?

* Is the way that people view large public figures on social media all that different than how they did with newspapers?

I think it is important that there is a diversity of avenues toward publishing, so that incorrectly judged messages / messages that the population disagrees about the harm of can still be published somewhere, but it's never been easier than now to publish things to the web even without the help of a specific individual platform like Facebook. The web isn't just Facebook.

Re: Leave Facebook

#95

Post by JoshTriplett »

ken wrote: post #93
JoshTriplett wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last post: "Here's where you can find me in the future. I'm not on Facebook anymore." (And optionally: "Here's why.") If people want to get in touch with you, they'll do so. If people want to broadcast information only to those following them on one service, then you'll stop getting that information. That's fine. Other information will take its place.

What if (hypothetically) those 'people' are an organization that needs to organize work, and they're using it because they've tried email and other methods for years, and found that those didn't work? A lot of us use FB for organizing, not just for seeing what our friends ate for dessert last night. It's not reasonable to tell people abandon one channel without suggesting a replacement. You might as well ask people t…

Zulip, Discord, Slack, Signal groups, mass SMS, just to name the first five that come to mind.

Re: Leave Facebook

#96

Post by smhenderson »

swagatkonchada wrote: post #3

Why? Why not Google, Apple, Amazon?

For me, I’m not on twitter or Facebook. I’m “stuck” with google until I get off my rear and migrate my gmail. I signed up when it was invite only and have about 15 years of email history with it. But that’s the only google product I use.

Facebook doesn’t really offer much more than “social” but I can have gmail without using any of google’s other products, including search.

I used amazon a lot in the past but less and less and probably never again based on their response to COVID.

So, for me at least, it’s not the companies so much, I’m pretty disappointed in all of them. It’s the features and I just don’t see a need to be on anything social media related these days unless we’re counting HN as social media. This is close as I come anymore. But, again, for me, buying from amazon or having a gmail account isn’t the same as following what social media has to offer...

Re: Leave Facebook

#97

Post by otterley »

kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #83
dnsprovider wrote: post #81

Zuckerberg hires police officers cited for using excessive force to work as his personal bodyguards. Yes, that's right. While he's busy pretending to feel bad about the situation with bad cops, he recruits and pays them to protect his family. Facebook and Zuckerberg are well beyond complicit.

He is complicit for wanting that he be not lynched by a mob? If anything the virulent comments on this thread are enough reason for him to hire as many bodyguards as he may need. Some people here have no sense of perspective.

It is possible to hire bodyguards who aren't ex-cops with stained records.

(I don't know the truth about the situation, but if the facts are correct, that is morally troubling.)

Re: Leave Facebook

#98

Post by moron4hire »

ken wrote: post #93
JoshTriplett wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last post: "Here's where you can find me in the future. I'm not on Facebook anymore." (And optionally: "Here's why.") If people want to get in touch with you, they'll do so. If people want to broadcast information only to those following them on one service, then you'll stop getting that information. That's fine. Other information will take its place.

What if (hypothetically) those 'people' are an organization that needs to organize work, and they're using it because they've tried email and other methods for years, and found that those didn't work? A lot of us use FB for organizing, not just for seeing what our friends ate for dessert last night. It's not reasonable to tell people abandon one channel without suggesting a replacement. You might as well ask people t…

How can you be so bad at email that it "doesn't work"?

I'm sorry, but this is ridiculous. We're talking about a company that has knowingly promoted white supremacists groups for the sake of clicks. I think that warrants putting just a little effort into email.

No tool is going to do your job for you. If Facebook succeeded where email failed, it's just because someone wasn't doing their job, not because of some special sauce that Facebook has.

Re: Leave Facebook

#99

Post by moron4hire »

drukenemo wrote: post #26
Jtsummers wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Query your friends for alternative contact information (email, phone #, etc.). Select your next platform(s). Leave contact information on FB. In 1-6 months, return to FB and remove your account.

You forget that Facebook is not for friends only. Millions of groups of common interest exist as well as communities formed around pages and personalities.

We used to just spin up a phpbb instance on a shared host for that. A lot of the hosting platforms had/have one-click installs for it.

Re: Leave Facebook

#100

Post by threatofrain »

malwarebytess wrote: post #63
beart wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/f…

FB is the network of people on your green list, and FB's most pronounced "algorithmic" influence is deciding priority on a feed of your green-listed friends, but ultimately one has to ask -- can you handle your own relations? Are your friends' ideas just way too infectious for your free will to handle?
Post reply on HN