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I deleted my Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram accounts, and felt great since

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Re: I deleted my Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram accounts, and felt great since

#181

Post by ImaCake »

muzani wrote: post #119
ImaCake wrote: post #84

Whenever this topic comes up, there are always a lot of comments to the effect of "facebook isn't the problem, you are". Maybe it is best to think of facebook like sugary food. Many people have no trouble having one piece of chocolate and then leaving the rest for later. Many other people are unable to stop themselves from downing the whole 200g block. I think these comments come from people who have no trouble engag…

Yeah, personally I have no issues with something like Netflix. Netflix is actually quite healthy for me. It's a way for me to relax, it's fast, and there's no addiction at all. Same with TikTok or Twitter. I have no impulse to watch the kind of things that make me feel bad, but many people do. I hear of people wanting to break Netflix addiction. I think certain types of people tend to indulge in certain types of ente…

I agree with this view, and that Netflix must be quite negatively addictive for some. Following from that, I wonder why we don't see similar articles about Netflix as we do about quitting facebook? It has the same kind of relevance to HN but I can't remember ever engaging in discussion about Netflix addiction here.

Re: I deleted my Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram accounts, and felt great since

#182

Post by randycupertino »

SifJar wrote: post #170
randycupertino wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you block the entire newsfeed with Ublock origin and only visit specific people's pages when you want to see their updates?

But then how would you know when a given person has updates to see? Sure you could just check periodically, but say there are a dozen people you care about seeing updates for - it gets a lot less convenient than seeing those all in one place. I'd suggest unfollowing everyone except people who's updates you actually want to see, but you'd still have "sponsored" & "suggested" posts etc from FB

Ah. That all seems like too much work for me (unfollowing everyone etc) but I just don't log into it.

Re: I deleted my Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram accounts, and felt great since

#183

Post by est31 »

commoner wrote: post #78
celestialcheese wrote: post #29

It's tough for me to get rid of facebook these days, purely because of FB marketplace. It has almost completely eliminated craigslist in my area for a lot of used items and is significantly nicer to buy/sell things in your area. I got rid of the timeline by unfollowing _everyone_. Timeline is completely empty. It's bliss

There are other local marketplace platforms, such as OfferUp, that offer the same experience as Facebook Marketplace without tracking users as severely as Facebook does. https://offerup.com

But if nobody is using it in the area you live in, those platforms don't help you. The fact that such software exists isn't what brings the value to users, it's the fact that other people use it that you want to interact with. The term for this phenomenon is "network effect", and Facebook just simply buys up tons of platforms that have network effects.

Re: I deleted my Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram accounts, and felt great since

#184

Post by qwerty456127 »

Why did you delete WhatsApp? Don't you have to text some people occasionally? Or how do you communicate? Do you use Signal, Telegram, E-mail or something instead?

BTW I also had to use Facebook once - because everybody at the uni did so its Messenger was the way we texted each other. Now I use Telegram and WhatsApp.

I mean Instagram is a pure time&attention wasting tool, Facebook is the same + a messenger (which is an essential thing everybody needs nowadays - that's the way we communicate with people who don't stand right in front of us at the moment), WhatsApp is a pure messenger, isn't it?

Re: I deleted my Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram accounts, and felt great since

#185

Post by randycupertino »

okareaman wrote: post #179
randycupertino wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So everyone in your family should be beholden to a for-profit data scraping company and advertising platform? How about use old fashioned ways to keep in touch with your family like phone calls and letters. Text pictures via a group text. Facebook can decrease family cohesion and alienate family members as well. I stopped posting on there and stopped logging into my accounts after too many Fox news brainwashed great…

Facebook is free. It is understood that we provide clues about ourselves for advertisers as a way to keep it free. Facebook is convenient. You're seriously suggesting in 2020 that my nieces and nephews correspond with me by letter? That's pretty hilarious actually. I can't move closer because I can't be in 10 locations at once. My family gets along. We agree not to talk about politics. It works for us. I'm sorry abou…

Our family gets along too, I don't know why you're trying to imply we don't? We're all far flung and have an annual cousins party at the lake. My 13 nieces and nephews aren't on facebook because it's for "the olds." Some of them have instagrams but they have multiple accounts and different "finstas" - candid fake accounts they only share with certain friends etc and delete and remake new accounts with friends etc constantly. They're also on TikTok lately but generally will text the funny ones not through the ap. We have a family group text and send photos. I send them snail mail bday cards with cash in them, sometimes they write back and sometimes they'll call and say thank you or text etc.

Group text is free too in case any of your family members have ethical reasons why they don't want to be on facebook or want to get off it to improve their mental health.

I'm sorry about your loneliness and isolation. I agree that Facebook is convenient and free but imo not worth the time sink. Cheers.

Re: I deleted my Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram accounts, and felt great since

#187

Post by graposaymaname »

anta40 wrote: post #93

I still use Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. Why? Facebook: I met lots of elementary/junior high school friends many years ago who have been lost contact with more than 2 decades via this platform. Useful, isn't it? Remember, it was before 2010. And I don't spend much time scrolling on my timeline because I prefer group discussions. Remember that Google had shut down it's consumer version of Google Plus. WhatsApp:…

> WhatsApp: My de facto messenger app. Many years ago, it was BlackBerry Messenger. Now Whatsapp. I like this app because it's essentially just a messenger app without useless stuffs like news, job search etc (yes Line, I'm looking at you)

Well, it does have some not-so-essential features like "whatsapp status". It should have just been a messenger instead of switching over to the social media hype.

It'd be myopic if we ignore all the persuasive techniques they employ.

Re: I deleted my Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram accounts, and felt great since

#188

Post by brnt »

I never made a Facebook account. These problems seemed quite apparent to me from the get go. Fundamentally, handing over control to your data and connections just seemed like a bad idea with tons of potential for misuse, even if it was well intentioned.

Anybody else never really joined social media?

Re: I deleted my Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram accounts, and felt great since

#189

Post by pelagos »

faitswulff wrote: post #102
ImaCake wrote: post #84

Whenever this topic comes up, there are always a lot of comments to the effect of "facebook isn't the problem, you are". Maybe it is best to think of facebook like sugary food. Many people have no trouble having one piece of chocolate and then leaving the rest for later. Many other people are unable to stop themselves from downing the whole 200g block. I think these comments come from people who have no trouble engag…

I think of so many human problems as the "sugary food" class of problems now. Internet addiction†, pornography, gossip, sensationalist headlines. All sugary food. Our brains are wired to seek out that hit of glucose or dopamine in resource scarce environments and it's maladaptive in the long-term for resource rich ones. † which is why I'm here on HN, if I'm honest

I agree. I think "cheap dopamine" is a good way to describe this.

Re: I deleted my Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram accounts, and felt great since

#190

Post by commoner »

est31 wrote: post #183
commoner wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are other local marketplace platforms, such as OfferUp, that offer the same experience as Facebook Marketplace without tracking users as severely as Facebook does. https://offerup.com

But if nobody is using it in the area you live in, those platforms don't help you. The fact that such software exists isn't what brings the value to users, it's the fact that other people use it that you want to interact with. The term for this phenomenon is "network effect", and Facebook just simply buys up tons of platforms that have network effects.

In my area, OfferUp has a significantly larger selection of items than Facebook Marketplace. If you mainly use Facebook Marketplace, it's worth looking at OfferUp, Letgo, or other local marketplaces to see if that's the case for your location.
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