Deleting Facebook permanently • Hacker News Board

Re: Deleting Facebook permanently

#81

Post by lrossi » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 5:30 PM UTC

dharmab wrote: post #75

lrossi wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Giving up emails or phone numbers can be risky since someone else might take it and do something unpleasant with it. Facebook accounts cannot be taken that way.

When I was younger, a friend created a Facebook account in my name as a joke. My facebook-using parents found it and became very panicked that someone was stealing my identity. I now have a minimal facebook account that I log in twice a year to keep a current photo. It's like how businesses have to squat their own domain names on TLDs they don't use.

I didn’t think of that. It’s a good point, thanks for sharing.

Re: Deleting Facebook permanently

#82

Post by tenaciousDaniel » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 5:31 PM UTC

Traubenfuchs wrote: post #16

I am 28 and none of my peers is using FB anymore. I have some older friends that do their yearly christmas party invite on FB and some people who chat with me on FB messenger. There primarily are ads, spam, people posting commercial content and people congratulating each other for their birthdays. Is facebook this dead for anyone else?

I'm 36 and it has nearly 0 value for me. I still use FB messenger to talk to a lot of my friends from around the world, but outside of that I'd say I haven't actually looked at my Facebook feed in months. I don't see how FB hasn't tanked yet.

Re: Deleting Facebook permanently

#83

Post by dylan604 » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 5:31 PM UTC

Shared404 wrote: post #38

rasengan wrote: post #26

Deleting Facebook/Instagram/etc will give you your life back.

How does one delete HN? :P

vim /etc/hosts

news.ycombinator.com 127.0.0.1

or whatever the formatting should be

Re: Deleting Facebook permanently

#84

Post by hugh4life » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 5:31 PM UTC

Traubenfuchs wrote: post #16

I am 28 and none of my peers is using FB anymore. I have some older friends that do their yearly christmas party invite on FB and some people who chat with me on FB messenger. There primarily are ads, spam, people posting commercial content and people congratulating each other for their birthdays. Is facebook this dead for anyone else?

I don't use facebook, but one thing I noticed with my parents it that it's pretty much replaced craigslist.

Re: Deleting Facebook permanently

#85

Post by polka_haunts_us » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 5:33 PM UTC

lrossi wrote: post #51

willis936 wrote: post #5

After losing control of my Yahoo email after trying to delete it, I have learned that it’s not smart to give up control of something that has your identity. I never use facebook, but I will never delete it. I don’t trust facebook.

Giving up emails or phone numbers can be risky since someone else might take it and do something unpleasant with it. Facebook accounts cannot be taken that way.

I'm curious if you could go more into the unpleasantness someone could do with an abandoned phone number. I inherited my mom's phone number years ago and recently had to dump it when I swapped my data plan. It honestly feels like the best thing that ever happened to me b/c I used to get daily spam calls and since getting the new number have gotten maybe 1 spam call total in the past two years, so had planned to change my number more frequently going forward.

Re: Deleting Facebook permanently

#86

Post by citizenkeen » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 5:33 PM UTC

shishy wrote: post #23

Traubenfuchs wrote: post #16

I am 28 and none of my peers is using FB anymore. I have some older friends that do their yearly christmas party invite on FB and some people who chat with me on FB messenger. There primarily are ads, spam, people posting commercial content and people congratulating each other for their birthdays. Is facebook this dead for anyone else?

They're all just on other facebook platforms like IG / WhatsApp anyway.

I find nothing more dumbfounding than people who talk about quitting facebook, but are on insta daily.

Re: Deleting Facebook permanently

#87

Post by Simulacra » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 5:33 PM UTC

Facebook was very useful in connect with likeminded people, particularly on my hobbies, but Facebook scares me now. I'm 49. Posting the wrong meme could destroy my career and upend my life, and it's just not worth the risk. I've chosen to delete my Facebook account to limit my potential exposure to cancel culture. The privacy aspect never bothered me much because that ship left the harbor long ago, there's no going back to "privacy" online. Cancel culture, on the other hand, can come out of anywhere, any time, for any reason, and that scares me. For that reason alone, Facebook IMO is a very dangerous, unsafe place to be.

Re: Deleting Facebook permanently

#88

Post by tonymet » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 5:33 PM UTC

willis936 wrote: post #5

After losing control of my Yahoo email after trying to delete it, I have learned that it’s not smart to give up control of something that has your identity. I never use facebook, but I will never delete it. I don’t trust facebook.

Once you release your id back into the pool, a criminal can commandeer it to attack your other accounts . It could be used for phishing through your network or resetting your other accounts

Keep the account . If you are worried about discipline , reset the password to a random password and lock it in a safe

Re: Deleting Facebook permanently

#89

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 5:33 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Deleting Facebook permanently

#90

Post by pikseladam » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 5:34 PM UTC

etothepii wrote: post #10

Reminds me of this College Humour video - If People Left Parties Like They Leave Facebook https://youtu.be/mGcHNnI2mh4

I miss zack