Deleting Facebook permanently • Hacker News Board

Re: Deleting Facebook permanently

#141

Post by tootie » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 6:01 PM UTC

tschellenbach wrote: post #9

People tend to just blindly follow what the news reports to the extent that this is now very relevant for Facebook: http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html

Ha, I love it. I have two opinions that fall into that category. One is that people shouldn't own pets. Least of all sapient creatures like dogs. I'd wager that will become a common point of view a century or two after I'm gone.

The other one (relevant to this thread) is that Facebook is a great product and people only hate it now because it's a such a horrendously efficient mirror of the ugliness of humanity.

Re: Deleting Facebook permanently

#142

Post by virtualritz » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 6:03 PM UTC

The only reason I'm on FB is my past time: dancing tango.

It is the platform that social group has settled on, somehow, worldwide, for advertising & organizing events and, most importantly, communicating last minute changes to those/after parties, etc.

If you are a tango dancer and not on FB you must communicate with people who are, constantly, to not miss stuff. It's not practical.

That being said: I never look at my stream. I mostly use messenger and post in groups, when looking for flat-/car sharing for tango events.

Re: Deleting Facebook permanently

#143

Post by deltron3030 » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 6:04 PM UTC

joshmanders wrote: post #117

tyc85 wrote: post #106

Second that, and I'd like to add google too with the following alternatives: 1. search: duckduckgo 2. email: proton I know google is more pervasive in services, these two can be a good start.

Yup, Email is the only thing I haven't migrated off Google yet, that one is tougher so far. But also instead of Chrome use Brave or Edge, both built on Chromium and are essentially Chrome, but without Google's spyware bloat.

Vivaldi (also Chromium) is another option. I've used Brave for a while but I got annoyed by them modifying my settings through user experiments without any form of opt in.

Re: Deleting Facebook permanently

#144

Post by willis936 » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 6:04 PM UTC

emsy wrote: post #120

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.

That’s a terribly generalized advice. At least in the EU companies are obliged to delete your data (I don’t know about the US). Of course whether they delete it is another matter but that would be a violation of GDPR.

At the end of the day it boils down to trust. It’s general because companies are not trustworthy in general.

Re: Deleting Facebook permanently

#145

Post by pmarreck » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 6:05 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?

Private Facebook groups are pretty fun

Re: Deleting Facebook permanently

#146

Post by k__ » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 6:06 PM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #53

k__ wrote: post #11

I have to admit, in times of Corona, without parties and concerts, the value of Facebook has sunken drastically. My main activity was to stay up to date on events. What's happening, who goes where, etc.

> I have to admit, in times of Corona, without parties and concerts, the value of Facebook has sunken drastically Huh? For many people it's exactly the opposite. The value of Facebook was in casual chat, posting, etc, to connect with friends and random followers in the age of Corona.

I don't know, but I do these things mostly via other social media platforms.

My friends use WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Twitter, Instagram etc.

Re: Deleting Facebook permanently

#147

Post by tshaddox » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 6:07 PM UTC

citizenkeen wrote: post #86

shishy wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I mean, they're different products. There are good reasons for quitting the Facebook social network product which are separate from reasons for quitting all Facebook-owned products.

Re: Deleting Facebook permanently

#148

Post by pmarreck » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 6:07 PM UTC

tdfx wrote: post #118

rocgf wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I quit it about a year ago and I cannot even remember what it was like having an account, it just seems so strange that this would be such an important part of their online life. Everybody I know is on Whatsapp/Signal, so I really don't feel like I'm missing anything.

> Everybody I know is on Whatsapp/Signal I wish I could say this. It seems the US is the only country where everyone wants to continue using SMS/iMessage for everything. It's literally the only way to communicate with most of my American friends.

> It seems the US is the only country where everyone wants to continue using SMS/iMessage for everything.

I use Whatsapp regularly and it still can't hold a candle to iMessage. I blame Android adoption, and the fact that Google never built an iMessage competitor so they are stuck with 20 year old SMS.

Re: Deleting Facebook permanently

#149

Post by drcongo » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 6:08 PM UTC

throwawaysea wrote: post #68

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?

My take is that FB lost its value when it started to become taken over by content that wasn't part of its initial offerings. Instead of photos and personal posts, we mostly see news, political posts, ads, pages, groups, etc. It starts to become more like an aggregator of things we did not initially intend to follow, but we've chosen to follow bit-by-bit - maybe that speaks to the design of Facebook leading us down th…

Facebook has shadow accounts, so even if you don't even have an account on Facebook, they know exactly who you are, where you live, what you browse on the web, who your friends are, what you buy and where you buy it from, what illnesses you've been looking up on WebMD, who your health insurance is with, and so much more.

Twitter and Reddit aren't even playing the same game, let alone in the same league.

Re: Deleting Facebook permanently

#150

Post by jackyrs » Wed, Jan 06, 2021, 6:08 PM UTC

arconis987 wrote: post #138

MrDresden wrote: post #115

I'm a year and a half in on the removal of Facebook from my life. Deleted the account and didn't look back. Has not had any impact on my social or professional life. I'd recommend doing the same. I am currenlty well on my way in the process of uncondition myself from using Instagram, and I haven't touched WA in months.

Count me as another data point. I deleted my Facebook and Twitter accounts, and it has not affected my social or professional life in any noticeable way. I was worried I would lose access to my Oculus purchases, but I did not. The straw that broke the camel’s back was reading my ads profile summary in Facebook settings. It claimed I was in “Established Adult Family Life with Children” or something similar. This was r…

I actually had the opposite experience: my profile was so inaccurate. It said I had kids when I don't, for example.