Was never on.
Ask HN: Why are you off Facebook?
11–20 of 50 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why are you off Facebook?
#12Never had an account. I just don't really care what my former classmates and associates are up to. Friends know my cell # and email.
Re: Ask HN: Why are you off Facebook?
#13Lots of noise, and very little signal.
For every interesting announcement from a friend, I had to wade through weeks of "What NATO country are you most like?" results, past their expiry memes, political grandstanding, videos of puppies and people falling over, and endless pictures of food. There's just no compelling use-case I can see.
Re: Ask HN: Why are you off Facebook?
#14After being an user from 2007 I've deleted my account in February 2013, then re-registered in October 2013. It doesn't contain any private data now, only close circle of friends and acquaintances and is primarily used as a contact holder/event responder.
It might be a generational thing, maturity or otherwise, but IMHO Facebook (and other social networks) has impacted our lives in unhealthy ways, more then being useful. Specially since businesses and everyone came on it (parents, relatives). This switched it from a cool place to hangout to some serious business.
Those two articles explain it more: http://seersuckermag.com/opinion/read/facebook-isnt-giving-b...
http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/how-facebook-makes-us...
Re: Ask HN: Why are you off Facebook?
#15It is boring.
I occasionally use it as a way to contact someone if I don't have their current email or phone number though.
So I still keep my account but I post a picture or status update roughly biannually.
Re: Ask HN: Why are you off Facebook?
#16Never joined.
Facebook has too much central control.
Social networking should be based on a decentralized system of independent nodes such that no single authority owns the whole damn thing and makes everyone obey their rules, and has everyone's personal info. (And all protocols documented, and implementations open-sourced, needless to say).
Re: Ask HN: Why are you off Facebook?
#17I haven't deleted my account, I've just stopped using it. I log in and check it out every month or two, but never stay for very long.
I don't use it because I don't find it very interesting. If I care what's going on with someone, I usually keep in touch via other means. And even for those people, I don't find their day-to-day posts very interesting.
Also, when there is something I need to know posted on Facebook that I haven't heard about via other means, my wife usually fills me in.
Re: Ask HN: Why are you off Facebook?
#18I deactivated my account. It's still around, of course, and I can log in again when I want. But I didn't want the distraction anymore. I found that checking the feed on my phone became an automatic habit for no observable benefit. I don't mind so much the whole privacy thing, because I don't think Facebook is that evil. Your information is public somewhere, and you're being tracked by someone, whether you like it or not. And this happens outside of the internet -- it's how business works. So it's not a big deal to me.
The usefulness of Facebook is a big deal though. And it's just not useful anymore. My friend group tends to be pretty selective, and is mostly made up of people I know and interact with in real life. So I do that instead.
Re: Ask HN: Why are you off Facebook?
#19Never joined. Facebook has too much central control. Social networking should be based on a decentralized system of independent nodes such that no single authority owns the whole damn thing and makes everyone obey their rules, and has everyone's personal info. (And all protocols documented, and implementations open-sourced, needless to say).
The fastest way to fan out messages efficiently between a group is through one node that is always online. I think no decentralized architecture can be more efficient compared to a centralized system.
Again, a social network only needs to know whom to send your message to and need not know about the contents of the message, If USPS opened our letters, would we argue for a decentralized architecture where we individuals ourselves drove around delivering letters in our spare time?
How were so many of us tricked into handing over so much control?
Re: Ask HN: Why are you off Facebook?
#20I just slowly trailed off using it. I wish I could say something more defined like other posters in this thread, but I just stopped.
I first just never logged in on my computer (I think I may have Firefox private browsing and Do Not Track to thank for this since I had to enter my password every time I wanted to go on rather than just hit the URL). It wasn't as interesting at work for a quick break as Hacker News or USA Today, etc.
I still had it on my phone and would look at it when I was waiting for the bus, sitting at a restaurant waiting for someone, or in the washroom. But then I started using Twitter and Instagram.
All the news that I was interested in was on Twitter, and all the pictures of friends I wanted to see were on Instagram. So all that was left on Facebook was articles form Buzzfeed and ads. One day I realized that it was just taking up space on my phone's home screen. I deleted it so I could move Slack and Snapchat up to the first screen.
I still like Facebook Messenger, and keep that app on my phone. Its good to always have something to get in touch with friends with (especially when traveling).
The irony is that I deleted WhatsApp so I could move Messenger up to my phone's home screen. So Facebook and Facebook-owned companies are sort of replacing themselves for me.