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

shogan.co.uk

171–180 of 246 posts

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

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might not be strictly psychopatic, idk, not a doctor. However when you call your users dumbfucks, recognizing you are exploiting them and still continue to do it... Why would I use (trust) any of his products?

That was a very long time ago. You never said things that would be "problematic" if publicly known?

I probably said a lot of things that would be problematic in this current climate and it doesn't mean I changed my opinion on any of them in particular :)

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

#172
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…

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

You can install an extension/add-on in firefox and chrome that will block it. That's how I block my newsfeed.

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

#173
post #55

"I use Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, and I feel fine!" -- most of the planet, but you'd never know it by reading HN

Facebook intentionally made about 400,000 feel sad/depressed on purpose. They bragged that they had 'informed consent' to perform psychological experiments on all Facebook users simply because you joined the site and agreed to their long legalese T&C. Maybe the rest of the world feels better on Facebook. But that will only last until Facebook randomly decides one day to throw them into a depression.

> Facebook intentionally made about 400,000 feel sad/depressed on purpose. They bragged that they had 'informed consent' to perform psychological experiments on all Facebook users simply because you joined the site and agreed to their long legalese T&C.

As a certified clinical research professional (CCRP), this is pretty outrageous to hear. Might be an interesting discussion for one of our upcoming glorified journal club roundtables. TY!

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

#174
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…

> 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. I have posted such comments. But they are usually in response to people telling me it’s also the best thing I can do. When people make sweeping st…

Yeah the problem is partly that both sides do not understand each other. I was hoping my analogy would help people understand the problem that facebook presents to some people. That way we can start to think beyond sweeping statements and start doing things to help those who need it.

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

#175
post #35

Scientifically, it's not a robust conclusion. The kind of person who wants to delete FB etc is the kind of person who will feel better after they do it. Personally, I just use FB in a pretty restricted way. I unfollow most friends unless they post stuff I like engaging with. I give FB the bare minimum of my own personal data, and block all the ads they serve. I mostly post questions for discussion, rather than highli…

> I still think of Instagram as a photography community, which is how old I am. Wait what? When did that change? I must be old too...

Years ago. I mean, ostensibly, it is still about sharing photos. But originally, it was more about "I took a really nice photo of something in the world, and I'd like you to see it". Now most of the photos are selfies, or otherwise express the personality of the poster, and it isn't about "photography" per se.

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

#176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same with reddit. I don't want to use your damn app!! Guess I won't use it at all. Reddit just infuriated me anyway so that was just the nail in the coffin

The day they get rid of old.reddit.com is the day I quit for good. And I'll be honest, although the writing is on the wall, I really don't want that to happen. I like BBS-style forums! But I refuse to subject myself to the dark-pattern morass that is modern social media design.

I assume when they kill off old reddit there will be some cloak/shell RES style baconreader chrome add on for us diehards to convert it old reddit style, hopefully! I cannot stand the cartoony style of the new layout.

My kingdom for more simple text-only craigslist style websites.

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

#177
post #35

Scientifically, it's not a robust conclusion. The kind of person who wants to delete FB etc is the kind of person who will feel better after they do it. Personally, I just use FB in a pretty restricted way. I unfollow most friends unless they post stuff I like engaging with. I give FB the bare minimum of my own personal data, and block all the ads they serve. I mostly post questions for discussion, rather than highli…

What specifically makes him “that kind of person”?

> It started with an urge to delete Facebook around 3 years ago.

This. It's the same problem as when participants self-select into a study. They have different motivations than the average person.

I'm just making the point that if you are persuaded by this article to also get off FB (because it made his life better), you might be disappointed, because you weren't already dissatisfied with FB.

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

#178
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 fully agree, we should strive for systems that cause it's users to fall into the pit of success[1]. We do this when it comes to driving, road diets[2] or roundabouts[3]. We should have systems to ensure healthy social media use as well. 1. https://blog.codinghorror.com/falling-into-the-pit-of-succes... 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_diet 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundabout

Wow thanks :) I had not come across this idea before! I've thought about this before, but not directly. I feel it is an excellent way to think about what our internet services could be if they were not the product of a hyper-capitalist culture.

As a side note, and relevant to what I am working on, MakeCode and Scratch are very good at encouraging coders to fall into the pit of success. I find it quite difficult to find a real program breaking bug in MakeCode scripts for the Micro:bit. Which helps make it excellent as a teaching tool because you can focus on things that will engage younger learners in coding and engineering.

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

#179

I don't understand these naive do gooders who want everyone to delete their social media. "I did it and I feel better!" Really, how much more self-centered can you get? I'm a retiree. My kids and family are scattered. Social media is an important part of maintaining family cohesion and my role in the family. I've reconnected with old friends that I otherwise would have lost forever. Deleting social media would impove…

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 about your family.

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

#180

One word of warning about this approach: it becomes one in a set of red flags about you if you are ever being investigated by any entity at the national level. Not having a facebook is viewed as an outlier, and hence will contribute to some unknown weight of your other red flags that once triggered will put you into national security letter, warrant-less wiretap type areas. Beyond that, facebook retains shadow profil…

> One word of warning about this approach: it becomes one in a set of red flags about you if you are ever being investigated by any entity at the national level. Not having a facebook is viewed as an outlier...

Isn't that all the more reason to do it, though? The more people who delete it or don't have accounts, the more normalized it will become to not have social media profiles.

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