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Why I deleted my Facebook account

blakewatson.com

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Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#191

Post by Hasknewbie »

calafrax wrote: post #166
Hasknewbie wrote: post #161

I have to ask: do people really believe that "2 billion users" claim? I live in Europe, and yes the majority of people I know have an account, but nowhere near all of them, and they're often unfrequent users. But more importantly: with the places where FB is banned, all of the people too young to be on it, all the people too old to have an interest, and all of the people who have in general a limited/difficult Intern…

I do. Facebook peaked and is decline in its early markets but still very strong and growing in other parts of the world. Interesting question is do they actually make any money in emerging markets and are those billion users actually an asset.

I did work for a few months in Bombay last year, and most of my colleagues (20s-to-40s middle class white-collar employees -- a minority in India) had a FB account, but with very little engagement. I have to assume that having many non-urbanized people in India, and therefore many less-connected relatives, probably reduces the interest in FB. They were however all heavy users of Whatsapp, which makes sense to me.

I have a feeling that, thanks to smartphone adoption, legions of people are counted as 'in' by FB only because the app is running in the background, when in fact it's not seeing any significant use.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#192

Post by throwawaymanbot »

darrmit wrote: post #179

I too have quit Facebook (and all social media) for long periods of time, but recently got back on. In the past I've felt pressure (from myself) to post witty things or drive up my friend counts. But now I see the value in just being a "consumer" - groups, articles, etc. Plus the added benefit of being able to see business pages, videos people send, etc. I still agree it's crazy intrusive and addictive, I just think…

Facebook wants you to feel its a intrinsic part of your life, but in reality its not. Your brain fools you. What you dont know about, you wont miss. For me that 90% garbage on Facebook is not incentive to give in to the feelings of missing out on other stuff, that I will get to see anyway eventually.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#193

Post by riledhel »

All the posts about this subject and not a single one I've read mention using facebook login for websites or mobile apps. There are a lot of these out there that simply don't work otherwise. Take instagram for example, even before facebook's buying it.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#194

Post by DigitalTraffic »

Facebook is great for developers!

The groups for specific languages and graphics packages are very active. The Lightwave group is great for example.

Asocial and autistic people are generally not interested, but for the rest of us, it's great! I can see how nerds would have problems with it.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#195

Post by lloeki »

lmm wrote: post #184
aninhumer wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Different activities provide differing reward for differing efforts. Water cooler chat, which requires active social engagement and is time bounded, is not as addicting as an endless stream of content accessed with a twitch of the finger. You might not use Facebook in that way, and I similarly don't find it that engaging, but I've certainly experienced it with reddit and HN. And I don't think this is some intractable…

If you're talking about dopamine you're already /inside/ what makes up someone's personality. "Dopamine hits" are called being happy .

Dopamine triggers satisfaction, not happiness. Otherwise we just fond the magic recipe for the whole world to be extremely happy! Instead it turns out that just makes everyone feel miserable.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#199

Post by eludwig »

lloeki wrote: post #187
eludwig wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I watched the video and the speaker spends a great deal of time making some very elegant (if somewhat obvious) points. But then at the end he comes to the wrong conclusion, Imo. He blames the corporations where millennials work and passes the responsibility for fixing their attention/relationship deficits off to them! This is totally backwards. Every generation has their dopamine hits. Of course, as society creates m…

> He blames the corporations where millennials work and passes the responsibility for fixing their attention/relationship deficits off to them! This is totally backwards. He does blames them, but only as part of his point, not as the whole conclusion. He blames the corporations for focusing on reductive, short-term metrics† instead of people, which is precisely what's lead to this[0] and that[1] abusive situations. A…

>This is the kind of attitude that reviles me. You can't blame someone for becoming alcoholic/depressive/etc. If you do then you don't understand what those are: illnesses.

Waaaait a minute. This is another strawman. My comment did not blame illnesses on the individual. But I think we need to define carefully what an illness is. I don't doubt alcoholism is an illness, but I would reasonable argue that browsing Facebook on your phone is not an illness. Do you really believe that? I don't. There may be people at the far end of that spectrum that cannot help themselves, but there are plenty of others that are just bored.

Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account

#200

Post by Propen »

riledhel wrote: post #193

All the posts about this subject and not a single one I've read mention using facebook login for websites or mobile apps. There are a lot of these out there that simply don't work otherwise. Take instagram for example, even before facebook's buying it.

and freakin' Tinder. damn it
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