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

shogan.co.uk

191–200 of 246 posts

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

#191

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

I agree. Reading HN/Reddit it seems that FB is dying any minute now (for past couple of years), in reality they are still growing.

Beside couple of people, everybody else from my social circle seem to be just fine using FB (and others). Though there's definitely more usage of Instagram than FB nowadays (FB Messenger is still super popular)

(not from US)

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

#192
post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the most pervasive and lazy ways to think about humans is that we're rational (homo economicus [0]), and any deviation from that is a personal failing. While some people have better impulse control than others, or have different weaknesses than a particular issue at hand, it's mostly a lack of self-awareness that prevents people from seeing that they too are driven by forces other than pure logic. An ever so b…

So are you agreeing with the parent? Setting up environments sure sounds like regulating the shit out of facebook which the parent comment hinted at.

Yes they are a drug cartel pushing Dopamine. You pay in Attention which they trade with Advertisers for $$$.

How much Dopamine they can sell to their addicts has to be regulated because as with all addiction, people's ability to control their own behavior degenerates in the face of never ending free dopamine rewards.

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

#193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think of so many human problems as the "sugary food" class of problems now. Internet addiction†, pornography, gossip, sensationalist headlines. All sugary food. Our brains are wired to seek out that hit of glucose or dopamine in resource scarce environments and it's maladaptive in the long-term for resource rich ones. † which is why I'm here on HN, if I'm honest

I agree. I think "cheap dopamine" is a good way to describe this.

[deleted]

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

#194
post #14

I lived in Spain for 5 years and then I returned to my country 13 years ago. Some 8 years ago, Facebook was something that I really enjoyed using. I left way too many friends, close friends, and well, lovers behind. Facebook allowed me to have a healthy relationship with them, even if at a distance. I went back to Spain on 2010 for the wedding of a close friend, and it was like I've been out of the country for 2 mont…

> Instagram, on the other side, is a different beast. Even with the strong push by FB in order to monetize the network, I think that fact that people can't easily share other people's post, and are kind of forced to post their own material still makes it an interesting place. >As long as instagram does not allow reposting, I think it'll maintain a certain degree of quality. This is a fascinating insight I never consi…

Also, if you try to follow any type of discussion in the comments its surprisingly difficult. Hard to find the parents of a comment, hard to scroll up to the original comments. And to be honest... I think this is for the best of the platform.

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

#195

Why did you delete WhatsApp? Don't you have to text some people occasionally? Or how do you communicate? Do you use Signal, Telegram, E-mail or something instead? BTW I also had to use Facebook once - because everybody at the uni did so its Messenger was the way we texted each other. Now I use Telegram and WhatsApp. I mean Instagram is a pure time&attention wasting tool, Facebook is the same + a messenger (which is a…

There's literally a section on how he switched to Telegram.

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

#197

I got off Facebook 1.5 years ago as well. Removed my special Facebook browser I used (removed the app long ago) and at first it was weird as I was used to hitting it, whenever I had a few minutes of nothing. But after a week or so it felt great. Less screen time, less mental burden from seeing "stupid" posts, less useless discussions, ... Couldn't get of WhatsApp, yet, as it's too often the default for friends and fa…

I lived in a foreign country recently and Facebook groups were far and away the most important tool I had for meeting people and establishing myself. WhatsApp was the dominate form of communicating with people who lived there. And Instagram was the primary way I kept in touch with my closest friends on other continents. These things are useful, and just because they can be misused does not make them any less useful.

No doubts that there are uses. Travelling Indonesia WhatsApp was a must (due to free basics / internet.org they were most reliable communication with local Services) and now in Corona lockdowns many shops here in Germany don't update their website, but Facebook with current opening times and offers.

However I spent way too much time on it and Facebook is way to hungry for personal data.

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

#198
post #14

I lived in Spain for 5 years and then I returned to my country 13 years ago. Some 8 years ago, Facebook was something that I really enjoyed using. I left way too many friends, close friends, and well, lovers behind. Facebook allowed me to have a healthy relationship with them, even if at a distance. I went back to Spain on 2010 for the wedding of a close friend, and it was like I've been out of the country for 2 mont…

Your experience mirrors my own. I was never a big Facebook user, but it was a nice service to have and then, as you say maybe 5 or 6 years ago, it all went to hell.

People basically stopped posting to Facebook and it became an endless stream of mindless videos, cutesy images with quotes and supermarkets trying to push offers directly to users (successfully though).

Facebook lost the thing that made it interesting, news about long lost friends and insights into the everyday of the people you know. I'm not sure if it's something Facebook did, or if people just stopped posting.

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

#199

It's tough for me to get rid of facebook these days, purely because of FB marketplace. It has almost completely eliminated craigslist in my area for a lot of used items and is significantly nicer to buy/sell things in your area. I got rid of the timeline by unfollowing _everyone_. Timeline is completely empty. It's bliss

More evidence that Facebook should be broken up. Or, I should be able to create a separate FB Marketplace account.

If people have shifted from other platforms onto FB then doesn't that say the opposite?

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

#200
post #195

Why did you delete WhatsApp? Don't you have to text some people occasionally? Or how do you communicate? Do you use Signal, Telegram, E-mail or something instead? BTW I also had to use Facebook once - because everybody at the uni did so its Messenger was the way we texted each other. Now I use Telegram and WhatsApp. I mean Instagram is a pure time&attention wasting tool, Facebook is the same + a messenger (which is a…

There's literally a section on how he switched to Telegram.

I see. Thanks. It was deep down there.

By the way, I've just came up with an idea of what's really wrong with messengers like Telegram and WhatsApp: you can't read a message without telling the sender you've read it. And this forces you to answer. This way I often have to avoid viewing a message so they don't get notified. This is a huge annoyance which kind of ruins my life every now and then. Thanks G-d they don't insist to show when you are online. I would even pay some reasonable subscription to have a stealth mode so people would have no means to see whether I am online and if I've read their message.

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