"It’s difficult to know how much of your information will be truly deleted."
Not difficult - the answer is none of it. But at least you can stop adding to it.
Why I deleted my Facebook account
251–260 of 327 posts
Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account
#252I deleted my Facebook account recently ONLY because of how spammy the notification system is! I didn't want many sources for my news feed so I unsubscribed to all of my hundreds of friends save a few. This redeemed my faith in the news feed, although I would have preferred to have just turned the whole feature off honestly. The problem came when I stopped using Facebook often so I wouldn't have any notifications, at…
I refuse to install Messenger, so I'm actually annoyed by FB's lack of notifications (by email) when I receive a FB message. It used to be the case that FB would email you the message text. They switched that to "you have a message, click here to see it," but now it seems to be completely random whether I'm ever notified. The immediate effect on my behavior is that I find myself logging in to FB frequently just in ca…
Used to happen to me all the time. Wondering if I got any Facebook messages, log on, spend half an hour wandering through the news feed. Big time suck.
Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account
#253I quit Facebook right around the time my son was born. It wasn't for privacy reasons (and frankly, it never bothered me), but rather for the enormous energy and time sink it had become. Truly, it was as if I was a dopamine junkie and Facebook was the pusher of those sweet, sweet red circles with a number in them that meant someone, somewhere vaguely agreed with something you posted. I noticed I was not present in the…
Heh, I _only_ keep Facebook around because it's the most efficient way to provide images of my daughter to our extended family members. Email is just too unwieldy, with many of our family claiming that they've long since forgotten their account credentials.
Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account
#254Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, I have a separate laptop for all the distracting sites including HN. My main machine is for work. But why do you need Facebook app on your iPhone at all? Messenger is enough.
Events. If for no other reason, that would be more than enough reason.
All the events in my city are organized on FB. Even restaurants post their lunch menus daily on FB. I just check it from my laptop before leaving.
It's not like most people need it on the go and if you suddenly do – there's still a web browser access.
Meanwhile, keeping FB or Twitter apps on your phone makes it a slot machine in your pocket. Try to delete them for a day and count the times you are picking it to check them.
Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account
#255The one greatest internet life hack I discovered in the last couple of years is to delete browser autocompletes (cmd + shift + delete or similar). Once I became aware of the "slot machine" effect of websites I deleted the default autocompletes for Facebook and Hacker News, for example. Prior to doing this, if I typed "F" into chrome I went to my Facebook news feed, and "N" in chrome took me to HN. I deleted those def…
My Facebook hack was to remove it from my home screen. I don't know what it was about having a number next to the app but I just HAD to check it. Just to get rid of the number... 30 minutes later... Wow what a waste of time. So now it sits in my apps and I only see it when I have to access something I don't typically use. This cut me down to using Facebook about once a week max.
Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account
#256I deleted my Facebook account recently ONLY because of how spammy the notification system is! I didn't want many sources for my news feed so I unsubscribed to all of my hundreds of friends save a few. This redeemed my faith in the news feed, although I would have preferred to have just turned the whole feature off honestly. The problem came when I stopped using Facebook often so I wouldn't have any notifications, at…
It's shocking how bad the Facebook UX and App are. Bloated download size. Weird A/B testing of the UI. The "time"line showing you want it thinks you want to see rather than chronological order. As you said, pointless, spamy notifications that person A commented on person B's photo from 6 months ago. The list goes on...
I think Facebook is an amazing tool in many ways, but I agree with you. It really seems like they treat their users like farm animals.
Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account
#257The one greatest internet life hack I discovered in the last couple of years is to delete browser autocompletes (cmd + shift + delete or similar). Once I became aware of the "slot machine" effect of websites I deleted the default autocompletes for Facebook and Hacker News, for example. Prior to doing this, if I typed "F" into chrome I went to my Facebook news feed, and "N" in chrome took me to HN. I deleted those def…
My Facebook hack was to remove it from my home screen. I don't know what it was about having a number next to the app but I just HAD to check it. Just to get rid of the number... 30 minutes later... Wow what a waste of time. So now it sits in my apps and I only see it when I have to access something I don't typically use. This cut me down to using Facebook about once a week max.
You can disable the "Badge App Icon" on a per-app basis in Settings -> Notifications on iOS.
Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account
#258Earlier quoted context omitted.
Heh, nice reference. Of course I am exaggerating. But IMO people vastly under estimate how similar their own behaviour is to other people. Meaning, if Facebook "knows" me since 12 years (!) it can very precisely categorize me into a group of people. And those other people do not leave Facebook but feed it more information.
Funny how Facebook can have all of this information about me, my preferences, my social groups, etc., and has not once served me a remotely relevant advertisement.
You want a mail order foam mattress - you must just not know it.
Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account
#259I quit Facebook right around the time my son was born. It wasn't for privacy reasons (and frankly, it never bothered me), but rather for the enormous energy and time sink it had become. Truly, it was as if I was a dopamine junkie and Facebook was the pusher of those sweet, sweet red circles with a number in them that meant someone, somewhere vaguely agreed with something you posted. I noticed I was not present in the…
Like you I also dropped it and never looked back for the following simple reasons: 1. It offers nothing while it takes a lot. 2. When something is free, then YOU are the product. 3. Massive violation of privacy (that "like" button on most websites and any other facebook element which now I block with ABP and NoScript)(and all known FB URLs on my hosts file). 4. I can still be in touch with my friend without informing…
> 2. When something is free, then YOU are the product.
Debian Linux, Firefox, gcc, visual studio... The list goes on. I think the "you are the product" quip has become an overplayed meme of late. Mutually beneficial / co dependence and such themes are more applicable in more cases than not when it comes to free products and services, in my own view anyways.
Re: Why I deleted my Facebook account
#260Wow what a news. You deleted facebook, congratulations! Is anyone even using FB, I think it's slowly dying for the past years.
They recently crossed 2 billion active users. Guess that qualifies as "anyone."