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Ask HN: Are there anyone who does not use Google and Facebook accounts?

• pwg 9y ago
  Use neither. Never plan to use either. Your assumptions were distorted by being in a Facebook/Google bubble where you missed the forest for the local set of trees you could see.
  • paradite 9y ago
    Yes, and this thread is my attempt to break out of the bubble. Thanks for your response.
• linopolus 9y ago
  I have neither a Google nor a Facebook account. DDG for search and OSM/Apple for maps are sufficient 99%/time. Only thing I have is WhatsApp, as all of my friends/family/work/etc have it..
• znpy 9y ago
  I have a Google account on which i am only logged from mobile phone and a Facebook account that i have disabled nine months ago and that i reactivate upon need.
• Finnucane 9y ago
  I have a gmail account that is attached to an empty FB account that I use for logins and nothing else.
• observation 9y ago
  Don't have Facebook account. I did get a Google account but only used it for the purpose of communicating to somebody on a Youtube Livestream. Now that I'm reminded of that I'm going to delete it... done! I recommend Fastmail for email. It is pretty much for the same reason that Saul Goodman asked Walter White for one dollar. I know I mentioned using Youtube in the other thread we were talking in - but actually I don't use it conventionally, I usually use youtube-dl to download 720p copies of the videos to my hard drive, and sometimes download entire channels that way. It's so much easier than dealing with youtube's playback issues, it's a much higher quality experience.
• timonoko 9y ago
  There are of course various other levels of participation. B-) Facebook is only good for shitposting, because you cannot really engage in any "serious" discussion if at any moment your account can be frozen for weeks. You have to be more careful with Google however. Professor Jordan B. Peterson's Gmail and Youtube-accounts were suddenly disabled "for good" without any explanations and no possibility to appeal. It is kinda difficult to use an Android-phone without Gmail-account.
• rajeshmr 9y ago
  I refrained for a very long time from using facebook and whatsapp - but relented to using them. I also actively researched ways to get rid of the google ecosystem - but what i realised is that, you cannot be on another ecosystem, if people whom you want to communicate with are using the very ecosystem you want to avoid. Its a collective problem and unless everyone is aware of the perils of using them, people who care / worry about these things are in the minority and unable to convince the majority to refrain from using google / facebook. I have been getting a lot of stares for suggesting to people to not use facebook.(I finally put a facebook profile last year but am not active on it. I rarely login to facebook). All the people i wanna communicate with are on whatsapp - i have no hopes of convincing people to switch over to signal and i have given up this pursuit. I am tired of endless conversations to explain to people about the "bubble" and also the privacy issues that come along with using these products (we are the product anyway). Worse, after all the convincing arguments i submit to people, people nod in acknowledgement and use those very products anyway. It's like noone cares. And i found myself increasingly isolated for quite some time, and finally relented to using fb(rarely)/whatsapp(use it like an sms app - i have exited all the groups).
• billconan 9y ago
  I had a facebook account but 6 years ago I decided to abandon it. I set a ridiculously log and random password for my account and never logged back in since then. I don't use whatsapp, and other fb products.
• greenyoda 9y ago
  I have never had a Facebook account (or any other social media) and have not had a Google account for many years.