9 ms·

I Quit Facebook

80 points by nreece 9y ago

mrslave 9y ago
Virtue signaling heavily laden with Trump derangement syndrome. Thinks Twitter failing to discipline President Trump because he violated the don't-threaten-people policy over North Korean missile launches is a grave double standard. Not a quality article.
- matthewmacleod 9y ago
  Trump derangement syndrome. I'm keen to understand what you mean by this, in context.
  - jack9 9y ago
    http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Trump%20Derangement%20Syndrome http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Trump%20Deran... In all fairness, this is a reactionary "definition". It's not useful when looking at this behavior as an actual condition and discerning the causal elements. There's a segment of the population that seems to amplify their own disgust with a celebrity's manners/message/actions/writing/etc, to the point that they see every facet of a personality as caustic. Bibi, Linus, Trump, Mencia, and probably countless others. It's only brought to light when an individual from this population happens to have a media pedestal, so the locus is usually some conservative.
  - coldtea 9y ago
    The idea that having yet another idiot/liar/narcissus as president (as has been done many times in the past) is about to bring the end of the world.
- jimjimjim 9y ago
  Not a quality comment.
- have_faith 9y ago
  Sometimes signalling your virtues is what you want to achieve. In the twitter example, Twitter decides that Trump hasn't technically broken a rule (debatable), so you signal that your virtues are more important than Twitters rules by leaving, a perfectly valid response.
- darpa_escapee 9y ago
  > Virtue signaling This is getting very, very close to the fallacy fallacy.
QuelqueChose 9y ago
Personally, I enjoyed the article but I felt bombarded by the suggested links as I was reading... the very slight , light blue highlighting should be enough for most readers to just gloss over, but I couldn't help myself with at least hovering over the group of words to see what is the site that's been linked. Made it difficult for me to take in the piece in it's entirety; I'll definitely be keeping this experience in mind next time I write.
smnscu 9y ago
Quit Facebook a long time ago despite being a huge fan and promoter (lol) in the early days (even used lastname@facebook.com seriously when email addresses launched) – it's not that difficult to do. Same with LinkedIn, love the occasional mild shock when people find out I'm not using either. South Park is spot on as usual. “Who invited Mark Zuckerberg to town in the first place?” https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/12/south-park-vs-zuckerberg/ https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/12/south-park-vs-zuckerberg/
harry8 9y ago
"A facebook account was closed." Headline suggested to me someone resigning from the company. The latter is more interesting. Many people have closed their facebook accounts, it's not a big deal, you just announce you're going to do it, get whatever contact details you don't have from connections then do it. Others never opened one. Life is fine without facebook, if you feel you want to close your account, do it. Footage at 11.
- Aardwolf 9y ago
  The current title "I Quit Facebook" make me also unsure if it was about resigning or closing. But the true article title is "I Quit Facebook—and You Should, Too", that is more obvious
- simion314 9y ago
  I also expected a developer quiting after the recent FB news with the election.
- baby 9y ago
  At this point I'd be more interested in a "I re-opened a facebook account". Which I'm sure we'll get down the line.
- lloeki 9y ago
  > Many people have throwed away their cigarette packs, it's not a big deal, you just announce you're going to do it, get that one last cig with a friend then do it. Others never started to smoke. Life is fine without smoking, if you feel you want to stop smoking, do it. Footage at 11. > Many people have stopped gambling, it's not a big deal, you just announce you're going to do it, get whatever money's left on the table then do it. Others never started gambling. Life is fine without gambling, if you feel you want to get out of gambling, do it. Footage at 11. I am always shockingly impressed at the lack of empathy and open-mindedness some people or group thereof are reliably able to show, here failing to recognise that this mind trick minefield can have devastating effects and act at the very least as a dramatic catalyst in loss-of-balance situations. The underlying, untold, insulting judgement is basically "damn this guy is weak/an attention seeking whore". I found the article articulated quite well the issues he faced, his reasons (which extend beyond Facebook's carefully engineered attention seeking madness) and both of his strategy and tactics to get out of the hole he found himself in (which extend beyond Facebook and social networks). Writing about one's problems help a lot in internally processing them. Making a public statement helps in committing oneself to improvement, and help others in a similar predicament to relate and hopefully even proceed to action.
yodsanklai 9y ago
There are less drastic options. I'm still on facebook but unsubscribed from all feeds. As a result there's almost nothing but ads on my news feed so I'm not really tempted to go there anymore. I also don't post anything there. Still, I keep my account "just in case" and I do use messenger a lot though. I have the feeling facebook is slowly dying, but I'm probably wrongly generalizing my own experience (is this called a "false consensus bias"?)
- stevewillows 9y ago
  Its funny. Most people I know (~37 and under) only really use it for events and, at times, messenger. Its sort of a modern phonebook. My sister (early 40s) and her peers are still using it on a regular basis, but the content could easily be on twitter or instagram. The real demographic that is in love with it is my parents' generation, ~67+. They follow a lot of the '%city% then and now' and other nostalgic groups. Along with those, their feeds are filled with goofy videos that were going around a while ago. I don't see Facebook going the way of myspace in the near future, but I do think they'll have to shift their focus a little if they want to draw us back in. What I don't understand is why facebook isn't going head first into online dating. They already have a lot of information on everybody -- where a lot of us like to eat, locations we frequent, events we like, etc. For a lot of us the data would be slightly outdated, but I bet they could give some solid suggestions.
  - icantdrive55 9y ago
    I see way too many people, presumably under 37, glued to something on those screens. My hope is whatever they are so fascinated with will eventually get old, and that phone will be put away, or perhaps left at home.
  - netzone 9y ago
    That's not a bad idea on the online dating. Though it would probably mean Facebook becoming much more transparent regarding what data they collect on you, at least to the unknowing majority. That's something I really don't see happening.
aaronaarzelbart 9y ago
Meh. You'll be back on soon enough.
- hellofunk 9y ago
  This is an insult to addicts of every kind, everywhere.
- sctb 9y ago
  Could you please resist posting unless you have something civil and substantive to say? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
return0 9y ago
People like that cannot live without ranting and validating themselves externally. Please go back to facebook before you explode intto every other online platform.
danra 9y ago
An ambiguous title, came in expecting this to be about someone quitting his job at Facebook. Which you absolutely should do if you work there. Facebook has an obligation to its shareholders to maximize its profits, which (possibly) means its strategy of monopolizing everyone's social identity is a valid one (though hopefully it could be mitigated through anti-monopoly laws, see the recent trend in the EU). But no talented programmer has an obligation to help Facebook fulfill their strategy. If you care about freedom, don't help its opponents.
sus_007 9y ago
I haven't deleted mine yet, but it's been a long time. Often I think I'll regret doing so, lots of memories with my closed ones, but again I feel like none of that matters at the present. A tragic dilemma.:/ I can't think of any other social mediums for reaching out my people in the state of emergency or during such times.
gfiorav 9y ago
Did this 5 years ago and never looked back. The fact that people write about it is probably showing how serious Facebook has become to them. Pretty sad and frivolous if your think about it. My other social media (Twitter, Instagram) have notifications turned off, and are silently — and non instrusively — waiting for me when I decide to glance at them (usually once every 2-3 days). You end up forgetting about them and only remember when you're bored, it works wonders. I believe we’ll look back in 10 years and realize that this generation (like most generations that are first to adopt something new) was ridiculously over attached to social media.
- john_minsk 9y ago
  Nice one. But how do you look at Twitter only once in a couple of days? Twitter is useless this way if you ask me.
  - gfiorav 9y ago
    Well I really like the “in case you missed it” section. Brings up the important and funny stuff condensed. If I hear something’s going on, I’ll open un the TT section and get some instant insights from it. They way I see it, Twitter is useless most of the time, it comes in handy only when some event is taking place.
  - akvadrako 9y ago
    You have to prune your network until there is enough time to read everything.
- zimpenfish 9y ago
  > I believe we’ll look back in 10 years and realize that this generation was ridiculously over attached to [human connections] Fixed that for you.
  - gfiorav 9y ago
    Haha, well not too sure. For one, Facebook isn’t a human connection, it’s really not. You’re not really friends with someone you haven’t spoken to in 5 years. On the other hand, we’ve been attached to human connections since the begging of civilization. Not sold that would end in 10 years time.
fredsted 9y ago
I'm honestly a little amazed at all the thought put in to quitting Facebook. It seems like such a big deal for people. I think it's very sad that we've gotten to this point. It's just a Web site.
- staticelf 9y ago
  Technically it is, but it is much more than that in reality. All my friends use Facebook to create parties and announce sudden gatherings. I don't use facebook to much more than to know when these things occur so I can participate but if I were to deactivate my account it would mean that I would probably miss out on some of these gatherings. I'd rather just keep my account and post as little as possible in order to just recieve that information. Even if I personally do not like facebook, pretty much everyone else does. What can you do?
  - T-zex 9y ago
    Are people, who can't be bothered to send you an SMS, email or give a call to invite you into a party, actually, your friends?
    - coldtea 9y ago
      That.
    - staticelf 9y ago
      Some closer friends might, but several of these people doesn't have my phone number or email. I participate in several groups and people often write "does someone want to do something today?" etc. To message every single one every time and ask would be too much of a task. Of course you could create a mailinglist but then you'd have to convince everyone to use that instead which I know would be impossible. But to answer your question, yes.
    - seanwilson 9y ago
      Are people that can't be bothered to mail you a letter really your friend? Facebook is an efficient form of communication that the vast majority of people use. I'd expect close friends to go out of their way to contact me but you have to accept that by not using Facebook you're going to miss out on things and creating an inconvenience for people. SMS and email aren't as efficient for arranging group events.
avip 9y ago
Please change the title. yet-another-random-dude-closes-his-fb-account. He did not close his medium account though, so he can blog about his amazing journey clicking few buttons on a webform.
- exergy 9y ago
  Plus, it seems like he deactivated it instead of deleting it. Which basically is the equivalent of logging out, from the user's perspective. So all the pomp and circumstance and the quoting of Trump and Snowden seems even more ridiculous to me. Like, have the balls to fucking do it properly.
  - KekDemaga 9y ago
    "What myopic lives they had 1000 years ago" - Future historians reading this blog post
  - karjaluoto 9y ago
    Actually, if you read the post, I reference why I temporarily deactivated—and that I’ll delete. (I also reference what I’m doing with Medium, which I hardly ever used anyway.) The question I have for you, is why the negativity? “Have the balls to fucking do it…” Seriously? Why do you feel the need to emasculate me over a personal choice to not use a social network? Some people found the post useful; others didn’t. What I’m curious about is why you seem to take this so personally. You needn’t take it as an affront; and it certainly wasn’t intended that way.
    - avip 9y ago
      The inevitable "negativity" should be seen as addressed to the HN community (for somehow upvoting this irrelevant submission to the front page) + the submitter (for the misleading clickbatish title). It does not reflect on your motives, writing style, or whatever.
    - exergy 9y ago
      I did read the article, and the reason you gave was "I didn't want to be too rash". Which kind of serves my point. You wrote a 100,000 word article on quitting Facebook without even quitting it! You're right though, and my apologies. I found your post grating and it rubbed me the wrong way. I really dislike this recent trend where everything is a Medium article. Oh your startup failed? Better post on Medium. Oh, you're firing people? Better Medium it. Oh, you're quitting social media? Better announce it everywhere. I know you recognise the irony, and mention it as such in your post. But I'm just one random man on the internet, and my vitriol is a reflection of my thoughts, not a reflection on you.
commenter1 9y ago
I never joined any social media site, but you don't see me making useless blog posts about it.
- MaddAgent 9y ago
  Me neither - I resisted joining Facebook from day one. I never felt the need nor do I feel like I'm missing anything! At the end of the day its just a personal choice and I also don't feel the need to tell everyone about it (current post excepted of course! but this is literally the first time I have ever mentioned it in any kind of forum/post)
__BrianDGLS__ 9y ago
"I Quit Facebook", do you want a gold star?
- topmonk 9y ago
  Man quits social media site and brags about it on social media. Too bad he couldn't find a way to post his medium page on Facebook. He would have gotten more attention that way.
jlebrech 9y ago
facebook is just a piss up planner now, and i share funny memes. that's about it.
baby 9y ago
Alternatively: accept the value of Messenger and access it directly via https://www.messenger.com https://www.messenger.com or the Messenger app. I will never be able to understand these articles as ALL (with some exceptions) my friends are on facebook, and it is the only way I have to keep touch with all of them. This is a huge problem for people like me who travel a lot and have no other ways of getting in touch with someone.
- craigsmansion 9y ago
  > have no other ways of getting in touch with someone. They don't have telephones or e-mail, or even home addresses? Granted, it might not be as convenient, but people, including friends, do not cease to exist outside of facebook, or are facebook-friends friends of convenience only?
  - AbacusAvenger 9y ago
    Telephone numbers and home addresses change all the time, and communicating the change of this information is a hard problem that requires effort that most people won't put forth. On the other hand, Facebook accounts just stay the same. It doesn't matter where they live or what Nth phone they happen to have, they've always got a Facebook account. I don't know everyone else's use cases for Facebook, but in my case it's just a way to be able to keep in contact with people I'd otherwise be losing contact with.
  - baby 9y ago
    > They don't have telephones or e-mail, or even home addresses? 1. they live in different countries 2. what am I going to do with an home address? 3. people change phone, email and home address all the time unfortunately. A Facebook account is surprisingly more reliable. > Granted, it might not be as convenient, but people, including friends, do not cease to exist outside of facebook I could in some case contact someone who still have them on Facebook, but sometimes I just don't have any friend in common with them. > or are facebook-friends friends of convenience only? No, I value my friends. I just met a lot of people traveling in my life. I still meet friends I haven't seen in decades when I travel every year. This would definitely not be possible without Facebook. I'm not just arguing for the sake of arguing. Last month alone I met two of them. In Stockholm and realized I had a Swedish friend there, that I hadn't seen since 2009. We barely talked since then, we didn't really remember what friend we had in common (Facebook helped) but we sure had a good time back then so we were super happy to meet again. In Lisbon I met with a Portuguese friend I hadn't seen since 2009 as well. If it was not for Instagram she wouldn't even have noticed that I was there. We had dinner together and it was awesome. Just felt like old times.
seanwilson 9y ago
I can't help but feel that if Facebook has such a huge negative influence on your life, the problem isn't Facebook but something deeper you need to resolve in yourself. If you're getting hopelessly addicted to Facebook or letting it make you feel bad, you're probably just going to replace it with something else until you fix the reason you let it impact you that way. I use Facebook to keep up with friends and arrange events. It's a useful communication tool and I don't get caught up in it any more than that.
- sreyaNotfilc 9y ago
  My point exactly. I can't for the life of me see how Facebook can be so addictive (based on the application itself). If you're the type of person who HAS to know what other people are doing, then 'yes' Facebook will take over your life. I'm always so busy (and can careless of the day-2-day of people) that I'm barely on the platform. And when I am, its probably for 5-10 mins every month (unless someone Messages me). I'm thinking that closing your account may slowdown your addiction, but there are other apps, sites, avenues to be 'in the know'. Maybe Facebook in this case means all social networking apps?
- darpa_escapee 9y ago
  I felt the same way about cigarettes. I would occasionally smoke one, maybe once or twice a year, and couldn't imagine how anyone could get addicted to such an underwhelming stimulant. To want to smoke cigarettes more than a handful of times seemed like a symptom of unresolved life or mental issues. Anything that has a quick action->dopamine-response loop can be addictive. Facebook is purposefully tightening that loop in its product.
- uoaei 9y ago
  Would you say the same to someone who's "addicted" to being depressed? to fighting with their loved one? to having anxious thoughts? Where's the love, HN?
halokonrad 9y ago
I just decreased my Facebook use to minimal. Won't remove it because of possible FB identity theft. You can do more and more with Facebook Account it's just just scary to lose control over my profile.
- reustle 9y ago
  I've seen a copy of a few friends already created, even myself. They then friended all of my friends. Fb is pretty quick to delete them once reported
Ileca 9y ago
I hear a lot about facebook but I almost never run into it though I feel like I am literally living inside internet. It amazes me how something I can literally not see any presence can have presumably such huge importance in the cyberworld. Google, I get it, twitter, I get it, facebook... nope. Looks like big inflated wind to me (or quite crafty salespersons).
samzer 9y ago
I've tried deactivating facebook multiple times but always got back to it. I like facebook as a tool to keep in touch with people who are somewhat friends to periphery friends but I'm not interested in consuming the feed. So the solution that worked for me was to unfollow everyone with the help of the link which is at the end. Now my feed is empty and whenever I open facebook without thinking, I see nothing and get back to my normal real life very soon. https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-unfollow-everyone-on-Facebook-at-once/answer/Amol-Upraity?srid=XY3v https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-unfollow-everyone-on-Facebook...
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
cortexio 9y ago
Good article,, but easy on the Trump stuff, it sounds like you believe too many lies. That aside, fake news can be found anywhere: Facebook, Twitter, CNN, NYT, Fox News, ... Why? Controversy = Money. I agree with the part about social media having negative effects on our behaviour. I can recognize some of these effects in my self. I hope we can see studies about this in the future and maybe schools teaching the pros & cons of the internet in general.
RickJWagner 9y ago
Meh. The author goes on a rant against Trump, complaining about how views are being pushed upon him. Yet he also goes to CNN, which was shown to be colluding with the Clinton campaign (and runs overwhelmingly slanted coverage. Something like 90% negative on Trump, hugely positive for Obama.) He's picking his preferred poison. But he's not getting a balanced world-view, if that's what he's after.
- karjaluoto 9y ago
  The point I made about Trump wasn’t about views being pushed on me. It was that Twitter’s TOS was being changed to allow him to bypass those policies. As for the CNN reference, you’re cherry-picking. I also note going to HN and Bless This Stuff. I provide these as honest examples of where I find myself going to waste time. I didn’t at any point say these provided a more “balanced world-view”.

80 points by nreece 9y ago

Virtue signaling heavily laden with Trump derangement syndrome. Thinks Twitter failing to discipline President Trump because he violated the don't-threaten-people policy over North Korean missile launches is a grave double standard. Not a quality article.

matthewmacleod 9y ago
Trump derangement syndrome. I'm keen to understand what you mean by this, in context.
- jack9 9y ago
  http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Trump%20Derangement%20Syndrome http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Trump%20Deran... In all fairness, this is a reactionary "definition". It's not useful when looking at this behavior as an actual condition and discerning the causal elements. There's a segment of the population that seems to amplify their own disgust with a celebrity's manners/message/actions/writing/etc, to the point that they see every facet of a personality as caustic. Bibi, Linus, Trump, Mencia, and probably countless others. It's only brought to light when an individual from this population happens to have a media pedestal, so the locus is usually some conservative.
- coldtea 9y ago
  The idea that having yet another idiot/liar/narcissus as president (as has been done many times in the past) is about to bring the end of the world.
jimjimjim 9y ago
Not a quality comment.
have_faith 9y ago
Sometimes signalling your virtues is what you want to achieve. In the twitter example, Twitter decides that Trump hasn't technically broken a rule (debatable), so you signal that your virtues are more important than Twitters rules by leaving, a perfectly valid response.
darpa_escapee 9y ago
> Virtue signaling This is getting very, very close to the fallacy fallacy.

QuelqueChose 9y ago

Personally, I enjoyed the article but I felt bombarded by the suggested links as I was reading... the very slight , light blue highlighting should be enough for most readers to just gloss over, but I couldn't help myself with at least hovering over the group of words to see what is the site that's been linked. Made it difficult for me to take in the piece in it's entirety; I'll definitely be keeping this experience in mind next time I write.

smnscu 9y ago

Quit Facebook a long time ago despite being a huge fan and promoter (lol) in the early days (even used lastname@facebook.com seriously when email addresses launched) – it's not that difficult to do. Same with LinkedIn, love the occasional mild shock when people find out I'm not using either. South Park is spot on as usual. “Who invited Mark Zuckerberg to town in the first place?” https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/12/south-park-vs-zuckerberg/ https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/12/south-park-vs-zuckerberg/

harry8 9y ago

"A facebook account was closed." Headline suggested to me someone resigning from the company. The latter is more interesting. Many people have closed their facebook accounts, it's not a big deal, you just announce you're going to do it, get whatever contact details you don't have from connections then do it. Others never opened one. Life is fine without facebook, if you feel you want to close your account, do it. Footage at 11.

Aardwolf 9y ago
The current title "I Quit Facebook" make me also unsure if it was about resigning or closing. But the true article title is "I Quit Facebook—and You Should, Too", that is more obvious
simion314 9y ago
I also expected a developer quiting after the recent FB news with the election.
baby 9y ago
At this point I'd be more interested in a "I re-opened a facebook account". Which I'm sure we'll get down the line.
lloeki 9y ago
> Many people have throwed away their cigarette packs, it's not a big deal, you just announce you're going to do it, get that one last cig with a friend then do it. Others never started to smoke. Life is fine without smoking, if you feel you want to stop smoking, do it. Footage at 11. > Many people have stopped gambling, it's not a big deal, you just announce you're going to do it, get whatever money's left on the table then do it. Others never started gambling. Life is fine without gambling, if you feel you want to get out of gambling, do it. Footage at 11. I am always shockingly impressed at the lack of empathy and open-mindedness some people or group thereof are reliably able to show, here failing to recognise that this mind trick minefield can have devastating effects and act at the very least as a dramatic catalyst in loss-of-balance situations. The underlying, untold, insulting judgement is basically "damn this guy is weak/an attention seeking whore". I found the article articulated quite well the issues he faced, his reasons (which extend beyond Facebook's carefully engineered attention seeking madness) and both of his strategy and tactics to get out of the hole he found himself in (which extend beyond Facebook and social networks). Writing about one's problems help a lot in internally processing them. Making a public statement helps in committing oneself to improvement, and help others in a similar predicament to relate and hopefully even proceed to action.

yodsanklai 9y ago

There are less drastic options. I'm still on facebook but unsubscribed from all feeds. As a result there's almost nothing but ads on my news feed so I'm not really tempted to go there anymore. I also don't post anything there. Still, I keep my account "just in case" and I do use messenger a lot though. I have the feeling facebook is slowly dying, but I'm probably wrongly generalizing my own experience (is this called a "false consensus bias"?)

stevewillows 9y ago
Its funny. Most people I know (~37 and under) only really use it for events and, at times, messenger. Its sort of a modern phonebook. My sister (early 40s) and her peers are still using it on a regular basis, but the content could easily be on twitter or instagram. The real demographic that is in love with it is my parents' generation, ~67+. They follow a lot of the '%city% then and now' and other nostalgic groups. Along with those, their feeds are filled with goofy videos that were going around a while ago. I don't see Facebook going the way of myspace in the near future, but I do think they'll have to shift their focus a little if they want to draw us back in. What I don't understand is why facebook isn't going head first into online dating. They already have a lot of information on everybody -- where a lot of us like to eat, locations we frequent, events we like, etc. For a lot of us the data would be slightly outdated, but I bet they could give some solid suggestions.
- icantdrive55 9y ago
  I see way too many people, presumably under 37, glued to something on those screens. My hope is whatever they are so fascinated with will eventually get old, and that phone will be put away, or perhaps left at home.
- netzone 9y ago
  That's not a bad idea on the online dating. Though it would probably mean Facebook becoming much more transparent regarding what data they collect on you, at least to the unknowing majority. That's something I really don't see happening.

aaronaarzelbart 9y ago

Meh. You'll be back on soon enough.

hellofunk 9y ago
This is an insult to addicts of every kind, everywhere.
sctb 9y ago
Could you please resist posting unless you have something civil and substantive to say? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

return0 9y ago

People like that cannot live without ranting and validating themselves externally. Please go back to facebook before you explode intto every other online platform.

danra 9y ago

An ambiguous title, came in expecting this to be about someone quitting his job at Facebook. Which you absolutely should do if you work there. Facebook has an obligation to its shareholders to maximize its profits, which (possibly) means its strategy of monopolizing everyone's social identity is a valid one (though hopefully it could be mitigated through anti-monopoly laws, see the recent trend in the EU). But no talented programmer has an obligation to help Facebook fulfill their strategy. If you care about freedom, don't help its opponents.

sus_007 9y ago

I haven't deleted mine yet, but it's been a long time. Often I think I'll regret doing so, lots of memories with my closed ones, but again I feel like none of that matters at the present. A tragic dilemma.:/ I can't think of any other social mediums for reaching out my people in the state of emergency or during such times.

gfiorav 9y ago

Did this 5 years ago and never looked back. The fact that people write about it is probably showing how serious Facebook has become to them. Pretty sad and frivolous if your think about it. My other social media (Twitter, Instagram) have notifications turned off, and are silently — and non instrusively — waiting for me when I decide to glance at them (usually once every 2-3 days). You end up forgetting about them and only remember when you're bored, it works wonders. I believe we’ll look back in 10 years and realize that this generation (like most generations that are first to adopt something new) was ridiculously over attached to social media.

john_minsk 9y ago
Nice one. But how do you look at Twitter only once in a couple of days? Twitter is useless this way if you ask me.
- gfiorav 9y ago
  Well I really like the “in case you missed it” section. Brings up the important and funny stuff condensed. If I hear something’s going on, I’ll open un the TT section and get some instant insights from it. They way I see it, Twitter is useless most of the time, it comes in handy only when some event is taking place.
- akvadrako 9y ago
  You have to prune your network until there is enough time to read everything.
zimpenfish 9y ago
> I believe we’ll look back in 10 years and realize that this generation was ridiculously over attached to [human connections] Fixed that for you.
- gfiorav 9y ago
  Haha, well not too sure. For one, Facebook isn’t a human connection, it’s really not. You’re not really friends with someone you haven’t spoken to in 5 years. On the other hand, we’ve been attached to human connections since the begging of civilization. Not sold that would end in 10 years time.

fredsted 9y ago

I'm honestly a little amazed at all the thought put in to quitting Facebook. It seems like such a big deal for people. I think it's very sad that we've gotten to this point. It's just a Web site.

staticelf 9y ago
Technically it is, but it is much more than that in reality. All my friends use Facebook to create parties and announce sudden gatherings. I don't use facebook to much more than to know when these things occur so I can participate but if I were to deactivate my account it would mean that I would probably miss out on some of these gatherings. I'd rather just keep my account and post as little as possible in order to just recieve that information. Even if I personally do not like facebook, pretty much everyone else does. What can you do?
- T-zex 9y ago
  Are people, who can't be bothered to send you an SMS, email or give a call to invite you into a party, actually, your friends?
  - coldtea 9y ago
    That.
  - staticelf 9y ago
    Some closer friends might, but several of these people doesn't have my phone number or email. I participate in several groups and people often write "does someone want to do something today?" etc. To message every single one every time and ask would be too much of a task. Of course you could create a mailinglist but then you'd have to convince everyone to use that instead which I know would be impossible. But to answer your question, yes.
  - seanwilson 9y ago
    Are people that can't be bothered to mail you a letter really your friend? Facebook is an efficient form of communication that the vast majority of people use. I'd expect close friends to go out of their way to contact me but you have to accept that by not using Facebook you're going to miss out on things and creating an inconvenience for people. SMS and email aren't as efficient for arranging group events.

avip 9y ago

Please change the title. yet-another-random-dude-closes-his-fb-account. He did not close his medium account though, so he can blog about his amazing journey clicking few buttons on a webform.

exergy 9y ago
Plus, it seems like he deactivated it instead of deleting it. Which basically is the equivalent of logging out, from the user's perspective. So all the pomp and circumstance and the quoting of Trump and Snowden seems even more ridiculous to me. Like, have the balls to fucking do it properly.
- KekDemaga 9y ago
  "What myopic lives they had 1000 years ago" - Future historians reading this blog post
- karjaluoto 9y ago
  Actually, if you read the post, I reference why I temporarily deactivated—and that I’ll delete. (I also reference what I’m doing with Medium, which I hardly ever used anyway.) The question I have for you, is why the negativity? “Have the balls to fucking do it…” Seriously? Why do you feel the need to emasculate me over a personal choice to not use a social network? Some people found the post useful; others didn’t. What I’m curious about is why you seem to take this so personally. You needn’t take it as an affront; and it certainly wasn’t intended that way.
  - avip 9y ago
    The inevitable "negativity" should be seen as addressed to the HN community (for somehow upvoting this irrelevant submission to the front page) + the submitter (for the misleading clickbatish title). It does not reflect on your motives, writing style, or whatever.
  - exergy 9y ago
    I did read the article, and the reason you gave was "I didn't want to be too rash". Which kind of serves my point. You wrote a 100,000 word article on quitting Facebook without even quitting it! You're right though, and my apologies. I found your post grating and it rubbed me the wrong way. I really dislike this recent trend where everything is a Medium article. Oh your startup failed? Better post on Medium. Oh, you're firing people? Better Medium it. Oh, you're quitting social media? Better announce it everywhere. I know you recognise the irony, and mention it as such in your post. But I'm just one random man on the internet, and my vitriol is a reflection of my thoughts, not a reflection on you.

commenter1 9y ago

I never joined any social media site, but you don't see me making useless blog posts about it.

MaddAgent 9y ago
Me neither - I resisted joining Facebook from day one. I never felt the need nor do I feel like I'm missing anything! At the end of the day its just a personal choice and I also don't feel the need to tell everyone about it (current post excepted of course! but this is literally the first time I have ever mentioned it in any kind of forum/post)

__BrianDGLS__ 9y ago

"I Quit Facebook", do you want a gold star?

topmonk 9y ago
Man quits social media site and brags about it on social media. Too bad he couldn't find a way to post his medium page on Facebook. He would have gotten more attention that way.

jlebrech 9y ago

facebook is just a piss up planner now, and i share funny memes. that's about it.

baby 9y ago

Alternatively: accept the value of Messenger and access it directly via https://www.messenger.com https://www.messenger.com or the Messenger app. I will never be able to understand these articles as ALL (with some exceptions) my friends are on facebook, and it is the only way I have to keep touch with all of them. This is a huge problem for people like me who travel a lot and have no other ways of getting in touch with someone.

craigsmansion 9y ago
> have no other ways of getting in touch with someone. They don't have telephones or e-mail, or even home addresses? Granted, it might not be as convenient, but people, including friends, do not cease to exist outside of facebook, or are facebook-friends friends of convenience only?
- AbacusAvenger 9y ago
  Telephone numbers and home addresses change all the time, and communicating the change of this information is a hard problem that requires effort that most people won't put forth. On the other hand, Facebook accounts just stay the same. It doesn't matter where they live or what Nth phone they happen to have, they've always got a Facebook account. I don't know everyone else's use cases for Facebook, but in my case it's just a way to be able to keep in contact with people I'd otherwise be losing contact with.
- baby 9y ago
  > They don't have telephones or e-mail, or even home addresses? 1. they live in different countries 2. what am I going to do with an home address? 3. people change phone, email and home address all the time unfortunately. A Facebook account is surprisingly more reliable. > Granted, it might not be as convenient, but people, including friends, do not cease to exist outside of facebook I could in some case contact someone who still have them on Facebook, but sometimes I just don't have any friend in common with them. > or are facebook-friends friends of convenience only? No, I value my friends. I just met a lot of people traveling in my life. I still meet friends I haven't seen in decades when I travel every year. This would definitely not be possible without Facebook. I'm not just arguing for the sake of arguing. Last month alone I met two of them. In Stockholm and realized I had a Swedish friend there, that I hadn't seen since 2009. We barely talked since then, we didn't really remember what friend we had in common (Facebook helped) but we sure had a good time back then so we were super happy to meet again. In Lisbon I met with a Portuguese friend I hadn't seen since 2009 as well. If it was not for Instagram she wouldn't even have noticed that I was there. We had dinner together and it was awesome. Just felt like old times.

seanwilson 9y ago

I can't help but feel that if Facebook has such a huge negative influence on your life, the problem isn't Facebook but something deeper you need to resolve in yourself. If you're getting hopelessly addicted to Facebook or letting it make you feel bad, you're probably just going to replace it with something else until you fix the reason you let it impact you that way. I use Facebook to keep up with friends and arrange events. It's a useful communication tool and I don't get caught up in it any more than that.

sreyaNotfilc 9y ago
My point exactly. I can't for the life of me see how Facebook can be so addictive (based on the application itself). If you're the type of person who HAS to know what other people are doing, then 'yes' Facebook will take over your life. I'm always so busy (and can careless of the day-2-day of people) that I'm barely on the platform. And when I am, its probably for 5-10 mins every month (unless someone Messages me). I'm thinking that closing your account may slowdown your addiction, but there are other apps, sites, avenues to be 'in the know'. Maybe Facebook in this case means all social networking apps?
darpa_escapee 9y ago
I felt the same way about cigarettes. I would occasionally smoke one, maybe once or twice a year, and couldn't imagine how anyone could get addicted to such an underwhelming stimulant. To want to smoke cigarettes more than a handful of times seemed like a symptom of unresolved life or mental issues. Anything that has a quick action->dopamine-response loop can be addictive. Facebook is purposefully tightening that loop in its product.
uoaei 9y ago
Would you say the same to someone who's "addicted" to being depressed? to fighting with their loved one? to having anxious thoughts? Where's the love, HN?

halokonrad 9y ago

I just decreased my Facebook use to minimal. Won't remove it because of possible FB identity theft. You can do more and more with Facebook Account it's just just scary to lose control over my profile.

reustle 9y ago
I've seen a copy of a few friends already created, even myself. They then friended all of my friends. Fb is pretty quick to delete them once reported

Ileca 9y ago

I hear a lot about facebook but I almost never run into it though I feel like I am literally living inside internet. It amazes me how something I can literally not see any presence can have presumably such huge importance in the cyberworld. Google, I get it, twitter, I get it, facebook... nope. Looks like big inflated wind to me (or quite crafty salespersons).

samzer 9y ago

I've tried deactivating facebook multiple times but always got back to it. I like facebook as a tool to keep in touch with people who are somewhat friends to periphery friends but I'm not interested in consuming the feed. So the solution that worked for me was to unfollow everyone with the help of the link which is at the end. Now my feed is empty and whenever I open facebook without thinking, I see nothing and get back to my normal real life very soon. https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-unfollow-everyone-on-Facebook-at-once/answer/Amol-Upraity?srid=XY3v https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-unfollow-everyone-on-Facebook...

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

cortexio 9y ago

Good article,, but easy on the Trump stuff, it sounds like you believe too many lies. That aside, fake news can be found anywhere: Facebook, Twitter, CNN, NYT, Fox News, ... Why? Controversy = Money. I agree with the part about social media having negative effects on our behaviour. I can recognize some of these effects in my self. I hope we can see studies about this in the future and maybe schools teaching the pros & cons of the internet in general.

RickJWagner 9y ago

Meh. The author goes on a rant against Trump, complaining about how views are being pushed upon him. Yet he also goes to CNN, which was shown to be colluding with the Clinton campaign (and runs overwhelmingly slanted coverage. Something like 90% negative on Trump, hugely positive for Obama.) He's picking his preferred poison. But he's not getting a balanced world-view, if that's what he's after.

karjaluoto 9y ago
The point I made about Trump wasn’t about views being pushed on me. It was that Twitter’s TOS was being changed to allow him to bypass those policies. As for the CNN reference, you’re cherry-picking. I also note going to HN and Bless This Stuff. I provide these as honest examples of where I find myself going to waste time. I didn’t at any point say these provided a more “balanced world-view”.