9 ms·

“Fixing yourself” automatically fixes the “Facebook problem”. Because then, Facebook will be completely irrelevant to you.

HenryBemis 9y ago
I "fixed" myself many years ago. I have sinkholed everything-FB. I suggest to anyone that wants to use FB, do so for 10 days, locate the ones they want/need, and then continue their dialogues in a more meaningful manner away from FB and whatsapp (also FB) and keep their comm channels open, without the cancerous environment of FB, with all their tests and manipulation tactics.
- amelius 9y ago
  Another option is to "unfollow" everybody except for a selected few.
  - jdavis703 9y ago
    I actually did this a few months ago. Today I realized I had gone 7 days without logging into Facebook or even thinking about it. The good thing about unfollowing everyone is that I can still participate in Facebook Events and Groups, both of which many of us still need to coordinate meatspace activity.
    - JoshMnem 9y ago
      I think that most people don't really need Facebook Events and Groups. If people tell you to join an event of group, tell them you don't use Facebook (for ethical and personal reasons) and that they should provide another method for people to participate so that it doesn't lock out non-Facebook users. I block all of their sites in my hosts file so can't even view a Facebook event page or group. It has only provided benefits, and I haven't missed out on anything. Productivity is up. Social life is better.
      - amelius 9y ago
        Sadly, as I'm not that popular, that would make me miss all the events except for the regularly recurring ones.
        JoshMnem 9y ago
        It can take a while (years) to transfer one's social life out of Facebook, but I think it's worth the effort of doing it in small steps.
      - dingaling 9y ago
        > and that they should provide another method for people to participate Ideally that would be perfect. Realistically, the people running the groups and events have 99% of their time dedicated to non-communication activities and standing-up a mailing list or website is outside their time-capacity AND experience. As an example here in Ireland we have a group called Airliner Experiences that organise enthusiast flights on rare and interesting aircraft. They exist only on Facebook, I have asked why and it's because they "don't have time" to run a website for the few non-Facebook oddballs. So I've missed many potentially-interesting experiences but they haven't missed my money because there is such a huge audience in Facebook.
    - jsemrau 9y ago
      What do you think if event discovery tools like drop!in (http://www.idrop.in http://www.idrop.in) would this solve your problem with events?
      - matte_black 9y ago
        No. This is undesirable for people looking to break the habit of joining platforms to go to events.
  - matte_black 9y ago
    This is such a simple solution I fear one day Facebook may no longer allow it. I unfollowed everyone years ago and it has made a huge difference in how I think of Facebook. Without the persistent feed and flood of ads, it’s just another tool for communicating with people, one that is seldom used when faced with other alternatives. Facebook is now mostly harmless, and I only spend maybe a minute or two on it every few days.
    - Yetanfou 9y ago
      Harmless? Every page which has anything Facebook-related on it will be fed your Facebook-related cookies on every visit. Any Facebook-related code on such pages will have access to anything Facebook-related stored in your profile (cookies, local data, etc). Since everyone and his dog felt the need to add 'social' buttons to their sites this includes a sizeable portion of the 'net. You might not use Facebook much but rest assured that Facebook uses you. You are part of their product after all...
      - matte_black 9y ago
        I'm a fairly shitty product.
  - sandebert 9y ago
    I did this a year or so ago - can't recommend it enough.
aaron-lebo 9y ago
It doesn't. Some of us got off Facebook years ago (or stopped using it). An individual abstaining didn't stop society from being manipulated the way this describes, FB's reach is too great.
- pmlnr 9y ago
  Society has always been manipulated. In ancient Egypt, priest calculated eclipses and used it as act of the gods to threaten people with them. To change society, we indeed need to fix ourselves, but those fixes would be essentially getting rid of wanting to poses. Once that's gone, we can finally think ahead, but for that, countless steps are ahead of us. ( One of the first, in my opinion, should be a base income, but no necessarily in money; cover the physical needs: food, water, warmth, shelter; and motivate people to achieve something in order to gain anything above the basics, but remove the fear of lacking safety.)
  - Const-me 9y ago
    > To change society, we indeed need to fix ourselves Dark ages with manipulative priests didn’t end because people decided to fix themselves. They ended because people decided to fix their society. Namely, they separated church from government, instilled compulsory education, etc.
- jf 9y ago
  Fully agree, though I think that individual abstention is still important, if only fractionally so.
DFHippie 9y ago
The question isn't whether Facebook is relevant to you. It's whether it's relevant to 300 million other people. If a problem as 300 million causes, you still have a problem if you cut that down to 299,999,999.
- harryf 9y ago
  Society has always been manipulated. Facebook has nothing on religions for example. The real question is whether an individual checking out from Facebook harms themselves in some way e.g. less able to find work? We just need to make sure Facebook never gets endorsement as some kind of identity / passport.
  - DFHippie 9y ago
    > Society has always been manipulated. True. And people have always murdered each other. But when millions of people are murdering each other we call it war. My body is fighting some millions of germs right now. If you add an order of magnitude or two to that I'll be sick. Or dead. A camel can carry a lot of straw. Enough straw can crush a camel. At some point we have to deal with the problem.
  - monaghanboy 9y ago
    So far it hasn't harmed me, and I haven't had an active account in 8+ years. I believe this actually helps me, though I can't really quantify or prove it.
- JoshMnem 9y ago
  Behavior is contagious. If you behave in the way that people should behave, then others will follow.
  - megablast 9y ago
    What a ridiculous statement.
- adrianratnapala 9y ago
mcrad 9y ago
This reminds me of the popular opinion that all you need to do is recycle to stop global warming. Or don't buy a house you can't afford and there will be no giant credit bubble. Some form of regulation is clearly needed. Despite what the MBA's may have told you, fraud and deception is not good for the economy in the long run.
- ZenoArrow 9y ago
  > "This reminds me of the popular opinion that all you need to do is recycle to stop global warming. Or don't buy a house you can't afford and there will be no giant credit bubble." I strongly doubt anyone believes that their actions alone can stop global warming or destructive financial cycles, however, there is still merit in individual actions. They do have an impact, though you have to consider these actions over the long term to see it. Consider how the market for electric cars developed. I'd suggest the electric car market started getting mainstream acceptance after the launch of the Tesla Model S. However, it took a long time to get to that point. Consider how the market for electric cars looked in the 1990s. There was some activity, but it was largely a hobbyist market. However, those early adopters, though small in number, kept the market progressing until it was ready for mass acceptance. Using your recycling example, it also took many years before people took recycling seriously. There's still plenty to be done to improve recycling practices further, but it's clear that the situation now is far better than it was 30 years ago. If you consider the work that had to be done to get us to the point we're at now, it's clear it would've taken the work of dedicated individuals to go against the grain to start making recycling normal, even if their initial impact was small. We can either build upon this foundation, or squander the progress that has been made.
  - mcrad 9y ago
    Agreed, progress or risk mitigation was achieved via regulatory framework, in contrast to suggestion of parent comment, and general to General HN sentiment of free markets for Internet giants.
kbob 9y ago
I stopped using Facebook years ago. But I still live in a world with Brexit and Trump. What did I do wrong?

HenryBemis 9y ago

I "fixed" myself many years ago. I have sinkholed everything-FB. I suggest to anyone that wants to use FB, do so for 10 days, locate the ones they want/need, and then continue their dialogues in a more meaningful manner away from FB and whatsapp (also FB) and keep their comm channels open, without the cancerous environment of FB, with all their tests and manipulation tactics.

amelius 9y ago
Another option is to "unfollow" everybody except for a selected few.
- jdavis703 9y ago
  I actually did this a few months ago. Today I realized I had gone 7 days without logging into Facebook or even thinking about it. The good thing about unfollowing everyone is that I can still participate in Facebook Events and Groups, both of which many of us still need to coordinate meatspace activity.
  - JoshMnem 9y ago
    I think that most people don't really need Facebook Events and Groups. If people tell you to join an event of group, tell them you don't use Facebook (for ethical and personal reasons) and that they should provide another method for people to participate so that it doesn't lock out non-Facebook users. I block all of their sites in my hosts file so can't even view a Facebook event page or group. It has only provided benefits, and I haven't missed out on anything. Productivity is up. Social life is better.
    - amelius 9y ago
      Sadly, as I'm not that popular, that would make me miss all the events except for the regularly recurring ones.
      - JoshMnem 9y ago
        It can take a while (years) to transfer one's social life out of Facebook, but I think it's worth the effort of doing it in small steps.
    - dingaling 9y ago
      > and that they should provide another method for people to participate Ideally that would be perfect. Realistically, the people running the groups and events have 99% of their time dedicated to non-communication activities and standing-up a mailing list or website is outside their time-capacity AND experience. As an example here in Ireland we have a group called Airliner Experiences that organise enthusiast flights on rare and interesting aircraft. They exist only on Facebook, I have asked why and it's because they "don't have time" to run a website for the few non-Facebook oddballs. So I've missed many potentially-interesting experiences but they haven't missed my money because there is such a huge audience in Facebook.
  - jsemrau 9y ago
    What do you think if event discovery tools like drop!in (http://www.idrop.in http://www.idrop.in) would this solve your problem with events?
    - matte_black 9y ago
      No. This is undesirable for people looking to break the habit of joining platforms to go to events.
- matte_black 9y ago
  This is such a simple solution I fear one day Facebook may no longer allow it. I unfollowed everyone years ago and it has made a huge difference in how I think of Facebook. Without the persistent feed and flood of ads, it’s just another tool for communicating with people, one that is seldom used when faced with other alternatives. Facebook is now mostly harmless, and I only spend maybe a minute or two on it every few days.
  - Yetanfou 9y ago
    Harmless? Every page which has anything Facebook-related on it will be fed your Facebook-related cookies on every visit. Any Facebook-related code on such pages will have access to anything Facebook-related stored in your profile (cookies, local data, etc). Since everyone and his dog felt the need to add 'social' buttons to their sites this includes a sizeable portion of the 'net. You might not use Facebook much but rest assured that Facebook uses you. You are part of their product after all...
    - matte_black 9y ago
      I'm a fairly shitty product.
- sandebert 9y ago
  I did this a year or so ago - can't recommend it enough.

aaron-lebo 9y ago

It doesn't. Some of us got off Facebook years ago (or stopped using it). An individual abstaining didn't stop society from being manipulated the way this describes, FB's reach is too great.

pmlnr 9y ago
Society has always been manipulated. In ancient Egypt, priest calculated eclipses and used it as act of the gods to threaten people with them. To change society, we indeed need to fix ourselves, but those fixes would be essentially getting rid of wanting to poses. Once that's gone, we can finally think ahead, but for that, countless steps are ahead of us. ( One of the first, in my opinion, should be a base income, but no necessarily in money; cover the physical needs: food, water, warmth, shelter; and motivate people to achieve something in order to gain anything above the basics, but remove the fear of lacking safety.)
- Const-me 9y ago
  > To change society, we indeed need to fix ourselves Dark ages with manipulative priests didn’t end because people decided to fix themselves. They ended because people decided to fix their society. Namely, they separated church from government, instilled compulsory education, etc.
jf 9y ago
Fully agree, though I think that individual abstention is still important, if only fractionally so.

DFHippie 9y ago

The question isn't whether Facebook is relevant to you. It's whether it's relevant to 300 million other people. If a problem as 300 million causes, you still have a problem if you cut that down to 299,999,999.

harryf 9y ago
Society has always been manipulated. Facebook has nothing on religions for example. The real question is whether an individual checking out from Facebook harms themselves in some way e.g. less able to find work? We just need to make sure Facebook never gets endorsement as some kind of identity / passport.
- DFHippie 9y ago
  > Society has always been manipulated. True. And people have always murdered each other. But when millions of people are murdering each other we call it war. My body is fighting some millions of germs right now. If you add an order of magnitude or two to that I'll be sick. Or dead. A camel can carry a lot of straw. Enough straw can crush a camel. At some point we have to deal with the problem.
- monaghanboy 9y ago
  So far it hasn't harmed me, and I haven't had an active account in 8+ years. I believe this actually helps me, though I can't really quantify or prove it.
JoshMnem 9y ago
Behavior is contagious. If you behave in the way that people should behave, then others will follow.
- megablast 9y ago
  What a ridiculous statement.
adrianratnapala 9y ago

mcrad 9y ago

This reminds me of the popular opinion that all you need to do is recycle to stop global warming. Or don't buy a house you can't afford and there will be no giant credit bubble. Some form of regulation is clearly needed. Despite what the MBA's may have told you, fraud and deception is not good for the economy in the long run.

ZenoArrow 9y ago
> "This reminds me of the popular opinion that all you need to do is recycle to stop global warming. Or don't buy a house you can't afford and there will be no giant credit bubble." I strongly doubt anyone believes that their actions alone can stop global warming or destructive financial cycles, however, there is still merit in individual actions. They do have an impact, though you have to consider these actions over the long term to see it. Consider how the market for electric cars developed. I'd suggest the electric car market started getting mainstream acceptance after the launch of the Tesla Model S. However, it took a long time to get to that point. Consider how the market for electric cars looked in the 1990s. There was some activity, but it was largely a hobbyist market. However, those early adopters, though small in number, kept the market progressing until it was ready for mass acceptance. Using your recycling example, it also took many years before people took recycling seriously. There's still plenty to be done to improve recycling practices further, but it's clear that the situation now is far better than it was 30 years ago. If you consider the work that had to be done to get us to the point we're at now, it's clear it would've taken the work of dedicated individuals to go against the grain to start making recycling normal, even if their initial impact was small. We can either build upon this foundation, or squander the progress that has been made.
- mcrad 9y ago
  Agreed, progress or risk mitigation was achieved via regulatory framework, in contrast to suggestion of parent comment, and general to General HN sentiment of free markets for Internet giants.

kbob 9y ago

I stopped using Facebook years ago. But I still live in a world with Brexit and Trump. What did I do wrong?