23 ms·
Deleting Facebook permanently
- oli5679 6y agoIf you want to keep the 'events' capability but remove your newsfeed then it's possible to write a bot that unsubscribes from all of your friends. This also works well for LinkedIn I find.
- standardUser 6y agoI've gained too much from different Facebook groups (when living abroad for example) and get too much value from important social connections (seeing friend's photos of their kids, for example, or chatting with my one uncle who only uses Messenger) to just ditch Facebook. I don't "use" it very much, but deleting it all together would have a big negative impact on me and I fail to see I what way I would gain.
- Lendal 6y agoAnyone who would only delete Facebook for personal gain fits right in with the Facebook ethos, and therefore should not delete Facebook.
- defterGoose 6y agoAnyone who would do something only for personal gain would make a pretty sweet market theory...
- willis936 6y agoAfter losing control of my Yahoo email after trying to delete it, I have learned that it’s not smart to give up control of something that has your identity. I never use facebook, but I will never delete it. I don’t trust facebook.
- mlthoughts2018 6y agoYou are tacitly voting that Facebook should be viewed as an arbiter of identity by taking this point of view.
- aaomidi 6y agoWhen society views Facebook as part of your identity you're forced to also keep it. It's not always possible for individuals to reject it. You end up with this self-feeding cycle of people keeping facebook around because they have to. Eventually what ends up happening is an alternative comes along and people essentially forget about the platform that it just shuts down and collapses on itself. We're slowly inching towards that final outcome.
- mlthoughts2018 6y agoHard disagree. Facebook only has legitimacy if you personally agree it does. The minute you walk away, it loses all legitimacy. Same for LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. etc. There is no sense in which society at large using the product creates any degree of legitimacy for important functions like identity management. Precisely zero.
- lrossi 6y agoGiving up emails or phone numbers can be risky since someone else might take it and do something unpleasant with it. Facebook accounts cannot be taken that way.
- dharmab 6y agoWhen I was younger, a friend created a Facebook account in my name as a joke. My facebook-using parents found it and became very panicked that someone was stealing my identity. I now have a minimal facebook account that I log in twice a year to keep a current photo. It's like how businesses have to squat their own domain names on TLDs they don't use.
- lrossi 6y agoI didn’t think of that. It’s a good point, thanks for sharing.
- ourmandave 6y agoSome years ago my daughter set up a fake account with my name and friended a bunch of people from my old high school. When I found out I changed the password and have ignored it since. I now have a real account just for my gaming group and my old account occasionally pops up in my suggested friends list.
- polka_haunts_us 6y agoI'm curious if you could go more into the unpleasantness someone could do with an abandoned phone number. I inherited my mom's phone number years ago and recently had to dump it when I swapped my data plan. It honestly feels like the best thing that ever happened to me b/c I used to get daily spam calls and since getting the new number have gotten maybe 1 spam call total in the past two years, so had planned to change my number more frequently going forward.
- lrossi 6y agoAccount takeover for services where you registered the phone number for verification.
- dylan604 6y agoBut if you don't have a FB account, how will customs ever let you into whatever country you are trying to enter?
- linuxftw 6y agoInteresting point. Better to have a 'real' facebook than some imposter pretending to be you. In some ways for a business, not having a facebook is like not having a URL.
- tonymet 6y agoOnce you release your id back into the pool, a criminal can commandeer it to attack your other accounts . It could be used for phishing through your network or resetting your other accounts Keep the account . If you are worried about discipline , reset the password to a random password and lock it in a safe
- tonymet 6y agoHaha how did I get downvoted on this sound advice ?
- emsy 6y agoThat’s a terribly generalized advice. At least in the EU companies are obliged to delete your data (I don’t know about the US). Of course whether they delete it is another matter but that would be a violation of GDPR.
- willis936 6y agoAt the end of the day it boils down to trust. It’s general because companies are not trustworthy in general.
- staticelf 6y agoI have deleted my facebook account about like 3 years ago, I still have a fake account around tho with a fake name, fake image, fake background etc. Just to be able to read and post in local groups to my community. I use a special browser for it with facebook container installed.
- dylan604 6y agoWhen you have to sanitize your environment like your are in a Level 4 Biohazard research facility, then maybe the thing you are trying to use just isn't worth it.
- joshmanders 6y agoApologizes if you are having trouble getting to the site, An has been receiving a massive influx of users over the past few days so it can be slow at times.
- hprotagonist 6y agohttps://github.com/weskerfoot/DeleteFB https://github.com/weskerfoot/DeleteFB for some handy automation of this (previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19963599 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19963599)
- tschellenbach 6y agoPeople tend to just blindly follow what the news reports to the extent that this is now very relevant for Facebook: http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html
- tootie 6y agoHa, I love it. I have two opinions that fall into that category. One is that people shouldn't own pets. Least of all sapient creatures like dogs. I'd wager that will become a common point of view a century or two after I'm gone. The other one (relevant to this thread) is that Facebook is a great product and people only hate it now because it's a such a horrendously efficient mirror of the ugliness of humanity.
- pmarreck 6y ago> One is that people shouldn't own pets. Least of all sapient creatures like dogs. I'd wager that will become a common point of view a century or two after I'm gone. Considering that cats 1) have been human companions since the ancient Egyptian days, when the penalty of killing a cat was death, 2) ONLY became human companions of their own volition after their utility in eradicating mice and rats was recognized (note that until a few decades ago, pets were kept outdoors most of the time)... I really, REALLY doubt this prediction tremendously LOL. Also, you have entirely obviously never had a cat. (I've had both dogs and cats. Cats are more interesting. Dogs are like permanent 3 year old boys.)
- tootie 6y agoSlavery was normal in egypt too. We're only like 150 years past that being normal. Dogs were useful in ancient times as well. They warned of predators and could protect cattle. Not really relevant anymore. Most modern pets are genetically engineered for centuries to be cute and docile and completely dependent on humans.
- pmarreck 6y agoWell, that's also where you're simply wrong, at least as far as cats are concerned: https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/06/cats-are-an-extreme-outlier-among-domestic-animals/#:~:text=Unlike%20dogs%2C%20whose%20bodies%20and,wild%20counterparts%E2%80%94physically%20and%20genetically https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/06/cats-are-an-extreme-.... 10,000 years of interactions with cats, and they're just as wild, genetically, as their wild counterparts. Interesting?
- etothepii 6y agoReminds me of this College Humour video - If People Left Parties Like They Leave Facebook https://youtu.be/mGcHNnI2mh4 https://youtu.be/mGcHNnI2mh4
- pikseladam 6y agoI miss zack
- pmarreck 6y agohahahah that was great, never saw that
- k__ 6y agoI have to admit, in times of Corona, without parties and concerts, the value of Facebook has sunken drastically. My main activity was to stay up to date on events. What's happening, who goes where, etc.
- coldtea 6y ago>I have to admit, in times of Corona, without parties and concerts, the value of Facebook has sunken drastically Huh? For many people it's exactly the opposite. The value of Facebook was in casual chat, posting, etc, to connect with friends and random followers in the age of Corona.
- k__ 6y agoI don't know, but I do these things mostly via other social media platforms. My friends use WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Twitter, Instagram etc.
- sundarurfriend 6y agoThey specifically say "My main activity was to stay up to date on events". Which seems to be a significant portion of FB users - Events seem to be/have been its most important feature for a lot of people. As someone who has never once used that feature, that was a surprising thing to learn for me.
- bromonkey 6y agoWhy do you care what other people are doing? If it's important they'll tell you about it.
- WaterForest 6y agoMost people I know have deactivated their account. I just use messenger.
- joshmanders 6y agoI had been doing that for a few weeks now, but I don't agree with Facebook anymore and by passively using their products I am telling them that their actions are ok. By deleting completely and going to alternatives, that's how we tell them it's not ok.
- krisdol 6y agoDid it 4 years ago. Saved a backup of my data, deactivated, and then completely deleted. Yes there will always be a reason to have facebook around, but 4 years on, missing out on all those little reasons people use to defend facebook didn't end up materializing in any meaningful inconvenience or obstacle to living without it.
- joshmanders 6y agoYup, exactly what I am doing. I posted that I am deleting my account in 30 days, and linked my SpaceHey profile for people to sign up there and friend request me if they want to stay connected on social media. Got a backup being generated right now by Facebook of all my data, and will be permanently deleting it after that.
- mgh2 6y agoI used to do this, precisely because I feared losing my Facebook contacts. Messenger is very efficient & light, but once I realized how much I used other (although heavier) mssg apps instead, I saw no need for anything else. Mssg app for international family and friends, SMS for local, LinkedIn, Slack, Skype for work. There are so many app alternatives out there (that are as well built technically) that you don’t need to rely on anything from Facebook's ecosystem anymore. Give it a try, no disappointments
- meatpuppeting 6y ago
- johncena33 6y agoI would encourage people to delete Twitter first, and then (probably) Instagram. You can absolutely use FB productively. I have been using FB just to use specific nature and fitness realted groups. But Twitter is probably the most toxic mainstream social media and almost impossible to use without lowering yourself into the Twitter cesspool. At least I was not able to use Twitter productively.
- joshmanders 6y agoIt's not really "delete facebook because my friends are toxic" but "delete Facebook because the company Facebook, Inc is a truly evil company"
- keiferski 6y agoI’ve become throughly convinced that the only way to dethrone Facebook is by creating the Next Big Thing and being crazy (and well-funded) enough to reject any acquisitions on the way up. “Delete your Facebook” social movements are doomed from the start. Social trends seem to come in waves, and people get bored quickly. I wouldn’t be surprised if the world tires of today’s brand of social media in a decade or two. The Facebook Killer will thus be something completely different, not merely a better or more ethical version of contemporary social media. Or maybe I’m just being too optimistic.
- paxys 6y agoSnapchat and TikTok both did exactly that.
- fumar 6y agoAre they better alternatives than Facebook's platforms?
- paxys 6y agoDepends on who you ask I guess. I don't know anyone under 30 today still using Facebook.
- core-questions 6y agoThey're fundamentally different, though. Tiktok is much more viable as a read-only, addictive content thing; but I never added people I knew on there during my month-long soujourn to discover what it was all about, nor did I feel any need to comment.
- bluSCALE4 6y agoBecause fb was all of those things? If people were more honest with themselves about what fb does for them and a healthy alternative like WhatsApp comes out that appeals to Americans, we'll be on our way. The Next Big Thing is never planned, it just happens.
- 6y ago
- Traubenfuchs 6y agoI am 28 and none of my peers is using FB anymore. I have some older friends that do their yearly christmas party invite on FB and some people who chat with me on FB messenger. There primarily are ads, spam, people posting commercial content and people congratulating each other for their birthdays. Is facebook this dead for anyone else?
- Cmortoc 6y agoWhat are you all using instead?
- Shared404 6y agoI don't use it, but most of my peers would use Snapchat instead. It doesn't fill the exact same role, but it's the closest I can think of.
- paxys 6y agoGroup texts became the preferred social media platform a few years ago, which is why Facebook bought WhatsApp.
- lhorie 6y agoSame boat. I mostly use WhatsApp (though, honestly, I don't use it regularly). My wife also uses WeChat.
- ok_coo 6y agoSnapchat is what my extended family uses to communicate with each other and send fun stuff. Whatsapp for group communication with friends overseas. Both of these apps don't have the BS that comes with Facebook. If you still want to get your fix, TikTok is better platform for getting a mix of interesting content from normal people. Aside from using Facebook messenger to chat, I don't see a good purpose for Facebook any more, maybe the groups are useful for people?
- kingaillas 6y agoDo Snapchat, Whatsapp, whatever else have scheduling features? I have friends that use FB to schedule events and send invites out. And various groups I'm in use the scheduling feature to set event times, etc. One group I'm in, entirely devoted to online games, has switched to Discord. But there is a 0% chance Discord will be adopted by the rest of the groups/friends that use FB event scheduling and messaging.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- 7thaccount 6y agoI deleted mine several years ago, but was only using it once every few months for a few years before that. There wasn't anything there of value anymore for me. If I want to check up on someone, I call/text and have even been drug into a snapchat group.
- pmarreck 6y agoMany times you want to connect to someone but don't know anything but their name and who they're friends with. For example, my dad (who is 75 and whose wife died this past year) is engaging with many people on FB now, and it seems good for him
- 7thaccount 6y agoYeah I can see how there could be some value for some folks.
- ChicagoDave 6y agoI suspect most people <30 use FB for family stuff only and don't actually "hang out" there. But they do spend time on IG, so FB has their bases covered. If you want to get out of the FB world, you need to delete FB and IG.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- dylan604 6y agoAND WhatsApp
- rasengan 6y agoDeleting Facebook/Instagram/etc will give you your life back.
- ChicagoDave 6y agoAlso, Vero is a decent alternative if you can get your circle into it.
- drcongo 6y agoCounterpoint: https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2018/03/how-vero-went-from-most-loved-to-most-hated-social-media-app-in-a-matter-of-days/ https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2018/03/how-vero-went-from-mos...
- ChicagoDave 6y agoThat's unfortunate. I do like the model Vero has created, though I would never be impacted by the sales model since I was just looking for a social network where I can keep in touch with a group of friends and family. Unfortunately, I never been able to get people to try it. Even so, the fidelity of access you have control over is brilliant. I can hide my content, open it up, hide it again...whenever I want and instantly. Something to think about if anyone were to try to create a new platform.
- drcongo 6y agoGood to know, thanks, that does sound good.
- alexfromapex 6y agoDelete the Facebook and Instagram apps off your phone along with Messenger and it becomes much easier to not use them out of habit.
- 19g 6y agoI deleted the Instagram app from my phone a while back, but still was stuck browsing on the web version. More recently, I've had issues logging in via mobile browser so that's helped as another blocker.
- drcongo 6y agoI deleted it 8 years ago when it first became obvious what was going to happen. Have never missed it for a second and I feel a bit sorry for people who think they can't do the same.
- pmarreck 6y agoI guess you just never get invited to stuff or have birthday wishes sent your way lol
- tootie 6y agoSerious question: What happened? I was a FB member for a few years and quit mostly because I wasn't actually interested in what anyone was up to. As far I could tell, FB worked perfectly fine. My breaking point was realizing that my friends and family aren't that interesting.
- drcongo 6y agoI'm a social networks veteran - from Friendster and early very Flickr on. By 2012 it was pretty obvious to most people working in tech that Facebook was heading in a bad direction with scant regard for users' rights or privacy. Looking back now, it was all pretty benign compared to what it has become, but there were enough indicators like the constantly changing privacy UI which, with every tweak, made it harder to protect your privacy. Add in the fact that the "Like" button started appearing on sites external to Facebook so that they could track your browsing outside of their platform and that was enough for me. At that point it is spyware.
- suyash 6y agoAlternative : For those who are too much invested and tied into FB ecosystem with IG, Facebook Groups, Fan Page etc --> just limit your use of FB, consider deleting the app or blocking the website so you are limited to check it on only one platform and it will also be a reminder to limit social media.
- sitzkrieg 6y agodeleted mine many years ago, only thing I feel like im missing out on is marketplace. had a much easier time selling random stuff there vs all other alternatives, but good riddance
- rubyn00bie 6y agoKind of a tangent... But, with all the people I know who don't have a Facebook at this point, I'm gonna just say I have zero confidence most of their users aren't bots. I would be surprised if FB had a billion real users at this point. It should literally be close to impossible to find folks without them in western countries, statistically, but it's not. It's becoming easier and more common... or folks just lie about not having facebook for some reason (which is plausible though very weird).
- dylan604 6y agoMaybe you're thinking of the Facebook dating app?
- anorphirith 6y agoI've also deactivated FB and Instagram about 2 weeks ago. I kept telling myself I was in control, but the truth is that I wasn't, somehow my brain was craving that infinite scrolling of pure trash. I feel like I've regained control over my life and I am much more productive now. As if they had managed to get me hooked and sell days of my life away for a few cents here and there. I blame myself
- zimmertr 6y agoI was totally indifferent when I deleted Facebook. Maybe for a week after I would catch myself subconsciously opening a new tab and typing `fb.com` when I was bored before realizing what I was doing. I held out on deleting Instagram for literal years until about 2 months ago. I finally got fed up when they overhauled the UI to focus on selling cheap and crappy goods. I always thought it provided a lot of benefit to my life because it was fun to share pictures. Turns out I didn't even care when I deleted it lol. I think about deleting Twitter too, but it's just so darn useful for breaking news. And I could never get rid of Reddit. It is certainly an echo chamber but unless something bad happens it's basically the best website to find other hobbyists and even ask technical questions.
- dec0dedab0de 6y agoThe best thing I ever did on Facebook was unfollow everyone, it allows me to keep in touch at my leisure, without that dopamine hit from refreshing the feed and seeing nonsense.
- Yuioup 6y agoI see that the OP is using spacehey (which I've never heard of and seems to be slow for some reason), but how can anyone be sure that it won't be overrun by bots and unsavory characters?
- joshmanders 6y agoHi, I use SpaceHey because my friend An made it as a throwback to 2005-2008 MySpace and it is taking off like no other. It is slow right now because he's getting an influx of something like 5k users a day from the viralness of it. How will it not be overrun by bots and unsavory characters? We don't know. It's not a corporation backed platform. It's literally an 18 year old developer who pined for a simpler time that he unfortunately only got to experience vicariously through those who weren't a toddler as he was. But I've made it my non-business related social media platform and support him and it.
- fumar 6y agoHow will SpaceHey support itself?
- joshmanders 6y agoThere's a shop you can buy things to support it. I also plan to host the social network on my cloud hosting platform and if I have to help foot the bill, I will.
- fumar 6y agoThanks – just supported SpaceHey.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- poisonborz 6y agoJust checked, Facebook is still there :(
- piyush_soni 6y agoI deleted the facebook app from my phone years ago (use the mobile/desktop website instead), but don't want to delete my facebook account altogether. I still actively use it to share ideas, opinions with my friends, talking to them, getting updates of their lives, talking on interesting groups and so on.
- lrossi 6y agoFor those who don’t have a Facebook account: Replace “delete” with “abstain”, and “Facebook” with “alcohol” or “smoking”. These articles will then make sense.
- pikseladam 6y agoI just read Aaron Parecki's "How to leave Facebook" post yesterday and I think his way is much better. If you want to quit facebook don't forget to check it here first: https://aaronparecki.com/2020/06/14/14/how-to-leave-facebook https://aaronparecki.com/2020/06/14/14/how-to-leave-facebook
- WhompingWindows 6y agoHow does everyone else who deleted FB deal with the "old friends" problem? I don't have email or phone numbers for dozens of old friends from HS and University, it'd be fun to ping them with this or that once in a while.
- Gualdrapo 6y agoMy form of dealing with that is by not having friends.
- codemac 6y agoI struggle with the same thing. If we were close enough in the past I'm much less shy now of asking for a phone number/email. If we're just passive where I'd love to see an update about life stages and progression... fb it is. Really wish the world was but a series of email mailing lists.
- aorth 6y agoI deleted Facebook permanently in 2005. Never looked back!
- Simulacra 6y agoFacebook was very useful in connect with likeminded people, particularly on my hobbies, but Facebook scares me now. I'm 49. Posting the wrong meme could destroy my career and upend my life, and it's just not worth the risk. I've chosen to delete my Facebook account to limit my potential exposure to cancel culture. The privacy aspect never bothered me much because that ship left the harbor long ago, there's no going back to "privacy" online. Cancel culture, on the other hand, can come out of anywhere, any time, for any reason, and that scares me. For that reason alone, Facebook IMO is a very dangerous, unsafe place to be.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- superkuh 6y agoCareful, if you've bought any Facebook VR equipment recently it will stop working if you do this.
- virtualritz 6y agoThe only reason I'm on FB is my past time: dancing tango. It is the platform that social group has settled on, somehow, worldwide, for advertising & organizing events and, most importantly, communicating last minute changes to those/after parties, etc. If you are a tango dancer and not on FB you must communicate with people who are, constantly, to not miss stuff. It's not practical. That being said: I never look at my stream. I mostly use messenger and post in groups, when looking for flat-/car sharing for tango events.
- hnarn 6y agoI deleted my Facebook account permanently about two years ago. I created a new one this Christmas for one very simple reason: I wanted to be able to use Messenger, because it's the only common denominator for my entire extended family. Thankfully, it's completely possible to use only Messenger, but you need to jump through some hoops. Facebook will automatically enable your "normal" account, so you need to disable it (not delete it) to "keep" the Messenger functionality while closing your profile. As for FB as a social network, I don't know. I'll echo the sentiment in the currently top voted comment here: nobody I know uses it that way anymore, except the oldest ones in my family. Looking at it cynically, I guess it makes sense that the generation that are the least resilient to online disinformation are also the last ones to jump ship.
- subsubzero 6y agoI deleted facebook in 2015 and have not regretted it one bit since. I also deleted Instagram in 2018 and have not regretted that either. I feel like I am not missing out on anything of note and really glad I dodged all the election misinformation that FB and co. were pushing during the past election year. Not having toxic ideas being force-fed to you via social media can do wonders for your mental and physical well being.
- Bakary 6y agoMy own purely anecdotal findings: 1. I quit fb many years ago. In my case, using it made me anxious so getting back on it would have been the challenge instead. The main drawback is that you lose out on some of the organic meetings that strengthen relationships. It's not that people forget about you, but that by simple friction you will not participate in certain interactions. This will be generational as the youngest users will be on another service and older users will have networks that aren't as influenced by fb. Note that fb is still extremely popular even among the <30 crowd in Europe. 2. I eventually caved in and installed fb messenger without linking it to my account, which I use for certain group chats. I don't regret this usage at all, as it's only intentional communications and there is none of the browsing aspect that makes fb notorious. The other advantage is that I no longer have to explain to new people why I'm not on fb, I just add them to messenger. Many years ago, people would actually be insulted if I told them that as they would interpret it as me not wanting to connect with them further. This was particularly true in places outside of Europe and the US where fb pretty much was the internet for people. 3. I had a negative impression of Instagram from the get go. I use it to look at the work of artists and photographers, but exclusively on the laptop. In this specific use case, it's pretty great. The purely social or cultural aspect of it (by that I mean the culture and behavior that is a consequence of the app itself) is absolute cancer in my opinion. Almost like a mental illness and conformity factory unless you already have high social status or some instagrammable quality, in which case you will get much out of it I suppose. 4. Of course, it's one of the oldest traditions in the world for older generations to completely misunderstand the young. I do not envy people growing up today however. The fear of being filmed doing dumb stuff or the constant pressure is no joke.
- xeromal 6y agoI deleted fb years ago but came back partially in order to keep up with my family. It's where everyone talks for better or worse and I'd rather keep in touch with my siblings and cousins than make a point. It bums me out but my relationships have improved a ton since I'm in all the group chats. To manage the best I can, I purely use messenger.com and stay out of facebook.com. I keep in touch but I don't get caught up in the rest of the BS.
- w1nk 6y agoIt's more than just making a point though. It's having a principled belief in something and standing by it. That's fine if you don't feel that way, but there are lots of us that feel very negatively towards facebook and its impact on society. It's not about making a point, it's about not actively being part of the thing I see as a problem.
- UI_at_80x24 6y agoAm I the only one who only used/uses IRC? Back in '92 I started using IRC as my primary "group chat/social platform", and ICQ for IM's among closer friends. I stayed on IRC for a very long time, and grew-older with the same circle. It was nice. It was personal. I know people in that group that got married. Time passed, people moved on; had families, etc. I've tried a few other platforms like facebook, but they all seemed so fake, shallow, and "designed for AOL'ers" that was a recipe for crap. So I never stuck around. G+ arrived and had the right feel, but it never grew legs. Facebook has two things going for it. (1) it's an echo chamber (2) the "OMG I can communicate with somebody over the internet" dopamine spike Well I got #2 too, but I was 12 years old on a C64 connecting to BBS's. So I out-grew it. Why can't all these people outgrow this?
- dano 6y agoI continue to use IRC with friends I've known for 20+ years. Some of my IRC groups have migrated to Discord or Slack, but IRC is still on in the background. You've touched on a fundamental point that G+ was trying to get across with "circles." I'm a member of probably 20 different groups across various messaging platforms. These are tight little communities with a lot of trust. It isn't that we all agree politically or anything, but we trust each other to be kind, consistent, and not too spammy. Anyway, I think small groups in WhatsApp, Discord, Slack, IRC, etc.. are the present and future of good social interactions.
- WhompingWindows 6y agoI use a tad bit of IRC, but I prefer Signal messenger and Discord for gaming specifically. Signal is encrypted, allows videos, audio messages, emoji reactions, has search functionality, it's just a great app IMO.
- jart 6y agoI actually like Facebook. It used to be a fantastic place to hang out online and be open from the comfort of my home, without having to drive somewhere, or be in the public sphere. I'm also somewhat of an oddity because my friend list never went above dunbar's number. Then when when the tide turned against Facebook with events like Cambridge Analytica, it turned into a ghost town. Everyone I know just stopped using it, and stopped sharing, because no one trusted it anymore. So if you still think of quitting Facebook as a choice, chances are you're friends with too many people. How could people here honestly suspect their friends of being bots, unless they needed the self-esteem boost of having 5,000 "friends"? Fact is, the platform was ruined by too many people using it for the wrong reasons and that's what the app makers and the bad policies exploited. The Facebook that friend judicious people like me had had is gone and I don't think there's going to be anything to replace it.
- devchix 6y agoI've never had a FB account, never thought I missed anything. But, there's a Buy-Nothing group I want to join, and they are on FB. I admire the concept of Buy-Nothing, but I abhor FB and am not going to make an account to join Buy-Nothing. Even if I were to start a new Buy-Nothing group, FB provides the most reach because it's pervasive and probably easiest to use, and one can be tagged with one's location. Mailing lists don't thread well, GoogleGroup is a dumpster fire. What other tools can I use to build a like-minded community for good?
- OceanKing 6y agoReddit.
- throwawaymanbot 6y agoDeleted it years ago... disgusting.
- tyc85 6y agoSecond that, and I'd like to add google too with the following alternatives: 1. search: duckduckgo 2. email: proton I know google is more pervasive in services, these two can be a good start.
- joshmanders 6y agoYup, Email is the only thing I haven't migrated off Google yet, that one is tougher so far. But also instead of Chrome use Brave or Edge, both built on Chromium and are essentially Chrome, but without Google's spyware bloat.
- deltron3030 6y agoVivaldi (also Chromium) is another option. I've used Brave for a while but I got annoyed by them modifying my settings through user experiments without any form of opt in.
- atarian 6y ago14 years ago everyone wanted to move off MySpace to Facebook. We're coming around full circle.
- viewconstrued 6y agoDeleted Facebook in 2010 when I graduated college. Deleted Instagram in 2017 but had it for a year recently while I was nomadic. I only use Facetime, Messages and the Phone app now. I’m only missing superficial connection as elegantly detailed in the Digital Minimalism book.
- MrDresden 6y agoI'm a year and a half in on the removal of Facebook from my life. Deleted the account and didn't look back. Has not had any impact on my social or professional life. I'd recommend doing the same. I am currenlty well on my way in the process of uncondition myself from using Instagram, and I haven't touched WA in months.
- arconis987 6y agoCount me as another data point. I deleted my Facebook and Twitter accounts, and it has not affected my social or professional life in any noticeable way. I was worried I would lose access to my Oculus purchases, but I did not. The straw that broke the camel’s back was reading my ads profile summary in Facebook settings. It claimed I was in “Established Adult Family Life with Children” or something similar. This was revolting. I was disturbed that Facebook seemed to know I was expecting a baby. I realized that Facebook was extracting far more value than it was giving, so I deleted my account.
- jackyrs 6y agoI actually had the opposite experience: my profile was so inaccurate. It said I had kids when I don't, for example.
- pmarreck 6y agoI clicked on "Interest Categories" deep in ad settings and FB is reporting an error. Is there another way to get at its assessment of me?
- MrDresden 6y agoI was genuinly sad when Facebook bought Oculus as I knew they would never be able to resist the temptation to add all kinds of data harvesting to it. And so I have not yet bought my self a VR set. Thankfully Valve stepped up last year.
- mattowen_uk 6y agoDown for me, Archive.today has a copy: https://archive.vn/029SN https://archive.vn/029SN
- meatpuppeting 6y agoOne of the biggest (but dumbest) things is I signed up for Spotify with Facebook...and need it to log in. I'm too lazy to like transfer all my playlists and liked songs to a new account.
- kgog 6y agoI don't remember how but I was able to remove FB from Spotify a few years ago. Maybe had to set a password and/or contact support.
- ajcp 6y agoYou wouldn't have to transfer to a new account, you'd just have to create the account and link it, then remove the Facebook connection.[1] [1] https://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-Answers/I-want-to-disconnect-Facebook-from-my-Spotify/ta-p/1308147 https://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-Answers/I-want-to-d...
- billpg 6y agoI've written a bot that picks up birthday notifications and automatically writes a "Happy Birthday" post. Saves me time and I never miss anyone. * Not really.
- lovetocode 6y agoYou know what is scummier than Facebook? Posting a blogpost of your new social network startup guised as a public service announcement.
- ricardobayes 6y agoFacebook is a once-promising neighborhood of a bustling city that became a bad neighborhood. Your two options are becoming bad yourself or packing up.
- ilikedthatone 6y agowhat is facebook? We show our faces?
- misiti3780 6y agoI delete facebook years ago, and just delete instagram for good on 12/31. Replacing every single minute I wasted on instgram with reading history. Looking forward to 2021.
- oarabbus_ 6y agoI'm 30 and my social circle as well as myself regularly use FB, Instagram, and FB Messenger. FB main platform I'll use for events and, most importantly, Groups. I have been overall quite impressed with the communities in the FB Groups (of course some are better than others). For example I've been a huge fan of the Streets of Rage series; SOR4 came out last year, 25 years after the previous release. The Streets of Rage 4 facebook group has been an absolute godsend. Very active community, tons of expert players posting videos, very easy to find people to play with, funny memes, the works. The SOR4 discord is hit and miss and reddit is too much of a message board and isn't so active. FB Group is light years ahead of any other community for this game that I've found. I've also joined groups for The Office, Futurama, etc (all of have dozens of different groups, each tailored slightly differently). I laugh at anyone who says all they see on their feed is people posting bullshit, vitriol, and misinformation. That is a YOU problem, not a FB problem. My feed is filled with relevant updates from friends, as well as a constant stream of The Office/Futurama/Streets of Rage 4. Exactly how I want it.
- dionidium 6y agoIt's odd to me that people make such a big deal about Facebook, relative to other platforms. When I log on to Facebook I see some old friends having pretty banal conversations. It's not very compelling and it's definitely not threatening. Twitter, on the other hand, is both compelling and threatening. It draws me in and sucks up far too much of my time. And when I've waded into controversial waters I've been met with hordes of strangers calling me names, making fun of my appearance, and even in one case emailing my employer in an effort to materially harm me for disagreeing on the internet. Nothing like that has ever happened to me on Facebook. Between Facebook and Twitter I find the latter both far more threatening and, because it's also actually compelling, far more difficult to leave. Facebook is a zero by comparison.
- yabones 6y agoWhat I want is a social network you have to pay for. Make it $2.50/month, and make everything order by 'created date' (ie no magic sorting algorithm). Then, every quarter after the hosting bills are paid put whatever's left into some sort of shares that each member owns (sort of like a co-op). E2EE, Federation, self-hosting, open source, etc. are all great, but they don't really address the real reason social network sites are so toxic - We have to entirely remove the advertisers from the equation. People would be far less likely to post or share dumb stuff if being banned means there's a risk of losing your 'equity' in the platform.
- mgh2 6y ago> People would be far less likely to post or share dumb stuff if being banned means there's a risk of losing your 'equity' in the platform. Isn’t this like HN already? Also who will define what is “dumb” if even the community can be eventually polluted and biased? Would a moderator or owner decide this? Careful, money and greed can pollute anything. I tend to find that content that is not profit motivated are often the most truthful- ex: whistleblowers
- z3ncyberpunk 6y agoAdvertising needs to be removed from the world entirely. There is no advertising in the sense that you would make a post in your local newspaper about goods you're selling, all advertisements since the days of mad men are nothing short of propaganda.
- savanaly 6y agoWhy lump getting rid of the algorithm in with the other stuff? I don't use facebook but I use Youtube which also has a much ballyhooed algorithm. I've tried skipping their homepage (and thus skipping the algorithm) and just going to the list of videos posted by my subscribtions in what I presume is chronological order, and let's just say I usually find what I want more quickly the former way than the latter. I can only imagine it would be the same with a social network. It turns out that even for channels I subscribe to the percentage of stuff they post that I want to see is pretty damn low, even lower than the "hit rate" of the algorithm which also isn't great. Now imagine a social network where you connect with people for reasons other than that you think you'd like what they post (you met them IRL and they asked you to add them, you want to talk, etc). An algorithm of some sort would be absolutely mandatory.
- andred14 6y agoA fantastic idea. It is fine for internet companies to censor hate, violence, nudity etc. but not the opinions of people that are politely presented simply because they disagree
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- nrvn 6y agoA bit offtopic but You know what? 1. I am not using whatsapp and recently I stumbled upon an iOS app that asked for a phone number to register and then tried to send OTP through whatsapp. SMS was a fallback option there which showed afterwards and was not active for 5 minutes because of the “timeout” between otp requests ))) 2.A bottle of water advertised some lottery and had a QR code which was a FB link leading to a page that showed me a vague message about FB messenger which I don’t have. It turns out that some people/companies nowadays assume FB and affiliated/owned companies to be a kinda standard for communication. Boys and girls, write down and remember a simple rule: none of the commercial organizations will provide means of communication (apps, public APIs and SDKs) as standards unless those aforementioned means fit their business model. Real standards belong either to public domain or to established non-commercial foundations with clear and transparent governance, leadership and policies. Back on topic. I remember FB as a site that united students and alumni of major universities. This was probably the only period of fun in facebook history. I remember VK.com being a Russian facebook clone with similar initial posture and user base which was also fun until its users started to go to jail for political reasons. I would argue that this fate is waiting any “social” “network” after some point in their evolution. A Cozy platform for chitchats and pic sharing gains more and more users, attention and money and transforms to a monster that starts eating its children and encourages all the deadly sins. If you know an example of a social media that managed to escape this fate I will be happy to stand corrected.
- h0l0cube 6y ago> If you know an example of a social media that managed to escape this fate I will be happy to stand corrected. Mastodon has a growing active community, is completely open source, federated, and community driven.
- hakfoo 6y agoI think the universe of topic-driven forums is the best I've seen so far. What eventually wrecks any of the "meet friends/family/strangers and chat loosely" MySpace/Facebook/Google+/etc. networks toxic is that they're "unbounded" to serve their business model. They want to show 50% quarter-over-quarter active-user growth, and when that caps out, they need to squeeze the user bases for ever more interaction and engagement. Quality is not on the radar. So they're incentivized first to load the site with bots, desperate virality and recruitment efforts, and low-quality content, and later more and more obnoxious algorithms and dark-pattern design. A topic-driven forum tends to have different motivations. The definition of success is to be a compelling community and content for a specific, and typically finite, audience. You're not going to growth-hack Hacker News or Deskthority in quite the same toxic way as Facebook does. A small, but tighter-knit community often can be self-funded via subscriptions or donations, and if you go ad supported, there's a potential for a high-quality non-programmatic-nightmare ad experience, based on direct relations with advertisers directly relevant to the site theme and audience. There's also granularity and control created by it not being a single all-purpose systen. Each new community is an opt-in choice rather than an algorithmic imposition, and you can punt the toxic ones without having to delete them all.
- barry27 6y ago"Lets make Facebook as scared of SpaceHey as MySpace was at the rise of Facebook." Was MySpace scared? I always thought they'd trundled blindly into oblivion.
- zigzaggy 6y agoI've been off of Facebook for 6+ years now, and my life has barely been affected. Occasionally one of the kids will be part of a school group only communicates on FB (WHY THO?) and I'll have to request things be mailed to me. The juice just isn't worth the squeeze to me. (Turns out I was the one being squeezed anyway.)