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You could just try treating it like an inbox (which is basically what I do). I feel like people always talk as if the trade-off is between wasting hours of tim

You could just try treating it like an inbox (which is basically what I do). I feel like people always talk as if the trade-off is between wasting hours of time on the newsfeed or being harder to reach, but this is a false dilemma. I log onto FB in an incognito window once every two or three days to check my messages (I've turned off email notifications). I spent all of 1 minute there, and I haven't looked at the newsfeed in at least a year or two. If I were to close my account and lose its function as an inbox, there's a lot of messages I simply wouldn't get. For example, it's happened more than once that extended family visiting my city from overseas want to grab lunch in < a week; this has happened more than once and I would hate to miss a message like that. Sometimes these people won't go to the effort to hunt down the chain of phone numbers across a few continents to get to my phone number, and that's totally understandable when Facebook is a convenient alternative in terms of messaging.

mreiland 12y ago
I usually check once/day, and I have I think 10 people on my friends list. 1 of them someone I'm dating, and the rest are either friends, or their wives. It takes me minutes to catch up on what everyone has posted, and about the only thing I'll ever post are funny images of the variety that you would normally send around in an email for everyone to get a kick out of. I don't get using FB for more than that, honestly. I just can't take it seriously as anything other than a play area where I'm able to communicate in a non-intrusive way with a small group of people. I just don't understand having 100+ 'friends'. Who can keep up with all of that?
mercer 12y ago
I treat Facebook in much the same way. However, I don't completely agree with your statement that: > I feel like people always talk as if the trade-off is between wasting hours of time on the newsfeed or being harder to reach, but this is a false dilemma. I've often argued the same when friends of mine closed their facebook account and became harder to reach. Then I realized that this choice of 'moderation' can be very difficult for many people, in the same way that for some people it can be really difficult to stop drinking once they start, and in the same way that for me it's really difficult to start watching a new show without binging on it. That said, ideally I'd propose your solution. On mobile this is easier if you just install the messenger app without the facebook app (assuming that's possible).
- wutbrodo 12y ago
  Oh yea I totally agree. Some people definitely can't control themselves and in their case closing down the account is definitely best. I had a friend who broke his civ4 cd so he'd stop playing so much... He just ended up pirating it a month later haha. I should have specified in my comment "if possible". I've considered the messaging app but given the immaturity of app permissions and Facebook's abysmal record, I figured I'd stick with the incognito login thing.

mreiland 12y ago

I usually check once/day, and I have I think 10 people on my friends list. 1 of them someone I'm dating, and the rest are either friends, or their wives. It takes me minutes to catch up on what everyone has posted, and about the only thing I'll ever post are funny images of the variety that you would normally send around in an email for everyone to get a kick out of. I don't get using FB for more than that, honestly. I just can't take it seriously as anything other than a play area where I'm able to communicate in a non-intrusive way with a small group of people. I just don't understand having 100+ 'friends'. Who can keep up with all of that?

mercer 12y ago

I treat Facebook in much the same way. However, I don't completely agree with your statement that: > I feel like people always talk as if the trade-off is between wasting hours of time on the newsfeed or being harder to reach, but this is a false dilemma. I've often argued the same when friends of mine closed their facebook account and became harder to reach. Then I realized that this choice of 'moderation' can be very difficult for many people, in the same way that for some people it can be really difficult to stop drinking once they start, and in the same way that for me it's really difficult to start watching a new show without binging on it. That said, ideally I'd propose your solution. On mobile this is easier if you just install the messenger app without the facebook app (assuming that's possible).

wutbrodo 12y ago
Oh yea I totally agree. Some people definitely can't control themselves and in their case closing down the account is definitely best. I had a friend who broke his civ4 cd so he'd stop playing so much... He just ended up pirating it a month later haha. I should have specified in my comment "if possible". I've considered the messaging app but given the immaturity of app permissions and Facebook's abysmal record, I figured I'd stick with the incognito login thing.