Delete Facebook

[Cool Friend]

Let's get down to brass tacks, folks: Facebook is a nightmare. I deleted mine in 2013 and haven't regretted it for a single moment since then. If you needed yet another reason to get this toxic bullshit out of your life, here's another one:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-files-xcheck-zuckerberg-elite-rules-11631541353?mod=hp_lead_pos7

The article is paywalled, but here are the key takeaways. Specific examples of this program in action are in the article.

Today, [Facebook] shields millions of VIP users from the company’s normal enforcement process, the documents show. Some users are “whitelisted”—rendered immune from enforcement actions—while others are allowed to post rule-violating material pending Facebook employee reviews that often never come. At times, the documents show, XCheck  has protected public figures whose posts contain harassment or incitement to violence, violations that would typically lead to sanctions for regular users.

--

The documents that describe XCheck are part of an extensive array of internal Facebook communications reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. They show that Facebook knows, in acute detail, that its platforms are riddled with flaws that cause harm, often in ways only the company fully understands. Moreover, the documents show, Facebook often lacks the will or the ability to address them.

--

Users aren’t generally told that they have been tagged for special treatment. An internal guide to XCheck eligibility cites qualifications including being “newsworthy,” “influential or popular” or “PR risky.”

--


In practice, most of the content flagged by the XCheck system faced no subsequent review, the documents show. Even when the company does review the material, enforcement delays like the one on Neymar’s posts mean content that should have been prohibited can spread to large audiences. Last year, XCheck allowed posts that violated its rules to be viewed at least 16.4 billion times, before later being removed, according to a summary of the program in late December.

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A plan to fix the program, described in a document the following year, said that blanket exemptions and posts that were never subsequently reviewed had become the core of the program, meaning most content from XCheck users wasn’t subject to enforcement. “We currently review less than 10% of XChecked content,” the document stated.

--

“VIP lists continue to grow,” a product manager on Facebook’s Mistakes Prevention Team wrote. She announced a plan to “stop the bleeding” by blocking Facebook employees’ ability to enroll new users in XCheck. One potential solution remains off the table: holding high-profile users to the same standards as everyone else.

Will you accept my challenge to delete your Facebook account?

[mrteacher]

Deleted mine five months ago and have not regretted it for one moment. It used to take too much of my time.

[Sibley]

No. Because I use FB for too much. It's how I get community information. It's how I communicate with several friends, exclusively. There are a number of very good contractors in my area which seem to only advertise/have web presence on FB. I have taken it off my phone. I don't get my news from it. I am very annoyed by it. I don't dispute that FB is terrible. But it is, unfortunately, still a necessary evil in my life.

That said, I'm not on it everyday.

[HPstache]

Can't do it, I enjoy it too much.

[tygertygertyger]

Ditched it over a year ago. Very happy to be missing out on nearly all features... though I do miss my buy nothing group, and my sewing groups. Oh well, that's the trade-off! I sure don't miss my relatives (and partner's relatives) shouting as loud as they can about their views. (Even if I agree with them!)

[scantee]

I quit in 2016. Zero regrets.

When I first quit I simply deactivated my account. After about a year away I went back on thinking it may have improved. Woo boy, no. Once you’re away from it for awhile it becomes clear how unthinkably bad it is.

Facebook is a place for old people. Young people will ensure its decline and death. I asked my 13 year old recently if he wanted to open a FB account and he laughed and said ‘lol, no, why would I do that?’

[Car Jack]

Deleted it years and years ago.

Why hasn't Zuckerberg been the subject of ire from the me too movement?  It's well known that FB started as a system to rate the attractiveness of college women.  I could see an early version as a bunch of guys sitting in lawn chairs, holding up paper plates with numbers as women walked by.  This is what Facebook is.

[HPstache]

Deleted it years and years ago.

Why hasn't Zuckerberg been the subject of ire from the me too movement?  It's well known that FB started as a system to rate the attractiveness of college women.  I could see an early version as a bunch of guys sitting in lawn chairs, holding up paper plates with numbers as women walked by.  This is what Facebook is.

never heard that before.  Are you mistaking it for the hot or not website from the late 90s, early 00's?

[brandon1827]

Deleted it when everything became so damned political and they started letting people post misinformation with zero consequences. There's just so much negativity on there virtually all the time. I'm much happier without it and don't miss it one little bit.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

I use it exclusively for Buy Nothing. If they would move that forum to another space, I would be thrilled.

[Cool Friend]

Deleted it years and years ago.

Why hasn't Zuckerberg been the subject of ire from the me too movement?  It's well known that FB started as a system to rate the attractiveness of college women.  I could see an early version as a bunch of guys sitting in lawn chairs, holding up paper plates with numbers as women walked by.  This is what Facebook is.

never heard that before.  Are you mistaking it for the hot or not website from the late 90s, early 00's?

https://mashable.com/article/mark-zuckerberg-lying-about-facebook

Re: Buy Nothing, someone in another thread here let me know that they're developing a standalone Buy Nothing app. There's a waitlist you can sign up for: https://www.buynothingapp.com

[Morning Glory]

No. Because I use FB for too much. It's how I get community information. It's how I communicate with several friends, exclusively. There are a number of very good contractors in my area which seem to only advertise/have web presence on FB. I have taken it off my phone. I don't get my news from it. I am very annoyed by it. I don't dispute that FB is terrible. But it is, unfortunately, still a necessary evil in my life.

That said, I'm not on it everyday.

I'm in the same situation. I mainly use the messenger and marketplace, and post an occasional picture of my kids. I held off on getting Facebook until after I had my first baby, and I kind of regret it. I got back in touch with a few old friends last year and I really wish I'd done it sooner. The news feed is terrible but I figured out how to "take a break" from people who post political stuff.  I turned off all the notifications too, so I'm not constantly bombarded.

[chemistk]

Not for the foreseeable future. As others have mentioned, it's the only way I keep up with some people - I'd rather have a lazy conversation through messenger (via browser) that takes a few days or weeks than be accessible via text message. That, and it's the only way to interact with a few local businesses. Plus there's pictures and posts that still give me a chuckle from years ago.

Years ago, knowing that FB was a great place for garbage, I culled my friends list down to people I actually care to interact with and family (ha!). I further hid ~80% of my friends from my feed - anyone who shares articles, posts daily, or talks politics gets hidden. I have no incentive to check it more than once a day, because often I see updates to my feed maybe once a day. Any suggested or sponsored contend gets hidden, as well as shares and reposts. I have thousands upon thousands of people and pages 'blocked' from my feed.

By no means do I think of myself as "holier than thou" - all the above I do to prevent myself from getting sucked into social media. I am smack dab in the middle of the millennials age wise and don't have Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter, or any other social media (unless you count Linkedin, I guess?). I miss out on a lot but it keeps me from getting too distracted. 

[Sibley]

No. Because I use FB for too much. It's how I get community information. It's how I communicate with several friends, exclusively. There are a number of very good contractors in my area which seem to only advertise/have web presence on FB. I have taken it off my phone. I don't get my news from it. I am very annoyed by it. I don't dispute that FB is terrible. But it is, unfortunately, still a necessary evil in my life.

That said, I'm not on it everyday.

I'm in the same situation. I mainly use the messenger and marketplace, and post an occasional picture of my kids. I held off on getting Facebook until after I had my first baby, and I kind of regret it. I got back in touch with a few old friends last year and I really wish I'd done it sooner. The news feed is terrible but I figured out how to "take a break" from people who post political stuff.  I turned off all the notifications too, so I'm not constantly bombarded.

Yep. I've even tried NextDoor to see if it was an alternative, and it's just not active enough. It's really the community related stuff I need FB for.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@Cool Friend - thanks for the info. Just signed up for the waitlist for the app. Great news!

[dang1]

it’s one of the ways of keeping up with some of the my family members in some deep boondocks
https://smart.com.ph/Pages/freeigfbforall

also, the local human rights watch group in that area is on it
https://www.facebook.com/KarapatanNegrosIsland

also, helps me keep track of folks I graduated with from high school, among others, who have have gone bat shit loony, lol

[jinga nation]

Here's a non-paywalled article on a tech news site that has summarized the WSJ investigation:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/09/leaked-documents-reveal-the-special-rules-facebook-uses-for-5-8m-vips/

As recently as March, users were being added to the XCheck lists, expanding a program that had already grown too unwieldy for Facebook to adequately manage. The company has reportedly set a goal to enforce “high severity” rule violations by the first half of this year. In the meantime, Facebook plans to assume “good intent” on the part of high-profile users in the program and take an approach of “innocent until proven guilty,” a product manager on Facebook’s Mistakes Prevention Team wrote.

“We do not have systems built out to do that extra diligence for all integrity actions that can occur for a VIP,” she wrote.

I deleted mine 8 years ago, when I saw a tool that could scrape anyone's info, despite the "privacy rules" FB claimed were in effect. And constantly changing privacy policies, having embedded trackers to track my browsing on non-FB sites, etc. Nixed my Twitter account soon after that. I have zero social media accounts, life is so much simpler, my dopamine hits come from exercising and spending time IRL with family and friends.

[Cool Friend]

Thanks, jinga nation!

For those that keep an account to keep in touch with a handful of people, there are other ways! Also IIRC, even if you filter people and sponsored content from your feed, FB is still collecting and selling that information about you. No judgment though, everybody's different. I'm not here to try to convince anyone who doesn't want to! Just food for thought.

[ender]

I strongly suggest unfollowing everything/everyone if you stay.

Your homepage then shows an error (lol). I guess no one at Facebook anticipated someone doing this.

I find it a great compromise since I like using facebook for marketplace, so it lets me do that.

And it has zero of the issues most people talk about with Facebook, since you don't see any content unless you choose to see it. Nothing curated by Facebook at all.

[shuffler]

I deleted mine 8 years ago, when I saw a tool that could scrape anyone's info, despite the "privacy rules" FB claimed were in effect.

Can we do FB privacy stories?

FB outed my cousin to me as an "Adult Baby Diaper Lover", against his explicit privacy settings.

My cousin apparently had friended many ABDL folks, and set those friendships as "private" so that family (like me) couldn't see them.  If I visited his page, I didn't see them listed as his friends.  That much was fine.

However, FB would (and still does) routinely show me their "People You May Know" suggestions, filled with ABDL user profiles, and listing my cousin as a "mutual friend".  Whaaaat?!  Facebook is saying "Hey, all these ABDL people are friends with your cousin, so maybe you should be friends with them too?"

I filed a privacy complaint with FB and had several go-arounds with their gatekeepers.
I was essentially told that:
   *  A friendship is two distinct directional relations.  One is "Cousin --> ABDL Person", and the other is "ABDL Person --> Cousin".
   *  My cousin's making his friendship private meant that the "Cousin  --> ABDL Person" relationship was indeed not divulged to me.
   *  However, my cousin does not have control of the "ABDL Person --> Cousin" relationship.  That relationship belongs to ABDL Person, and ABDL Person didn't set that relationship to Private.
   *  Thus the "ABDL Person --> Cousin" relationship was fair game to be used to populate my "People You Should Know" suggestions, and also fair game to be used to list Cousin as a mutual-friend between me and ABDL Person.

I repeatedly re-opened the ticket, pointing out that the technical design of the behavior was uninteresting in light of the base fact that FB had outed my cousin as an Adult Baby Diaper Lover against his explicit privacy preference.  They didn't care, and essentially blocked me from further interaction with the privacy-reporting system.

No judgement of my cousin here.  I just wish FB had kept it as private as he clearly wished it to be, so that I don't have to remember to not-know this thing when we have real-world interactions.

[Hash Brown]

Deleted it when everything became so damned political and they started letting people post misinformation with zero consequences. There's just so much negativity on there virtually all the time.

It keeps boosting anti-vax stuff.  Like someone I've never heard of will make an anti-vax comment in a thread started by someone I barely know and it's the first thing that comes up on my screen after having not logged on in 3-4 days.   

I've blocked and unfollowed so many people that it struggles to find things to show me. 

[clarkfan1979]

I like to view the new stories of friends and family along with their photos. First day of school, new job and vacation pics. I don't get involved in the political drama.

[Jenny Wren]

I have a profile that has 0 friends and only one group, my Buy Nothing group. I will move off of FB entirely once the BN app successfully launches in my area. I ditched Facebook and most social media other than forums after reading Jaron Lanier's book "10 Reasons You Should Quit Social Media."

I find community info via our city's subreddit and via the carious community newspapers/postings online. For global hobby/interest groups I either visit an active subreddit or belong to a forum (mainly this one and Permies.com). For news I go to news websites.

For family and friends, I reach out via phone, text, email, and/or snail mail. After a brief cooling off period, my relationships actually became stronger once I moved off social media as our main point of contact. This is likely because I began investing time in them instead of taking the easy way. I set aside an hour a week for "correspondence," which helps me keep in touch with some acquaintances and outer tier relatives whom I don't have a phone/frequent texting relationship with.  I use that time to send an email to see how they are doing, or to write a letter to a closer friend. I also do random, no strings attached mail art exchanges with some college friends, which helps prevent us from completely drifting apart.

[tygertygertyger]

I set aside an hour a week for "correspondence," which helps me keep in touch with some acquaintances and outer tier relatives whom I don't have a phone/frequent texting relationship with.  I use that time to send an email to see how they are doing, or to write a letter to a closer friend.

This is great. I have a friend who moves around a lot, and she and I are closer than ever because of email. Yet my friends that live one hour away and I talk only once or twice a year. I like the idea of setting aside more time to do this.

[JAYSLOL]

Not going to happen for me.  I can’t give up Marketplace, it’s the only buy and sell you can find deals on in my area.  Other than that I don’t really use Facebook though

[YttriumNitrate]

I realized that about 95% of the crap posted to my Facebook page was coming from about 5% of my contacts, so I just outright blocked them. After hard pruning of contacts, my Facebook page became a wonderful collection of friends' kids/pets/vacation pictures along with gardening/windsurfing/Christmas lighting discussions.

[Dagnab1t]

Unlike you, my wife would not let me block anyone. She said that would be rude. So instead of blocking specific people we deleted our account completely about a year ago. Only miss it when I want to post something on the marketplace.

[blikeafox]

I got rid of it in 2016 and my quality of life improved tremendously. I keep up with people I care about through other means and don't miss the updates on people I don't. I do have an account with 0 friends because I occasionally need to look stuff up on it for work.

[SunnyDays]

I took the same approach as with drugs:  Be smart, don’t start.  I’ve never regretted it in the least.

[AccidentialMustache]

I took the same approach as with drugs:  Be smart, don’t start.  I’ve never regretted it in the least.

This. DW has one though, so I'm semi-connected in a way, as in information from it filters via her to me. Works for businesses and marketplace/buy nothing stuff. In turn I'm the one who picks up the telephone when that's how a contractor works, because she can't even.

[GuitarStv]

I have facebook.

Very occasionally it's useful to get in touch with someone, and I don't really find it addictive or difficult to manage.  However, I've also averaged less than six logins a year for the past decade or so.  That seems like an appropriate level of usage.

[ChpBstrd]

Most people would love to delete FB, but unfortunately they feel this would mean social isolation because everyone else is on FB. Thus, for anyone to actually leave, they'd have to drag out at least a handful of like-minded friends with them, and these people would have to agree to be willing to re-learn the ancient arts of the phone call and text message.

How could they make this happen and essentially work against network effects?

I can imagine a handful of people in a FB social circle making an incremental effort to have one phone/text/in-person conversation per week, then two, then three, and so on. They could advertise their intentions on FB that they are having these offline interactions to invite additional friends to join. In the end, it will be just like the friendship circles in high school that broke up along the lines of addicts and non-addicts. But then at least some people could escape. 

To be clear, one should not delete their FB account or else there is a risk of someone else pretending to be you. Just abandon it and delete the app. 

[GuitarStv]

Most people would love to delete FB, but unfortunately they feel this would mean social isolation because everyone else is on FB. Thus, for anyone to actually leave, they'd have to drag out at least a handful of like-minded friends with them, and these people would have to agree to be willing to re-learn the ancient arts of the phone call and text message.

How could they make this happen and essentially work against network effects?

I can imagine a handful of people in a FB social circle making an incremental effort to have one phone/text/in-person conversation per week, then two, then three, and so on. They could advertise their intentions on FB that they are having these offline interactions to invite additional friends to join. In the end, it will be just like the friendship circles in high school that broke up along the lines of addicts and non-addicts. But then at least some people could escape. 

To be clear, one should not delete their FB account or else there is a risk of someone else pretending to be you. Just abandon it and delete the app.

Cell phones are a completely optional extravagance.  I've never had one, and thus never sent a text message in my life.  :P

[Jenny Wren]

I can imagine a handful of people in a FB social circle making an incremental effort to have one phone/text/in-person conversation per week, then two, then three, and so on. They could advertise their intentions on FB that they are having these offline interactions to invite additional friends to join. In the end, it will be just like the friendship circles in high school that broke up along the lines of addicts and non-addicts. But then at least some people could escape. 

This is exactly how I did it, except many of the people in my circle are still on FB (ranging from light users like GuitarStv to heavy users that are online all day it seems). It was relatively simple since it was pandemic shutdown times - we scheduled online Jackbox game nights every two weeks with friends, family, and acquaintances. I left FB gradually over a couple of months, making a post here and there about keeping in touch. Since we were actively texting and making voice calls to plan these remote game nights, the transition was able to happen naturally.

Oddly enough, the younger the friend the more into it they have been. I have a round robin type snail mail letter that goes around between me and a core group of friends in their late 20s and 30s. I also have an art postcard exchange with a few friends that I am not as close to but whom I enjoy keeping in touch. This group also texts regularly in both individual and group texts. Those friends in my age group, 40s, and in their 50s take a bit more effort and planning on my part to keep in touch. Group texts work well for casual updates. Periodic letters, emails, and private texts pick up the rest of the slack.

This effort cost me more. FB was free. In the past year I've spent $40 on stamps and envelopes. Worth it.

[ChpBstrd]

I can imagine a handful of people in a FB social circle making an incremental effort to have one phone/text/in-person conversation per week, then two, then three, and so on. They could advertise their intentions on FB that they are having these offline interactions to invite additional friends to join. In the end, it will be just like the friendship circles in high school that broke up along the lines of addicts and non-addicts. But then at least some people could escape. 

This is exactly how I did it, except many of the people in my circle are still on FB (ranging from light users like GuitarStv to heavy users that are online all day it seems). It was relatively simple since it was pandemic shutdown times - we scheduled online Jackbox game nights every two weeks with friends, family, and acquaintances. I left FB gradually over a couple of months, making a post here and there about keeping in touch. Since we were actively texting and making voice calls to plan these remote game nights, the transition was able to happen naturally.

Oddly enough, the younger the friend the more into it they have been. I have a round robin type snail mail letter that goes around between me and a core group of friends in their late 20s and 30s. I also have an art postcard exchange with a few friends that I am not as close to but whom I enjoy keeping in touch. This group also texts regularly in both individual and group texts. Those friends in my age group, 40s, and in their 50s take a bit more effort and planning on my part to keep in touch. Group texts work well for casual updates. Periodic letters, emails, and private texts pick up the rest of the slack.

This effort cost me more. FB was free. In the past year I've spent $40 on stamps and envelopes. Worth it.

That’s awesome!

Particularly it’s awesome to hear about young people questioning the received wisdom that all things internet are good and all things reality-based are lame.

[dividend]

The Rancho Gordo Bean Club group is reason enough for me to stay.
Second is the group I've maintained for 9 years to coordinate our monthly potluck game nights. 

I think the platform is what you make of it.  I've been on it since 2005(?) and my feed is mostly real friends, cool groups, and some weird ads.  I would never base an opinion on something I read or something that someone shared without checking into it first.  My dad (an actual boomer) has started writing long posts about the current political or military situation that spawn very interesting discussions.  I'm from the Oregon Trail generation, so I didn't experience the negative social clique stuff in my teen years (I was too busy flirting in chat rooms on dial-up late at night), only the positive connections I've made and kept.  I get friend requests all the time from sketchy dudes and porno-looking girls, but I just delete them (I don't use it to make new "friends").  I like seeing baby pictures from an old boss, and travel adventures from a friend I met whilst traveling, and my friends enjoy my vacations pics in real time (I've used Facebook groups to plan vacations with friends multiple times).  I really enjoyed reading people's pandemic updates, about how they were coping - gardens and new recipes and virtual cocktail hours.  I guess overall I feel like my life is enriched by Facebook. 

I think the cool kids are all moving to Instagram.  When I meet interesting people I'm now asked for my Insta where I used to be asked for my Facebook.  Yet they're same platform. 

[sonofsven]

I had FB for three months over ten years ago and cancelled it, horrified at the "social" aspect of social media.
Marketplace would interest me as I have been a craigslister from the start, but, no, not doing it. I don't really need any more crap anyway.

[former player]

Deleted in 2017 when it came out that Facebook accepted payment for Trump ads in roubles.

It takes a bit of effort but I can plug into my local community in other ways.  Was late in hearing about a friend's child transitioning, though, so used an inappropriate pronoun until told otherwise.  I think I'm forgiven.

[iluvzbeach]

I have FB but no other social media accounts. I keep my “friends” group pretty small and selective and I unfollowed everyone several years back. If I want to see what someone has been up to, I’ll check out their page. Otherwise, what I use it for is the occasional Marketplace sale or purchase and also to follow businesses in my area, so that I am aware of events that are going on. I live in a region that has lots of live music events and this is how I keep up with who is playing where/when.

I hide ALL sponsored ads and turn off all notifications. I’m vigilant about disabling any feature that is not of interest to me and I think I’ve been pretty successful at making FB work in the way I find it to be most useful.

[iris lily]

Of course not.

Facebook is the best way for all of my hobby groups and volunteer efforts to communicate.

I seldom post anything vaguely political on it, and seldom if ever receive those posts.

I have a grand total of 10 “friends”, 3 of whom are dogs. ALL OF THEM are on the FB version of mute so that their feeds do not come into my newsfeed because several do like their political rantings. I go out to read their posts when I choose to.

Really, FB’s evil influence can be controlled if you as a FB member are willing to take a stance. Just tune it toward photos of your family, of if you have annoying family members, mute them and go to their pages only when you are feeling strong.Let your eyes slide over their ridiculous posts to see the ones worthwhile.

In other words, be a grown up.

[iris lily]

This is another post because I have several things to say about FB and didnt want to cover up my message above.

FB is for old people anyway. Unless you mean “FB” to cover all main social media platforms and I do not see this thread as being that, FB is just one player of many.

While I seldom hang out on FB, I DO consult it every day for news of my hobby groups. Also, I am the administrator for two FB group pages. They are small pages with tiny readership, and that is ok. FB is very easy technology to bring groups of people together for brief texting and EASY photo loading. It has been a boon for geoups like that, no longer having to maintain websites. Even tho website construction is much easier today than years ago, it is too cumbersome when all we want to do is push out occasional messages about events,and show pretty pictures of dogs and flowers.

I type scads of words daily about various issues including hot political ones, but I do not use FB for that.

I am very concerned about FB’s censorship, but that is a separate issue from the purposes of using FB.

[Dicey]

I took the same approach as with drugs:  Be smart, don’t start.  I’ve never regretted it in the least.

Me, too. I took the same approach to weight gain. Easier not to gain than to try to lose. I've been moderately successful at this, until Covid came along. Now I'm learning how wise I once was...

Thanks,  @Cool Friend, I signed up. I've followed the Non-Consumer Advocate since before Pete became MMM, so I've had Buy Nothing envy for years. Not enough to join FB though.

[Dicey]

This is another post because I have several things to say about FB and didnt want to cover up my message above.

FB is for old people anyway. Unless you mean “FB” to cover all main social media platforms and I do not see this thread as being that, FB is just one player of many.

While I seldom hang out on FB, I DO consult it every day for news of my hobby groups. Also, I am the administrator for two FB group pages. They are small pages with tiny readership, and that is ok. FB is very easy technology to bring groups of people together for brief texting and EASY photo loading. It has been a boon for geoups like that, no longer having to maintain websites. Even tho website construction is much easier today than years ago, it is too cumbersome when all we want to do is push out occasional messages about events,and show pretty pictures of dogs and flowers.

I type scads of words daily about various issues including hot political ones, but I do not use FB for that.

I am very concerned about FB’s censorship, but that is a separate issue from the purposes of using FB.

This cross posted. Sure, sure, but FB is still selling you and your group members information. Don't fool yourself that anyone gets the upper hand on FB.

[dougules]

This is another post because I have several things to say about FB and didnt want to cover up my message above.

FB is for old people anyway. Unless you mean “FB” to cover all main social media platforms and I do not see this thread as being that, FB is just one player of many.

While I seldom hang out on FB, I DO consult it every day for news of my hobby groups. Also, I am the administrator for two FB group pages. They are small pages with tiny readership, and that is ok. FB is very easy technology to bring groups of people together for brief texting and EASY photo loading. It has been a boon for geoups like that, no longer having to maintain websites. Even tho website construction is much easier today than years ago, it is too cumbersome when all we want to do is push out occasional messages about events,and show pretty pictures of dogs and flowers.

I type scads of words daily about various issues including hot political ones, but I do not use FB for that.

I am very concerned about FB’s censorship, but that is a separate issue from the purposes of using FB.

This cross posted. Sure, sure, but FB is still selling you and your group members information. Don't fool yourself that anyone gets the upper hand on FB.

You don't even have to be on FB for them to be collecting info on you.  I use NoScript on Firefox, and when I go to enable scripts, it seems like more sites than not are wanting to run scripts from FB.  Needless to say it stays disabled unless I need something specific. 

[Weisass]

I want to quit, badly. The only thing stopping me is my work has a Facebook account. Someone convince me that they will be fine without me occasionally posting there, and I will join you.

[iris lily]

This is another post because I have several things to say about FB and didnt want to cover up my message above.

FB is for old people anyway. Unless you mean “FB” to cover all main social media platforms and I do not see this thread as being that, FB is just one player of many.

While I seldom hang out on FB, I DO consult it every day for news of my hobby groups. Also, I am the administrator for two FB group pages. They are small pages with tiny readership, and that is ok. FB is very easy technology to bring groups of people together for brief texting and EASY photo loading. It has been a boon for geoups like that, no longer having to maintain websites. Even tho website construction is much easier today than years ago, it is too cumbersome when all we want to do is push out occasional messages about events,and show pretty pictures of dogs and flowers.

I type scads of words daily about various issues including hot political ones, but I do not use FB for that.

I am very concerned about FB’s censorship, but that is a separate issue from the purposes of using FB.

This cross posted. Sure, sure, but FB is still selling you and your group members information. Don't fool yourself that anyone gets the upper hand on FB.

You don't even have to be on FB for them to be collecting info on you.  I use NoScript on Firefox, and when I go to enable scripts, it seems like more sites than not are wanting to run scripts from FB.  Needless to say it stays disabled unless I need something specific.

“they” can “collect” info on me, I don’t give a rat’s ass.

So far, the commercial crap they push toward me is stupid. Hilariously, Wayfair sent to FB a product I was supposed to like. The product was peat logs. But the thing is these logs looked like dog sh+t. I mean really, looked like dog logs.

I WILL say they know me subtly and well if they understand how many piles of dog crap I have combed through looking for bloody stools and for foreign objects  ingested by dogs.

[life_travel]

I resisted getting a smart phone or FB as long as I could , I didn't want to be addicted like other people.. I think I finally got a smartphone in 2016 when my old phone died. Oh my god, it was life changing ( getting the smartphone with internet). I can use GPS anywhere , because I have horrible sense of direction , I almost abandoned driving a car for 10 years as I used to get to unfamiliar street , stop and cry.
With a phone I could drive and walk anywhere! I could take pictures or screenshots to remember. I can access banking and I can read articles while bus commuting 1 hr each way for years. And yes, now I am addicted.

Same with FB. Finally I got it and I admit I am addicted but also I feel it enriched my life. My friends on FB are all people I met in real life, my profile is set on private, I hardly get any new friend requests.
We met people while travelling who became our friends and it's a cool way to stay in touch even 10 years later.

But mostly I use FB to be in private groups. I hardly post anything unless I am travelling then I share photos , mostly for my own remembrance. I change profile pic maybe once a year.

I am in many private groups , it is amazing. The ability to connect to people with same interests as you, to make comments, to advise, to read their opinions, to share my opinions.

I never see any political posts?? Maybe in Australia people are less political or maybe people I know just not political, I don't know..

When I have a question to ask or need recommendation, my first point of call is to ask in a particular FB group . Without it I only have 1-2 friends and I would be lost as googling something doesn't give you personal experiences with service/organisation/event , etc .

My family lives in another country and are not on FB and it's so annoying , yes we talk on the phone but it's not the same as if they would post occasionally or share photos.

[ChpBstrd]

"Facebook doesn't really influence me with misinformation, it only influences all those other people."
"But Facebook makes me happy, despite the scientifically proven effect on others."
"Facebook's ads don't really influence my purchasing decisions, just everyone else's."

There's something about these attitudes that resembles the attitudes shared on social media.

[Zamboni]

Deleted it in 2016. No regrets.

I made a separate "throw away" account a few months ago to sell some stuff on FB marketplace when it became clear that has become more useful in my local area than Craigslist. That's going to be the extent of my presence there until something displaces FB marketplace in my local area . . . which will hopefully happen soon bc fb sux.

[Geppetto]

Deleted it in 2016. No regrets.

I made a separate "throw away" account a few months ago to sell some stuff on FB marketplace when it became clear that has become more useful in my local area than Craigslist. That's going to be the extent of my presence there until something displaces FB marketplace in my local area . . . which will hopefully happen soon bc fb sux.

This is my problem too. Local secondhand commerce seems to be 100% migrated to Facebook Marketplace. I haven't had a Facebook account since I no longer needed one for commercial purposes a few years ago. My only regrets have been when I find myself saying "I could really use a lightly used X" and I realize I can't get one anymore through other channels.

So, I do without the "lightly used X" or I buy a "new X" - an occasional frustration. Vastly outweighed by the benefit of having no involvement with the the mass insanity of the platform.

Let's not forget Twitter. Delete that too. It seems clear by now that no one can consume Twitter content with any regularity and remain mentally healthy.