I logged out and never logged back in. My wife informs me if something important is happening in her family, but my family isn't big on Facebook anyway so I'm not missing anything.
Facebook became useless for that for me, anyway. One of the last straws was they'd show me endless irritating political bullshit, then I manually checked profiles of people I actually knew in person and cared about and found I had a missed a TON of updates about their lives I would have been interested in. Their algorithm is not only incompetent but abusive.
It helps to have a real life that you're living. Being preoccupied with what's in front of you keeps you from being occupied with how it could be captured and preserved in a post.
Then you gotta avoid the 2 big excuses:
"I use marketplace"
"This is the only way to keep up with grandma"
Those are false, just always remember that those are lies to enable us to get back to the peepshow. Anything else that was on facebook you already knew how to do and were doing it before you started your account
Life was fine before social media. I have a fb account only for marketplace. I’ve unfollowed everyone and everything that shows up in my feed, except for flatland bmx videos. This way, when I do go on fb to look for oddities, I am greeted by sweet tricks.
I eventually got disgusted enough with the way the site works that I stopped going. Told anyone who messaged me there to contact me elsewhere (even instagram sucks less). It's like quitting smoking: the way to do it is to not smoke a cigarette.
But I'm not sure you can ever fully cut Facebook out of your life. I signed up under a fake name and fake email in 2010 or so, used it for exactly one hour and never touched it again, and somehow I still get updates about people I know delivered to my inbox despite having changed my actual email several times since.
Nah, for keeping in contact with family, friends, work and more meta makes things easy and seems the default.
Have considered getting Facebook back after a decade or so away as it still seems rather useful for interacting with local businesses & certain groups......and Whatsapp seems far more invasive anyway.
It did help that I was annoyed with my family at the time, then I just deleted my account and requested a GDPR delete to make sure there was no coming back.
Make sure it's not in your Firefox address bar's suggested sites or bookmark toolbar
Log out on every platform when you're done looking at it, so there's even more friction to checking it
Make a post there announcing you won't use it any more, possibly why, and share better places people can keep in touch with you. (Then stop using it with any regularity)
Help your immediate family (or friend group) setup a group chat on some other platform, and share updates with each other there
Individually making good choices is nice, but even better if you can help other people leave it behind.
I just stopped using it one day in 2017 and haven't looked back. I keep up with friends and family directly through messages, so I'm not missing out on anything.
The only super annoying thing are businesses that insist on making their "website" their facebook page.
i downloaded my data, erased it and logged out. it’s prolly still up there somewhere, but it hasn’t been touched by me in years.
ig too. i was posting some shit occasionally but realized that i never looked at anyone else’s shit. so unjust stopped posting there too. it was so long ago that i’ve never seen a reel.
Back up any data from your profile you want to keep, then delete every single post, message, photo, video, etc. that you posted there, then leave. I don't trust Fuckerburg to not rifle through the data of accounts that have been deleted or closed.
Many, men's years ago, I was thinking about leaving Facebook. I made the decision, and I posted telling all my friends that I was leaving and that they could hit me up for my direct contact info if they wanted.
Not one person reached out. That solidified that I didn't need to be part of that community. Deleted my account and didn't look back.
Same thing for me but on discord. I thought I had built relationships that crossed the barrier of the medium, but they were superficial. Turned out to be a boon, huge weight off my mind and I'm doing more in-person events now.
The only problem is, where else do you go to be a complete cave dwelling hermit these days? As nice as it is on smaller, indie platforms like this, using them full time is kinda like purposely getting a dumb phone and cutting yourself out from the IM app everyone is using and being clueless about the news and world events.
And out of the mainstream, non anon platforms where there's actually people, the choice is really only between Zuck shit or Musk shit. Twitter is a shithole that I don't feel like going near any time soon, so it's down to Meta, unfortunately.
If the Fediverse was busier, I would be here more full time but I'm at a point where I want to be in the melting pot and in the middle of the conversations of the day. I already did anon for a decade plus on Reddit and I need to get out of the basement from time to time these days. So personally I'm putting up with Facebook for now and hoping that MySpace is gonna turn out cool when it returns.
The fuck up with Facebook is that there's a lot of good content creators to follow, and there's new bands floating around to help you not become one of these "music sucks these days" old people yelling at clouds. But it has a massive right wing troll problem in comment sections. It likes to occasionally serve you right wing content if you're clearly left wing, and left wing content if you're clearly right wing. And from what I've seen, left wing people will mostly use the tools at their disposal to say "not interested" or block etc to get the algorithm right again. But right wing fucks just can't help themselves and enter every space where they don't belong to finger paint the walls with their shit. My block list is vast at this point.
I just stopped using it is all. This was years ago now but after over a decade on it. Uninstall the stupid apps and you wont want to use the website I promise.
People figure it out one way or another once you havent been on for months. If you need to stay in touch just get their phone number.
The only thing I use Facebook for is Messenger and WhatsApp. I recently got all my immediate family members on Signal. Outside of family, there's still a bunch of group chats with people who haven't switched over. For anyone I know who uses both, I'll always message them on Signal whenever possible. Slowly trying to convert my friends, one by one.
32 Comments
Angryhumanoid@fedinsfw.app · 22 pts · 26d
I logged out and never logged back in. My wife informs me if something important is happening in her family, but my family isn't big on Facebook anyway so I'm not missing anything.
zeppo@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 26d
Facebook became useless for that for me, anyway. One of the last straws was they'd show me endless irritating political bullshit, then I manually checked profiles of people I actually knew in person and cared about and found I had a missed a TON of updates about their lives I would have been interested in. Their algorithm is not only incompetent but abusive.
schwim@piefed.zip · 9 pts · 26d
Immediate family got Signal installed on their phones, if anyone outside of that wants to talk to me, they can send me a text.
Sunshine@piefed.ca · 4 pts · 26d
An encrypted RCS text at that as well. Google better be forced to open the RCS protocol to Linux Phones.
Sunshine@piefed.ca · 8 pts · 26d
I think the multi-prong approach is by switching to Mastodon, Signal groups and Friendica.
hanrahan@slrpnk.net · 7 pts · 26d
what, is this serious?
jokes aside, 1.
i haven't used it for so long I forget about it.
sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz · 6 pts · 26d
It helps to have a real life that you're living. Being preoccupied with what's in front of you keeps you from being occupied with how it could be captured and preserved in a post.
Then you gotta avoid the 2 big excuses:
"I use marketplace"
"This is the only way to keep up with grandma"
Those are false, just always remember that those are lies to enable us to get back to the peepshow. Anything else that was on facebook you already knew how to do and were doing it before you started your account
Sunshine@piefed.ca · 3 pts · 26d
Gotta call and message grandma with Signal
Then use Flohmarket to buy/sell second hand stuff
sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 26d
Exactly. Nobody actually buys from facebook, it's just there to sprinkle some local crackheads and their wares into your feed for entertainment
Bebopalouie@lemmy.ca · 6 pts · 26d
About 15yrs or so ago I logged out and never logged back in again. Easy peasy.
BodePlotHole@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 26d
If you just stop, you'll be fine... Just stop.
SayJess@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 4 pts · 26d
Life was fine before social media. I have a fb account only for marketplace. I’ve unfollowed everyone and everything that shows up in my feed, except for flatland bmx videos. This way, when I do go on fb to look for oddities, I am greeted by sweet tricks.
xSikes@feddit.online · 4 pts · 26d
Just hit delete. Been free since 2014.
zeppo@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 26d
I eventually got disgusted enough with the way the site works that I stopped going. Told anyone who messaged me there to contact me elsewhere (even instagram sucks less). It's like quitting smoking: the way to do it is to not smoke a cigarette.
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 3 pts · 26d
It was easy as a MySpace user; I simply never signed up because everyone I knew was on MySpace.
aeiou@piefed.social · 3 pts · 26d
Just leave.
But I'm not sure you can ever fully cut Facebook out of your life. I signed up under a fake name and fake email in 2010 or so, used it for exactly one hour and never touched it again, and somehow I still get updates about people I know delivered to my inbox despite having changed my actual email several times since.
SnailMagnitude@mander.xyz · 3 pts · 26d
I've not used it for years but have whatsapp and insta, like anything else just leave and the world will not implode.
Little point in fleeing Facebook if one likes it and they are just gonna feed Meta via whatsapp or insta anyway imo.
Sunshine@piefed.ca · 3 pts · 26d
Any luck with transitioning to Signal and Pixelfed?
SnailMagnitude@mander.xyz · 2 pts · 26d
Nah, for keeping in contact with family, friends, work and more meta makes things easy and seems the default.
Have considered getting Facebook back after a decade or so away as it still seems rather useful for interacting with local businesses & certain groups......and Whatsapp seems far more invasive anyway.
Flaqueman@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 26d
SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social · 2 pts · 26d
It did help that I was annoyed with my family at the time, then I just deleted my account and requested a GDPR delete to make sure there was no coming back.
emb@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 26d
Some options at various levels:
Individually making good choices is nice, but even better if you can help other people leave it behind.
blackn1ght@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 13d
I just stopped using it one day in 2017 and haven't looked back. I keep up with friends and family directly through messages, so I'm not missing out on anything.
The only super annoying thing are businesses that insist on making their "website" their facebook page.
turdburglar@piefed.social · 2 pts · 26d
i downloaded my data, erased it and logged out. it’s prolly still up there somewhere, but it hasn’t been touched by me in years.
ig too. i was posting some shit occasionally but realized that i never looked at anyone else’s shit. so unjust stopped posting there too. it was so long ago that i’ve never seen a reel.
lemmyng@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 26d
Back up any data from your profile you want to keep, then delete every single post, message, photo, video, etc. that you posted there, then leave. I don't trust Fuckerburg to not rifle through the data of accounts that have been deleted or closed.
Fives@discuss.online · 2 pts · 26d
I simply stopped using it. It was so much of a cesspool that not using was easy. I don’t have any FOMO. People know how to reach me if they want to.
We all got along just fine before Facebook was a thing, and I have MUCH better conversations on Fosstodon and Lemmy anyway.
Jayb151@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 26d
Many, men's years ago, I was thinking about leaving Facebook. I made the decision, and I posted telling all my friends that I was leaving and that they could hit me up for my direct contact info if they wanted.
Not one person reached out. That solidified that I didn't need to be part of that community. Deleted my account and didn't look back.
techt@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 26d
Same thing for me but on discord. I thought I had built relationships that crossed the barrier of the medium, but they were superficial. Turned out to be a boon, huge weight off my mind and I'm doing more in-person events now.
Secret_Music@piefed.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 13d
The only problem is, where else do you go to be a complete cave dwelling hermit these days? As nice as it is on smaller, indie platforms like this, using them full time is kinda like purposely getting a dumb phone and cutting yourself out from the IM app everyone is using and being clueless about the news and world events.
And out of the mainstream, non anon platforms where there's actually people, the choice is really only between Zuck shit or Musk shit. Twitter is a shithole that I don't feel like going near any time soon, so it's down to Meta, unfortunately.
If the Fediverse was busier, I would be here more full time but I'm at a point where I want to be in the melting pot and in the middle of the conversations of the day. I already did anon for a decade plus on Reddit and I need to get out of the basement from time to time these days. So personally I'm putting up with Facebook for now and hoping that MySpace is gonna turn out cool when it returns.
The fuck up with Facebook is that there's a lot of good content creators to follow, and there's new bands floating around to help you not become one of these "music sucks these days" old people yelling at clouds. But it has a massive right wing troll problem in comment sections. It likes to occasionally serve you right wing content if you're clearly left wing, and left wing content if you're clearly right wing. And from what I've seen, left wing people will mostly use the tools at their disposal to say "not interested" or block etc to get the algorithm right again. But right wing fucks just can't help themselves and enter every space where they don't belong to finger paint the walls with their shit. My block list is vast at this point.
Steve@startrek.website · 1 pts · 26d
Buy a ticket to Florida because they dont ask questions
A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 26d
I just stopped using it is all. This was years ago now but after over a decade on it. Uninstall the stupid apps and you wont want to use the website I promise.
People figure it out one way or another once you havent been on for months. If you need to stay in touch just get their phone number.
EntheoNaut@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 26d
Been off all Meta since 2020
Don’t even understand the query..
Ya just leave. Walk the fuck away.
threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 26d
The only thing I use Facebook for is Messenger and WhatsApp. I recently got all my immediate family members on Signal. Outside of family, there's still a bunch of group chats with people who haven't switched over. For anyone I know who uses both, I'll always message them on Signal whenever possible. Slowly trying to convert my friends, one by one.