Quitting Facebook feels GREAT

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/12/06/quitting-facebook-feels-great.html

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…but where will I get my fake news?!? :anguished:

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Here…?

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Absolutely everywhere…?

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I would dump Facebook in a sec except for one thing. It is the only way I can stay in contact with family in different parts of the country. Some of them are in Instagram (which isn’t much better, but it’s better than FB), but most of them aren’t. I can already hear the “you can call them you know”, but it’s faster to check FB.

All of that said, I have reduced my usage of FB. I have a Chrome plugin that blocks the newsfeed and I don’t use the FB app on my phone (mainly cause the app sucks big time).

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After the horrors in Orlando I found myself debating with someone who believed it was a “surveillance state hoax”. My children were home and I was thumb-typing a furious response instead of reading to them or playing Lego. I realized that I was engaging with someone I wouldn’t even have the respect to engage with in person. I deleted the post, deleted the app and haven’t looked back. It’s been amazing. The last few months of public discourse have been terrible enough without having to witness all of my conservative and christian “friends” contort themselves and their “principles” to accept this hideous oaf.

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I shut mine down after the first time some friend of a friend stated something racist after being emboldened by the presidential win.

I miss events, but I guess Messenger is still active even if my feed isn’t.

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I guess I am lucky, I typically don’t see shit I wouldn’t put up with in daily life. So either my friends and family is mostly cool, or they just don’t show otherwise.

I take that back, I got tired of a mere acquaintance, and just removed him. Shrug. I guess if you are friends with a lot of people you don’t know well, you are bound to get more BS in your feed.

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The only thing I don’t like about having dumped facebook (it’s been 4 years for me) is that when I tell people I’m not on facebook, they look at me as if I told them I harvested the tears of baby seals for arcane alchemical longevity purposes.

But I think they’d do that anyway. So I don’t really miss it.

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I guess you mileage will probably depend a fair bit on how unhealthy your relationship with facebook is in the first place.

I use facebook to keep up with a few folks with whom I don’t have chance to regularly keep in touch with otherwise. I don’t get into big arguments, don’t use it for news and don’t friend anyone I wouldn’t happily go out with IRL. Seems to work out fine for me :slight_smile:

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Not liking Facebook is the early 21st century version of “I don’t have a television.”

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I want out, but spotify is the only way I get music now and it’s integrated with no way of uncoupling the two so I am fucked.

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If communication is your main goal, maybe you can use Messenger? That way you can avoid the news food and focus on messaging.

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I had quit, but then I made a wager with my wife on the outcome of the election. I lost, so I had to get back on there with her. #THANKSTRUMPBAMA

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Far more mainstream than that.

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It’s not that. I can’t scrub acquaintances of friends or avoid seeing bullshit pop up in the stalker-panel that shows if someone is getting into an argument with a deplorable human being.

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I still have it. It’s useful as an address book and for seeing family photos - basically almost everyone I follow is on the other side of the pond.

I don’t follow or like anything that isn’t people I personally know, all the meme sites, stupid games and “news” sites get blocked out of existence, and the Brexiteers and Trumpistas are all removed. I never downloaded the Messenger app so I don’t use it for messages any more much either.

I’ve barely posted anything in months anyway, hardly ever check it and don’t miss it.

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Agh! That happened with my spouse. You can’t decouple if you created your account with FB creds :confused:

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I can’t tell if your comment was meant to be dismissive, but I think you’re right. For some the statement is a display, for others it is removing or not adopting a distraction. Much like television.

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I am in an unhealthy relationship with FB. Fear of missing out. Something is wrong with me.

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