Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/02/10/study-facebook-quitters-repor.html
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It might just be my own curation on Facebook (I follow mostly friends and family and judiciously blocked shit in 2016) but Twitter is the one that makes me want to huck my phone across the room. I get it, “Facebook Bad!” but Twitter is the Hellsite. It’s Longfellow’s Little Girl made into a social network; when it is good it is very good indeed, but when it is bad it is horrid.
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This reflects my own experience from removing my Facebook account. It seriously led to an instant improvement in quality of life for me. I removed it about a year and a half ago, and I haven’t missed Facebook for a second since. I can truly recommend removing your account if you have one. You won’t regret it.
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I use neither Facebook nor Twitter in any capacity whatsoever. I can report that this was a wise choice I have never regretted and I recommend it universally.
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I came here to share the same thing. I don’t miss it. I don’t miss the people from it, because if they can’t be bothered to find another way to connect (I gave them plenty) they aren’t your friends. I have never done anything that has been better for my mental health except perhaps starting on SSRIs. (And I have done therapy, I would rate deleting Facebook as better than therapy for me personally).
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I went one step further. I created an empty Google account that my phone thinks is home, then only use the web version of anything on Firefox with blockers on. Nobody gets to “push” message me, outside of a couple of carefully restricted channels. There are 7 apps on my phone, only one is from a commercial source (cell company) and connected to a different ID. Residual social media are hooked to dummy email accounts.
Yes, serious actors could still find/track me. This arrangement did get me the dreaded SSSS on my boarding card once, I just handed it to security and said “looks like I’m today’s lucky winner”.
I’m looking forward to ejecting from the Android/Apple/FB/etc. ecosystems entirely…
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If the Zuck had his way the FBook would follow you after even the grave took you.
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If only it were as easy to quit capitalism.
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I keep fb for Messenger only to contact ppl who won’t be contacted any other way.
I did join MeWe and will continue to post there, with my other three friends, who have more in common than one would guess, being the one ones who actually left fb.
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The thing about Twitter is that if you see something you don’t like, you can just mute it and then you never have to see the thing you don’t like again. I guess some people even get addicted to the satisfaction of silencing people they don’t like?
The other thing about Twitter is that it is apparently very easy to accidentally say something that will summon a mob with pitchforks and torches to your doorstep that will ruin your life and your children’s lives and the lives of your children’s children, so it is probably best not to say anything and just read the funnies.
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Facebook’s business model shares some features with brainwashing cults. It’s set up so people who have self-esteem issues or social dysfunctions can get a feeling of rapport with others like them and they think they’re getting rewarded for being loyal to the brand.
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People who refuse to be contacted by any means other than FB? To hell with them. They are obviously anti-social and if they aren’t willing to touch other people at any other points, they will undoubtedly have other mental and emotional troubles that makes them too much trouble to include in your life.
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There’s no looking back is there? I find it amusing when i hear people complaining about either. The solution is right there!
I had to log in with facebook to say that I agree with this article.
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Yep, this has been my experience. I unfortunately still have a Facebook account because of groups associated with classes I take and being unsuccessful attempting to convince them to use a different platform. But I stick to the three groups, and never check news feed or post. It’s felt like leaving a toxic relationship, which it essentially was.
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I am enormously fortunate that I was born without whatever gene, weird brain-nodule, or bespoke organ is required to get most social media and so, despite being in the most at-risk population (being a college student at the time Facebook showed up) I tried both Facebook and Twitter and bounced off, hard. I found them horrible in all respects, tried a bit to stick with them because everyone else was using them, and finally gave up.
Thank the heavens.
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No. No you did not. Other options are offered. You chose to log in using a facebook ID.
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Most of the time when I decide I can’t be bothered with some new thing that everyone’s on about, I’m just being a grumpy curmudgeon, but I have to say that the sheer lazyness that prevented me from opening a facebook account turned out to be a great ‘decision’.
(twitter is fine if you only use it in read-only mode)
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Yup. When I deleted mine, I made a post sharing all the various ways to contact me. Fuck, I even have instagram, they don’ have to leave the Zuckerberg-verse. If they can’t be bothered they are not your friend.
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