Almost. I started the process—downloaded all my data, etc. Unfortunately, I couldn’t go through with it for reasons I’m embarrassed to admit:
1. One entire side of my extended family relies on it for all familial communications. I was forced to use Facebook Messenger recently to help with wedding planning, for example. These people are addicted to it an have invested everything in it—Facebook knows their entire lives.
2. People post pictures of me on Facebook despite my objections. Continuously. They tag me—despite my objections. With an account, I can make it difficult for an average person to find photos of me.
3. I have zero faith that Facebook will stop tracking me, storing my data, or doing stuff I don’t want them to do if I delete my account. I have zero faith that they’d stop even if I got a court order.
I know several people who work at various positions in Facebook. Every time they talk about the company, it sounds worse and worse. I’m slowly transitioning from, “They’re just another big data miner,” to, “They’re a truly evil company that goes out of their way to be deceptive and would sell their soul—no, my soul—for a cheeseburger.”
> I couldn’t go through with it for reasons I’m embarrassed to admit
Quitting Facebook may not a choice without severe consequences. I'm lucky enough to be able to stay away from Facebook, but I know everyone isn't in the same position. It's important to acknowledge that Facebook is inextricably intertwined with many peoples professional and social lives.
Your workplace may require you to Workplace by Facebook for collaboration. The parents group at your childs school may only communicate via Facebook. Perhaps the bachelors party of a dear friend may be planned via Facebook.
Embarrassment is the last thing you should feel for being trapped by this tyrant.
> People post pictures of me on Facebook despite my objections.
We need to make legislation against this. I know taking pictures in public places is fair game. I also know celebrities are subject to having this information published due to the public nature of their lives. But for those wanting to live private lives, we should be able to ban tagging or indexing and sue those parties that enable this to happen without consent.
It's not fair game in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy at least, unless you're a person of public interest. I'm not sure how Facebook handles that.
If I look in google for pictures of those places there are plenty of people in them. I'm talking pictures of streets full of people or cool looking buildings with lots of people sitting around in the grass. I don't imagine the photographer went to talk to each person all the way to the horizon to ask permission, and I imagine, in the time one sets up the camera, multiple people probably enter and leave the view. There really is no practical way to take pictures of these places without people unless you get the help of authorities to close off these spaces and get everyone out of the way. So how do these laws work?
Why delete though? Just keep it inactive. I use my account maybe like a few times a year, as well as a couple of fake accounts for logins to other sites.
I think it will hurt more if you don't delete the account but don't use it much because it reduces revenue per user, or ad views per user.
> People post pictures of me on Facebook despite my objections. Continuously. They tag me—despite my objections. With an account, I can make it difficult for an average person to find photos of me.
In the privacy settings there's a control so that you need to approve taggings of you before they go public.
As what I've heard from my friends, you can deactivate your Facebook profile and still have Messenger on. Though you can't use Messenger without creating a Facebook account.
No, but I started posting to my own website instead, and syndicating the content to FB, Twitter, Instagram, and Mastadon. I also use brid.gy fed to backfeed Twitter and Instagram to my blog.
yes already in January. Deleted twitter last month. Next up will be Linkedin (before the year ends). As of Jan 2019 I've decided to no longer carry a mobile phone (it will be switched off with batteries removed in a drawer for at least 1 year then I'll decide if I want to keep using it or not). Babysteps ...
PS: one of the projects on my mind is a small faraday cage at the entrance of my home right next to the wardrobe. It will be a "feature" I offer for visiting friends to show them what it's like to unplug for an evening. It will be non optional for anyone spending time at my house. Any visitors (guests or otherwise) entering my home will have to use it.
Linkedin is a tough one for me. Although I can't say its social networking has ever provided a lick of value, the Easy Apply and One-Click Apply feature for job postings is incredibly nice and has been pretty effective for me. Maybe I'll get rid of my account once I land my next gig soon.
No, as sometimes I dip back in to see what some of my friends who refuse to quit it are up to, as they don't post elsewhere. I don't post, and my profile has been purged of all posts and content[1]. For now this will have to be good enough.
I did find out recently that you can now delete your 'Facebook profile' but keep your login just for Messenger' though.
No but it's just totally irrelevant for me now. Its been almost a month and I didn't even think about it until now, so it's like dozens of accounts that I have (like yahoo mail) which even though I have in theory are completely useless and irrelevant to me.
But I don't plan on deleting it since I may have a use for it some day and I would like to have that option just in case.
I did delete my Facebook account (this past week). I forgot to download all the data they had on me but I had a download from earlier in the year (maybe a few months ago) and that's sufficient enough for me since I made very few posts to Facebook this year.
In the lead up to deleting facebook, I deleted many "friends," removed all my likes, and deleted every single picture I could.
Unfortunately I can still be seen in pictures others have posted to Facebook.
I will admit that I still have Instagram installed on my phone. I could probably delete it and not miss anything but there are some interesting people I follow.
Agreed, as someone that's never used facebook, I see a lot of the criticisms levied against it and think hacker news and other forms of social news are just as damaging.
I've read enough books about the internet now to realize that all of the benefits come with costs. I can be just as addicted to any of the information spouts on the internet. Hacker News provides the same sort of response for me as Facebook might for someone else. It is almost ironic but it is harder to 'delete' Hacker News than Facebook because of the walled garden approach of Facebook.
I think to me the value is equal in a way. It comes down to fear of missing out. What events/social activities will I miss out on by not having Facebook? What possible job/career opportunities will I miss out on by not having LinkedIn?
I did not, but I most certainly do not "use" it anymore, aside from the very occasional checkup on old friends (who still use Facebook and no other platforms), and the occasional laugh when an older relative posts "Happy birthay!" on their own wall unintentionally.
I have also made sure that I no longer use Facebook authentication on any other sites.
No, but I stopped opening the webpage/app about 2 months ago.
Interestingly, the first couple of weeks FB started emailing me whenever someone acted in my feed.. posts, comments, likes, etc. FB is mostly a ghost town for me now so it was interesting to see how desperate it looks when I got an email that someone I hadn't talked to in years "liked a post."
In the past week or so, FB has started texted me these updates. I assume they have some data that says it only takes one time opening the app to get someone re-engaged.
YES. I disabled it, and no longer use it. I did not delete it altogether, because all of my contacts are on Facebook Messenger. Honestly, my general happiness rose about 10% after leaving FB. It's trash for the brain, and hurts more than it helps. Get rid of it.
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[ 0.29 ms ] story [ 219 ms ] threadMost/many of the contacts I then migrated to email and birthdays to my calendar/reminders. I’m happier keeping in touch with people this way.
I use Messenger daily, and Feed weekly.
1. One entire side of my extended family relies on it for all familial communications. I was forced to use Facebook Messenger recently to help with wedding planning, for example. These people are addicted to it an have invested everything in it—Facebook knows their entire lives.
2. People post pictures of me on Facebook despite my objections. Continuously. They tag me—despite my objections. With an account, I can make it difficult for an average person to find photos of me.
3. I have zero faith that Facebook will stop tracking me, storing my data, or doing stuff I don’t want them to do if I delete my account. I have zero faith that they’d stop even if I got a court order.
I know several people who work at various positions in Facebook. Every time they talk about the company, it sounds worse and worse. I’m slowly transitioning from, “They’re just another big data miner,” to, “They’re a truly evil company that goes out of their way to be deceptive and would sell their soul—no, my soul—for a cheeseburger.”
Quitting Facebook may not a choice without severe consequences. I'm lucky enough to be able to stay away from Facebook, but I know everyone isn't in the same position. It's important to acknowledge that Facebook is inextricably intertwined with many peoples professional and social lives.
Your workplace may require you to Workplace by Facebook for collaboration. The parents group at your childs school may only communicate via Facebook. Perhaps the bachelors party of a dear friend may be planned via Facebook.
Embarrassment is the last thing you should feel for being trapped by this tyrant.
You know you're living in a time of peace when not having Facebook is considered to have severe consequences.
This is true but also it wasn’t that long ago that going out for a smoke break was vital for people’s professional and social lives
We need to make legislation against this. I know taking pictures in public places is fair game. I also know celebrities are subject to having this information published due to the public nature of their lives. But for those wanting to live private lives, we should be able to ban tagging or indexing and sue those parties that enable this to happen without consent.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recht_am_eigenen_Bild
(sorry, no English)
You don't have to worry about that legally.
I think it will hurt more if you don't delete the account but don't use it much because it reduces revenue per user, or ad views per user.
In the privacy settings there's a control so that you need to approve taggings of you before they go public.
For private messaging, I use email.
Otherwise all fine.
Linkedin is a tough one for me. Although I can't say its social networking has ever provided a lick of value, the Easy Apply and One-Click Apply feature for job postings is incredibly nice and has been pretty effective for me. Maybe I'll get rid of my account once I land my next gig soon.
I did find out recently that you can now delete your 'Facebook profile' but keep your login just for Messenger' though.
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[1] https://github.com/Jaruzel/DeleteFacebookActivity
But I don't plan on deleting it since I may have a use for it some day and I would like to have that option just in case.
In the lead up to deleting facebook, I deleted many "friends," removed all my likes, and deleted every single picture I could.
Unfortunately I can still be seen in pictures others have posted to Facebook.
I will admit that I still have Instagram installed on my phone. I could probably delete it and not miss anything but there are some interesting people I follow.
my advice to people that say they need it to keep in contact with family - try something like groupme, you do not need facebook
I have also made sure that I no longer use Facebook authentication on any other sites.
Interestingly, the first couple of weeks FB started emailing me whenever someone acted in my feed.. posts, comments, likes, etc. FB is mostly a ghost town for me now so it was interesting to see how desperate it looks when I got an email that someone I hadn't talked to in years "liked a post."
In the past week or so, FB has started texted me these updates. I assume they have some data that says it only takes one time opening the app to get someone re-engaged.