Yes, I deleted my Facebook account in early 2010. However, I have since created a placeholder account to buy ads and admin a business page for my company. I've logged in exactly once in the past 2 months.
He prefers it to blackboard. It's a very idiosyncratic preference, IMO. I'm pretty sure I could refuse and he would have to oblige me; however, maintaining a facebook account with 1 friend isn't a big problem.
I've considered deleting my facebook account, but ultimately decided to keep it because nearly all of my extended family is on facebook only. I did delete nearly all the personally information associated with my account and decline all requests from others saying I went to XYZ school or am related to them in some way.
I have a LinkedIn account and all I ever do on it is accept incoming connection requests. Other than that, I never ever use it for anything. Except maybe once a year to see if guy X who left the company found a new job yet.
Many connection requests are recruiters over here, too. I ignore those.
why and how do you deal with "other undesirables" ?
I find linkedin connections number to be a key when talking to recruiter. they dont really care who I connect to, but rather a number of connections seems to impress them. for that reason, I would add anyone to my network. Also - one person that you may not know on LinkedIn may be linked to someone you would love to know!
I do have a Facebook account, but I've hidden everybody from my news feed, I don't post anything to my own profile, I use it only to access information about people and for communicate in the groups.
I deleted my Facebook some time ago, now. At first I was alarmed by how many times I started to go for it on my phone purely out of muscle memory when bored or waiting in line. Now, I hardly even think of it and feel better being without it.
Same experience here. I deleted it about a month ago, and haven't looked back.
The only annoyance I have is the variety of sites I was using FBConnect with (it IS convenient) that I have to re-register. But that goes to show you the problem of relying on tools like Facebook for site logins.
I noticed that same thing with FBConnect, it's made me consider my comments and their value a bit more since I'll have to create an account to leave them ;)
Ditto. This should be an option on the poll. Every time I log on I see tons of useless, inane comments from people I barely know and I quickly leave again. I mainly have an account so people know I exist (ie. it's almost a social faux pas not to have one.)
Logging on is like flicking quickly past a TV channel that is aimed those who watch reality tv. No thanks.
I wasn't much of a Facebook user before joining the company, and using the site more frequently definitely made it obvious that a) I had been missing out on some useful news and b) I was wasting a lot of time on "friends" I didn't really care much about (not only reading time, but being angry that those people were behaving in a way that would lead me to leave in real life). Once the new subscription and friends list stuff was in internal testing, I spent 30ish minutes cleaning things up (including just unfriending people), and now my news feed sucks a lot less. Well, it did before I subscribed to tech journalists. Another cleanup awaits...
Had Google+, deleted it when my name started showing up in search results. I just don't like the way they're trying to work it into every other thing you do with them ... without your clear permission.
Why do you guys choose to not have one, go by a different name, or delete your facebook?
Personally, it just feels creepy having a facebook and that's why I have one under a different name. Not that you couldn't figure it out anyway but it gives me a sense of security.
Not to be uncool, but I enjoy Facebook. I find it to be a fun way to stay in touch with connections, discuss, share, chat, etc. Sure I want data portability, but I believe that will come in time from competitive and user forces, and my life is not a protest. My online social activity is inane anyway - I don't care that much who stores it.
If you are worried about your activities being tracked and sold, stop using your credit cards. Have you read the privacy policy on those lately?
All this anti-Facebook pride strikes me as bitterness. Everyone has a right to do what they want, but would be all the wiser to look at themselves to understand why.
Facebook gives me more than I give Facebook - a lot more. When that stops being true, I'll stop using it. I too am kicking myself for not building a social network in 1996 - I'm not going to convince myself Facebook is evil because I didn't.
I feel the same way, but I'd emphasize that interoperability won't happen by accident. We users need push for it and encourage competition. It's not that Facebook should lose, but that Google+, LinkedIn, Skype/MSN, and miscellaneous startups like Diaspora should also win.
Ditto. I got rid of my Facebook account for that reason, primarily -- I don't believe monopoly is ever a good thing and Facebook is headed that way fast (simply because of the network effect, not because they're gurus at building monopolies).
There's another reason I ditched Facebook, though. I found that my life was getting too entangled with other people. I had a lot of friends in the past who worked or still work for the US govt. and my current views on that government (that it is corrupt to the core and needs to be rebooted) were making them afraid for their jobs. Simply unfriending me is not enough, because Facebook has a memory...so I sent everyone my email and Twitter ID and went through the 2-week-long process of deleting my Facebook account.
What scares the hell out of me is that Facebook is concentrating so much personal knowledge in one place -- one-stop shopping for corrupt governments!
The proper approach is to federate the social networks together, so people can move from Facebook to Twitter to G+ to LinkedIn effortlessly but retain control of their data and hence put up a sizable barrier to corruption.
I see your point about making a statement by not being present on the social net.
But I'm not about to alienate myself from the people I love in order to do so. So I stay in FB and only put stuff on there that can be put in the front page of the newspaper. I do not mind not having privacy because I go in with no expectation of privacy at all.
I voted "I used to, but I deleted it.", but actually I have a personal account with no details and no friends, which I only log into on the rare occasions I need to edit a company facebook page, and the login details to a friend's account, for when I want to check up on how Facebook works for the sake of a marketing campaign.
edit: I deleted my account three years ago because it annoyed me and I rarely found myself using it. If that wasn't the case, I'm not sure if by now I would have decided to delete it for other reasons (e.g. privacy) - I haven't really stopped to think about it.
I don't follow - you're saying this poll is biased because of HN readers? I'd argue (though it isn't my poll) that it's purpose is not to find how many people in the world use Facebook, but to find out how many HN-type people use Facebook, meaning that hosting the poll on HN gets it answered by the exact target audience.
Sorry, the 32 of you (as of this moment, out of 152) who claim to never have had a facebook account. I call shenanigans. I don't believe for one second that 20% of a sample of hacker news readers never, ever had a facebook account.
I'm one of them. I asked this same question in my team a few weeks ago: I got very similar sampling. The team is composed of 7 hackers (native code, embedded speech-related software). In other words, I tend to believe the results we're getting so far.
I'll delete my Facebook account when there's Distributed Social Network Protocol I can use instead.
Social networking has evolved to become a useful part of my life that I don't want to live without. But the evolution of it's usefulness in relation to me is diverging from the evolution of Facebook and Google+.
Yes, but I am planning to delete it for good after creating something as a replacement (Hybrid between facebook and blog)
even thought posterous spaces is in good position now for me.
I've got an account, but a dns ban on *.facebook.com (and their other dns). Three or four times a week, I fire up a dedicated browser (configured with a (somewhat slow) proxy to circumvent my own ban) to check on what happens, and sometimes post a link or two.
I'm happy with this compromise, right now. I no longer have any addiction, but I don't feel too out of the loop. And I feel in control of the data I give to facebook.
I know it’s cool to make fun of Facebook, but you can’t doubt that they focus a heckuva lot on the user. Unlike Google, the advertiser is not the customer per se. Evidence of this: constant design changes to features (read: Pages) without pandering to a business’ request. Facebook’s message: adapt, or die.
Certainly not a bad company to invest in, regardless of perceived value.
93 comments
[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 168 ms ] threadLike you, I had but then deleted my facebook account; however, a professor of my grad school class requires one, so I created a temporary account.
I find Linkedin to be of value. I have never had an account on the book and never will.
Many connection requests are recruiters over here, too. I ignore those.
[1] http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/17/linkedins-soc...
[2] http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2390998,00.asp
The only annoyance I have is the variety of sites I was using FBConnect with (it IS convenient) that I have to re-register. But that goes to show you the problem of relying on tools like Facebook for site logins.
Logging on is like flicking quickly past a TV channel that is aimed those who watch reality tv. No thanks.
Had Google+, deleted it when my name started showing up in search results. I just don't like the way they're trying to work it into every other thing you do with them ... without your clear permission.
Why do you guys choose to not have one, go by a different name, or delete your facebook?
Personally, it just feels creepy having a facebook and that's why I have one under a different name. Not that you couldn't figure it out anyway but it gives me a sense of security.
If you are worried about your activities being tracked and sold, stop using your credit cards. Have you read the privacy policy on those lately?
All this anti-Facebook pride strikes me as bitterness. Everyone has a right to do what they want, but would be all the wiser to look at themselves to understand why.
Facebook gives me more than I give Facebook - a lot more. When that stops being true, I'll stop using it. I too am kicking myself for not building a social network in 1996 - I'm not going to convince myself Facebook is evil because I didn't.
From my point of view, most people are on FB, some are on Twitter, and almost nobody is on G+.
There's another reason I ditched Facebook, though. I found that my life was getting too entangled with other people. I had a lot of friends in the past who worked or still work for the US govt. and my current views on that government (that it is corrupt to the core and needs to be rebooted) were making them afraid for their jobs. Simply unfriending me is not enough, because Facebook has a memory...so I sent everyone my email and Twitter ID and went through the 2-week-long process of deleting my Facebook account.
What scares the hell out of me is that Facebook is concentrating so much personal knowledge in one place -- one-stop shopping for corrupt governments!
The proper approach is to federate the social networks together, so people can move from Facebook to Twitter to G+ to LinkedIn effortlessly but retain control of their data and hence put up a sizable barrier to corruption.
But I'm not about to alienate myself from the people I love in order to do so. So I stay in FB and only put stuff on there that can be put in the front page of the newspaper. I do not mind not having privacy because I go in with no expectation of privacy at all.
I won't delete it because it's fun.
One thing I worry about online is someone misinterpreting what I share. For example, I share a lot of hacker related news.
I am really interested in reasons why not to have one or delete it entirely.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/114326995294656/
edit: I deleted my account three years ago because it annoyed me and I rarely found myself using it. If that wasn't the case, I'm not sure if by now I would have decided to delete it for other reasons (e.g. privacy) - I haven't really stopped to think about it.
The people I want to stay in touch with, I stay in touch with. Those I don't, I don't.
It really is that simple. You don't need facebook, or anything else, to stay in touch with the people who are important to you.
I call shenanigans on anyone who thinks facebook is a required part of life. Or Twitter. Or any other "social network" for that matter.
If you use it and enjoy it, that's great for you. Keep using it, keep enjoying it.
I'll stick to emails, phonecalls, IMs, and text messages. Hasn't failed me yet.
I find Twitter both entertaining and useful and a little LinkedIn is helpful to keep up with old coworkers and such.
Social networking has evolved to become a useful part of my life that I don't want to live without. But the evolution of it's usefulness in relation to me is diverging from the evolution of Facebook and Google+.
I'm happy with this compromise, right now. I no longer have any addiction, but I don't feel too out of the loop. And I feel in control of the data I give to facebook.
Certainly not a bad company to invest in, regardless of perceived value.