Facebook has got to go!

The global presence is real. :fist_right:t4::tumbler_glass:

2 Likes

I finally caved and got a FB acct last year, groaning as I signed up. I live in the mountains and there’s always information posted about my local inclement weather and road conditions, power outages, fires, and also some helpful, active pages having to do with my hobbies. If there were another place for this I’d dump FB so fast.

2 Likes

Years ago, I registered for Macebook (my spiteful nickname for it, like spraying mace in their faces, appropriate to the name, IMO) just so I could shut it down, in case anyone else might have registered “me” on it.

The notion that availability on the open web shouldn’t take precedence as a matter of civil rights and civic duty for vital local information such as fire and other safety updates is an indictment of the municipalities, not a defense of Macebook, and IMO it’s up to citizens to condemn misguided local authorities who fail the communities they serve in that way. Maybe some philanthropist will subsidize basic sites for such community outlets (SquareSpace meets Keybase)?

1 Like

I tell people “So, Mark Zuckerberg has taken your grandchildren hostage?”

4 Likes

I am not smart enough to know this, but is it even possible to create an online social platform similar to Facebook, but without all its badness?

1 Like

I generally use Twitter to find out about local issues, and only follow public bodies, not individuals. I also use a third-party mobile app which just shows me a timeline of posts and not any reply thread unless I click through. That keeps the craziness away. Any accounts that I don’t need information from right now I mute / filter out until I need them again. That keeps my timeline short, relevant and factual.

iMessage on my iPad covers me for distant friends / family who have been kind enough to work around my distaste for using Facebook.

I deleted my Facebook account in 2010. I had to open a new account in 2015, when my ex-boss made me the social media manager and I had to manage the companies Facebook page.

In my first time with Facebook, I found I was logging in maybe once a month, reading for an hour and that was about it. The second time around, I was very privacy conscious and never posted anything personal on my page, all my private information was “made up” and hidden to everyone.

When I left the company, I deleted the account again. I do still have a Twitter account, but I look at that maybe once or twice a year. I much prefer forums, like this one.

At home, I have my own DNS server (Pi-Hole, running on a Rasberry Pi 3), which blocks around 2.5 million tracking, spam, malware and similar sites. Including over 1,500 Facebook domains, which are used for tracking!

2 Likes

Excellent good going your a good example of action not just talking about it, we have to educate our fellow friends and family to the price of ignorance because maybe it won’t be today but it will some time in the future affect your life either financially or personally. Facebook has only one goal to make money off of you and your personal life data good or bad!

2 Likes

Google tried with Google+ and failed.

Part of the reason is that they tried to make in mandatory and folks pushed back at that, but it was actually a pretty good system.

2 Likes

I wish Google+ had succeeded in replacing Facebook. I left after the 2016 election, because Facebook was giving me the creeps for at least a year before that, but I got back on, mainly to post every negative thing I could find about Facebook, which I continue to do. My bio is “I hate Facebook.” I also permanently block every ad that comes up on my feed as irrelevant. I know it’s probably all meaningless as a protest, but it makes me feel better. BTW, I don’t know what they’re doing with people’s news feeds, but I’m sure they are messing with us. I get tons of old posts from stupid groups I joined years ago and very little news from family and friends. A couple of weeks ago, someone on TWIG described Facebook as “a place where old people share misinformation.” I think that about covers it.

2 Likes

WhatsApp is owned by Facebook.

One other complaint about the domination of Facebook is that it is so much worse for music discovery.

Bands could put up their MySpace page, fans would link to them and other people would organically discover them in that way. That is how I discovered one of my favorite bands who became close friends.

But Facebook using that as an income source. A band posts something like “Here’s our new song” or Concert listings". Even people who follow that band don’t see it unless the band pays for placement, only 5% of their followers see it. My friends, a working band that tours the world, occasionally plays big festivals but is usually playing bars, would have to pay as much as $3000 for a post to reach all their fans.

This is the worst type of rent-seeking.

2 Likes

Facebook is the enemy, remember Facebook makes millions of dollars off of all of us, Facebook is evil. Just imagine just for one minute if all the misinformation and political lies were not infecting our young people and rural Americans, many misinformed people get their news from Facebook. Sadly, verifiable news is not a given, propaganda and misinformation is what 1940 Germany used to convince its people that Hitler was sain and it worked, Facebook has a moral responsibility to the facebook members to screen all the information it passes to its members. NOT spew lies and propaganda to the highest bidder. THIS IS AGAINST EVERYTHING AMERICA STANDS FOR! In a democracy. Facebook has got to go. Sooner the better.! Do whatever you can to make Facebook fail. This is information warfare and we cannot be suckered into all the BS! TRUTH IS POWER.

Just to say, using the Pi-Hole to block Facebook, my daughter visited just after I set that up and she complained that the Internet didn’t work…

What she meant was that the Instagram App didn’t work. I told her that Facebook was banned in our house. “But, this is Instagram, not Facebook!”

I had a long discussion with her, that Instagram is Facebook, as is WhatsApp.

3 Likes

I love you guys! Facebook is :imp:

3 Likes

I dropped FB quite a few years ago. Not just because of privacy issues, but because it causes issues in the real world. ”Why didn’t you accept my friend request” etc

I do quite like Twitter, but I use it more as a news feed than a social network.

I admit I’m still on Facebook to follow brands I like (Kimber - they post some wicked pistol-porn), local groups/clubs, restaurants, WI public TV shows like Wisconsin Foodie, some photographers, local emergency alert system, local TV station for news, etc. Very rarely post anything.

I use Twitter to follow mostly tech journalists. I very rarely look at comments or post a comment. That’s how I stay out of Twitter’s (as @Leo calls it) cesspool.

Same with Instagram, I only follow good photographers; that’s my photography inspiration.

For staying connected with two daughters and their kids we just have a group message going. That works just fine. And a lot more private!

1 Like

As long as we all keep making excuses for using Facebook and Twitter we are all guilty, it is unbelievable too think that something different will happen if we keep doing the same action, you must change your ways and actions in order for things to change, being lazy or looking for excuses or reasons why you don’t do something will never change how things are, if we dont change our ways it will always be a problem. Facebook relies on people being complicit. WE NEED CHANGE PEOPLE! In order for change you must do something different.

2 Likes

This is really interesting, this thread in general is a good one.

I dropped FB a while back and it changed absolutely nothing about my life. I found my mental health improved as well.

What I really want next is a reddit app that makes it so you cannot go to /r/all. I like my curated feed and the news/info I get from it but it’s way too easy to go to /r/all, sort by controversial and get all outraged at how horrible the world is. This sucks, because I like my subreddits but I find I am stressing myself out and it’s hard to get away from that dopamine kick I get from all the upsetting stories and comments I read. Maybe I just need more self control lol

Twitter is the same way, I’m thinking about getting rid of it altogether. I like my feed but I find myself going to Trending, opening a controversial topic, and reading all the bots and assbags with their terrible comments.

I tried RSS but Feedly is $8 a month which I find outrageous and simply not as good as my reddit feed.

1 Like

Twitter can get rather messy, too. I’ve set up lists to help with a more curated feed there. I’ve added a few “mute” words to it, as well. Definitely helps keep my mental health on the level of “good vibes.”

2 Likes