Deactivating Facebook

[Santaria]

Came to the realization that I ended up spending way too much time mindlessly scrolling through Facebook and wasting time. So I've kicked it and other socials. I've kept messenger for friend contact but that's it.

Anyone else kicked it? I work with vulnerable youth and hearing how depressed and anxious they are at the moment (amongst other things) and having to research the recent increase, it seems to lead towards that "highlight effect" that Faceboom and other socials appear to provide.

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[Dr. Pain]

I look at it once or twice a day but I never post on facebook. I only use it to keep in contact with a friend. It wouldn't bother me if I had it or not.

I'm currently study a Cert IV in mental health so I'm bound to encounter this in my studies over the rest of the year and into work placement.

[w00dsy]

I've deactivated it a few times. I've always kept messenger though. I recently reactivated it because people keep posting links to something amusing they see there, but I got rid of the app and now just use the mobile site so I don't fall into the habit of mindlessly checking it. I really don't miss it at all.

[thornz]

Have thought about it often, if it weren't for a few groups on there it would be gone, but unfortunately it seems to have replaced a lot of forums these days and can be good for a quick response if you have trouble working on a car or something else like that.

[Sarsippius]

I joined about a year ago under a fake name just to be able to use messenger with the wife, usually to video chat when she's away. Social media has never really interested me but I'm not a very sociable person in general, the only reason I've sometimes considered joining is to reacquaint with old friends.

It seems social media has a lot to answer for and little of it is positive, I was thinking the other day about Fight Club, if it were redone in the present times maybe rather than blow up all the credit records it would probably be better to blow up all the social media databases.

[ysu]

I rarely look at facebook. I've tried it for a short period but the amount of useless info was overwhelming. About the same for all other social media tbh. I'm only looking at a bit of reddit nowadays, mostly for news, maybe a bit of car stuff, and that's about it. Even that I'm winding down.

The social media is 99% worthless shit - and I'm not willing to waste 99% of my time to find the 1% worthy of attention.

I'd rather have a talk to neighbours & friends & family, thank you.

[norbs]

I have been wondering lately, do forums count as an early form of social media?

[w00dsy]

I would assume so, it's connecting people for online discussion.

[KNAPPO]

I would say yes to that Norbs.

[nutty]

I think its different, we come here to talk about a shared mutual interest. 90% of the threads are someway related to that, I think of this place like going to the pub and drinking with a bunch of mates.

I feel most people go on facebook to show off to their friends, it hit me really hard a few years back when a old friend committed suicide. If you looked over the past 12 months of his posts they where full of highlights and made him seem like he was in a really good place, when after speaking to his closer friends after it was clear that he wasn't.

I do still like Facebook, I live 1000km away from all my closest friends, so seeing what they are up to and keeping in contact is good, but it made me realise the power of a phone call and trying to not just use facebook as the only way to communicate to those im close to.

[norbs]

Agreed Nutty. It makes some sense for families, especially like the bride, who is 500kms (not far enough in my books) away from her clan. I dont have any family (fuck yeah!) so it isnt really for me. And when I do look, I just end up with the shits. Another one that drives me mad is Instagram. Every now and then I have a moment of weakness and I will follow some c**t that has been suggested to me. I nearly always regret it. The last one, an old work mate, is just one post after another blaming Muslims for all the worlds ills. This fuck is a Pentecostal whacko and according to him, that puts him above all the devil worshippers and non believers. I only commented once, then stopped following him.

That said, I love me my Twitters. My cycling, crypto and arduino buddies are excellent. There is a lot of shit on there too however.

[GXTracker]

I've deleted the Facebook and Instagram apps from my phone, and only check the websites in a mobile browser about once a week. I also found myself using it as a go to when i was bored or just needed to kill some time - until i realized thats exactly what its doing. I noticed that i started generally feeling better a few weeks after i limited my own access.

[somebloke]

I only use Stalkbook (Facebook) and have managed to stay clear of the others.

The constant click bait on FB is pretty annoying and like a lot of people say there is so much shit on it.

FB can come in handy at work however with a great way to keep tabs on and get updated photos from the show off clients we deal with.

Agree with people treating it as keeping in contact with distant friends etc but real friends you see in person or have a phone call with. I have one friend since getting married his idea of friendship is tagging us in mutual interest posts and discussing it in a group messenger chat. Like you guys I’d rather see that friend at the pub or footy and discuss this stuff in person and have a proper laugh about it.

A couple of years ago I organised a group to go to Turkey and jump on a small sailing boat and island hop the coastline for a week. No wi-fi or phone reception! It was great, we just lounged around and chatted. The ease of these social media apps replace that unfortunately and people fall in the trap of it in a time poor society.

I think this forum is a type of it but I have limited friends who are either into the sim racing or motorsports to the extent I am. I don’t have the same convos outside of here. I think this continued into over the years where a lot of you guys formed your bonds over photography and cycling too amongst other things.

[ysu]

hehe, relevant pic from ocau

[w00dsy]

I feel most people go on facebook to show off to their friends.

Facebook and Instagram are both places people show off. Twitter is about being angry and opinionated. And YouTube is where the worst of the worst hang out. Reddit is where introverted people try and show how smart they are.

[Sarsippius]

While I'm not on Facebook I kinda am in a way because of the wife, they also apparently have shadow profiles of those who aren't on there, it's easy for them to work out who is who when people link their phone contacts and you end up in multiple peoples photos or whatever.

One thing that kinda annoys me is going on holidays, sightseeing becomes about taking photos to show off to everyone else about where you are and what you're doing. You gotta go to all the right places that other's have been to and shared photos of so that everyone can see you've also been there.

[Santaria]

I have been wondering lately, do forums count as an early form of social media?

I would suggest, this forum specifically, allows moments of vulnerability where as I would say that Facebook, IG and Snapchat would probably get negative responses or responses to show someone cares, but is kinda like inactivism. Set a sad face and move on.

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[wabbit]

So I've kicked it and other socials

Good on ya. I'm not sure how you are with TV but I noticed the same trend in people too. It wasn't the endless scrolling however their as I call it "fast forwarding their live in 30min blocks".

For me it was something I read or heard, I don't remember but I do remember the point. The endless scroll is someone looking for something to trigger that part of the brain for excitement or whatever it called. I realised I did the same and stopped which made see people all around me doing the same thing. Sort of freaked me out and then I started to think of what other mediums do the same thing.

[Santaria]

So I've kicked it and other socials

Good on ya. I'm not sure how you are with TV but I noticed the same trend in people too. It wasn't the endless scrolling however their as I call it "fast forwarding their live in 30min blocks".

For me it was something I read or heard, I don't remember but I do remember the point. The endless scroll is someone looking for something to trigger that part of the brain for excitement or whatever it called. I realised I did the same and stopped which made see people all around me doing the same thing. Sort of freaked me out and then I started to think of what other mediums do the same thing.

Holy shit! That's an excellent t way to describe it. Thanks Wabbit. Now that I think about it more that's exactly what it was. The endless scroll.

I don't watch TV. Haven't for years. Generally get my news from reddit (with a grain of salt) and trusted YouTube creators.

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[Dr. Pain]

I tend to have my evening meal around news time. That way I can sit and listen/watch and tune out to their crap if needed. If I hear or see something of interest then I'll jump online to find out more.

I'm one of very few people in my class without a phone. I leave it at home. That way I engage with people so much better.

[wabbit]

I forgot to mention review your notification settings, for example try disabling all Facebook notifications. You'll go through stages, assuming something must have happened, "it's been ages, guess I'll check", sometimes there'll be something interesting but overall you'll spent less time in the app.

While you're at it, review all of the apps and services that send notifications, you'll end up controlling when you're interested in something rather than having your attention diverted. Be sneaky, try it with your work's email. I get a lot of email, I finish a task, check my inbox; archive, flag or quickly respond, then get back another task. I've tested this over 4 months, it's amazing. Remember those "I just sent you an email, have you seen it?!?!?" phone calls, I now respond with "I've been busy, lets have a look"... which weirdly works every god damn time.

[durbster]

I deleted Facebook from my phone a couple of months ago and don't miss it at all. I also keep it logged out on desktop browsers. For one thing, it makes it a little more difficult for them to track every breath I take, and it's also a surprisingly effective deterrent to visit the site and have to log in.

It just makes you question whether it's worth the effort of typing your username and password, and usually it's not.

I removed Twitter from my phone's home page to put a similar barrier and that simple act reduced my time on it.

I think just making it slightly more difficult for yourself makes a big difference. It gives you a tiny moment to pause and reflect on whether you're doing it out of habit or because you're genuinely interested in seeing something.

[KNAPPO]

While you're at it, review all of the apps and services that send notifications, you'll end up controlling when you're interested in something rather than having your attention diverted.

I just did this with my new phone. Started clean and only installed apps I used on a regular basis, Facebook and Instagram were in that list but in the Android Digital Wellbeing feature ive put 1hr maximum use times on those apps and turned notifications off.

When Android Q comes the digital wellbeing feature has scored some tweaks which look useful for not getting sucked into the endless scroll.

[norbs]

With regards to tracking. I honestly think it is too late for a lot of us. I fuck around plenty with Facebook. It isn't on my phone. Well, I can't remove it, but I signed up as a dodgy account when I got the phone and I never load it up. I bet it is back there sniffing about though. When i do need to use it on the PC, I always fire up a VPN and random connect somewhere. And use a private window.

As for fucking Google. Well, I am their bitch. And check this out...

[w00dsy]

There's a Firefox container extension that works pretty good.