←back to thread

U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says

(www.marketplace.org)
1293 points rmason | 1 comments | 06 Mar 19 20:30 UTC | HN request time: 0.216s | source
Show context
autoconfig ◴[07 Mar 19 06:48 UTC] No.19326043[source]▶
Whenever the topic of Facebook gets brought up I see a lot of comments on how "the news feed sucks". That it's filled with hateful comments. Leaving facebook is great because it takes toxic people out of your lives! What seems to be missing from the conversation is that Facebook to a large extent is what you make it to be. _You_ decide who to follow, who to keep as your friend, whose post you want to see. There is nothing stopping you from simply removing everyone except your family members and your good friends in which case I'd argue it actually becomes a great tool and a net positive.
replies(6): >>19326139 #>>19326142 #>>19326188 #>>19326244 #>>19326305 #>>19327123 #
1. ImaCake ◴[07 Mar 19 07:54 UTC] No.19326305[source]▶
>What seems to be missing from the conversation is that Facebook to a large extent is what you make it to be.

Regretfully, this was not the case for me. I tried tweaking my news feed to my preferences for multiple years and it still showed me crap that made me sad. More importantly, mindlessly scrolling my news feed was a time sink, and I found it very difficult to stop. I was definitely addicted to it, in the same way that I experienced addiction to chocolate to cope with my PhD.

I broke the addiction for myself by using a news feed blocker recommended by a friend. Recently, I deleted all the content off my facebook in the hope it would discourage other people from interacting with facebook. The addictive properties of facebook are all in instagram, even if it is less toxic, so I hold it in similar disdain.