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

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1293 points rmason | 37 comments | 06 Mar 19 20:30 UTC | HN request time: 1.524s | source | bottom
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peteretep ◴[07 Mar 19 05:44 UTC] No.19325816[source]▶
By far the biggest factor that had me stopping checking Facebook, and indeed LinkedIn, is number of utterly fictitious notifications they generate. There was a time a few years back when that red dot made me drop everything to check FB, but these days it’ll be some completely bullshit message they’ve made a notification out of. Feels like they got greedy for my attention and killed the golden goose there. I check it about once a day now, and in the browser not the app. If the notifications were still meaningful I’d probably still have the app and all the metadata that sent them.
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1. Slartie ◴[07 Mar 19 07:55 UTC] No.19326311[source]▶
Even more annoying is the same thing that they do with email notifications. They seem to keep inventing new "categories" of notifications all the time that I haven't yet opted out of - basically because I seem to be only able to opt out of just that specific category that they just sent me an email about, when I click on the "don't want to receive any more of these mails" link below the message.

And every time, they gladly acknowledge that I will not receive any more messages of that kind.

"Okay, you won't get any more mails about new messages from friends. Okay, you won't get any more mails about stuff your friends liked. Okay, you won't get any more mails about stuff some other random people liked. Okay, you won't get any more mails about new stuff posted in groups you joined. Okay, you won't get any more mails about new stuff posted in groups you did not join, but we think you might be interested in. Okay, you won't get any more mails about new photos posted by your friends. Okay, you won't get any more mails about new photos of cats posted on Facebook. Okay, you won't get any more mails about news articles with dogs in the title. Okay, you won't get any more mails about postings your friends liked that complain about the weather and were written by women of age 35-40."

Okay, admittedly the last three were exagerrated, but all the categories before have been actual "notification categories" that I successfully opted out of, before I put a generic Facebook email filter in my mailbox, because apparently nothing else is able to stop their overly-specific-category-generation-engine from spewing out new categories to keep me busy opting out of.

replies(11): >>19326488 #>>19326577 #>>19326604 #>>19326861 #>>19326971 #>>19327382 #>>19328135 #>>19328568 #>>19330678 #>>19336843 #>>19339843 #
2. martin_a ◴[07 Mar 19 08:39 UTC] No.19326488[source]▶
I have a seperate facebook@ mail address and I simply never check it. Did so before switching hosters last year and saw that about 8k mails had piled up since 2011. Crazy folks.
replies(2): >>19326677 #>>19329535 #
3. sborra ◴[07 Mar 19 09:02 UTC] No.19326577[source]▶
after about 3 or 4 iterations of me reviewing my email setting, I got seriously fed up and I've gone for the nuclear option: all my facebook emails are marked as spam and binned.
4. throwmeback ◴[07 Mar 19 09:08 UTC] No.19326604[source]▶
I opted out of all emails altogether - I only check my notifications once in a while. I've never missed anything of value.
replies(2): >>19326741 #>>19327315 #
5. lostlogin ◴[07 Mar 19 09:27 UTC] No.19326677[source]▶
I wonder if you can still post to Facebook by email. Having this automatically loop would make me happy.

I don’t have an account so can’t check and the instructions for doing it all seem dated.

replies(2): >>19327112 #>>19337745 #
6. jeffhuys ◴[07 Mar 19 09:40 UTC] No.19326741[source]▶
Then why do you still check it?
replies(3): >>19327125 #>>19327462 #>>19327825 #
7. mihaifm ◴[07 Mar 19 10:07 UTC] No.19326861[source]▶
I tried setting up email filters based on subject and keywords, I currently have around 15-20 but it's a futile attempt, they keep changing everything, they've even changed the language. It really feels like I'm harassed by a beggar at this point.
replies(2): >>19328189 #>>19328260 #
8. pjc50 ◴[07 Mar 19 10:30 UTC] No.19326971[source]▶
Fortunately google have helped me deal with facebook by dumping all their emails into a "social" tab which I rarely bother to look at.
replies(1): >>19327755 #
9. martin_a ◴[07 Mar 19 10:59 UTC] No.19327112{3}[source]▶
Seems like that is discontinued: https://www.lifewire.com/post-updates-and-upload-photos-by-e...

Never knew that was an option, but shutting it down just seems logical when you see the aggressive lock-in they are doing.

10. qubex ◴[07 Mar 19 11:01 UTC] No.19327125{3}[source]▶
I’m in the same boat as the GP: no emails allowed, notifications disabled. I also go back to check in the app about a couple times per week (and I’ve never missed anything of value, either). I guess it’s the residual concession to a very strong and deeply engrained habit, combined with the fact that there are some people I don’t have any other line of communication to/from, so it makes sense to maintain the toehold on the platform.
replies(1): >>19337732 #
11. collyw ◴[07 Mar 19 11:53 UTC] No.19327315[source]▶
> I've never missed anything of value.

How can you be sure of that if you didn't see it?

replies(1): >>19327446 #
12. mayhaffs ◴[07 Mar 19 12:13 UTC] No.19327382[source]▶
It’s completely absurd.
13. martin-adams ◴[07 Mar 19 12:28 UTC] No.19327446{3}[source]▶
It's still there when you check it once in a while, just you don't need to be distracted by it constantly. I also have turned off notifications for all social media and email. I feel happier and embrace having peace being okay with maybe missing out on something.
14. nicky0 ◴[07 Mar 19 12:31 UTC] No.19327462{3}[source]▶
There is some useful content and updates in the groups I am a member of.
15. chrisweekly ◴[07 Mar 19 13:18 UTC] No.19327755[source]▶
Too bad Google Inbox has only a couple weeks left till it's retired. :(
replies(1): >>19329457 #
16. tome ◴[07 Mar 19 13:29 UTC] No.19327825{3}[source]▶
To avoid missing anything of value!
17. gnu8 ◴[07 Mar 19 14:17 UTC] No.19328135[source]▶
I’m not sure why this company is still allowed to send mail. Why can’t their mail servers be blacklisted?
replies(1): >>19328290 #
18. lcnmrn ◴[07 Mar 19 14:25 UTC] No.19328189[source]▶
I filter messages that contain the Unsubscribe word.
replies(2): >>19328741 #>>19330430 #
19. hyeonwho4 ◴[07 Mar 19 14:33 UTC] No.19328260[source]▶
I've been auto-deleting emails from * @facebook * for 8 years. Never fails.
20. gruez ◴[07 Mar 19 14:37 UTC] No.19328290[source]▶
There's nothing preventing you from setting up your own blacklist/filter. OTOH, most people don't care about this, and would be outraged if their mail provider started blocking facebook's mail.
replies(1): >>19328368 #
21. gnu8 ◴[07 Mar 19 14:44 UTC] No.19328368{3}[source]▶
I’m not sure if they would. It seems to me that, at best, the email has zero value to an enthusiastic Facebook user, because they are routinely engaged with the site, and have the app installed on their mobile device to receive the notifications directly. The emails are redundant to them and an unnecessary load on the internet infrastructure.
22. wlesieutre ◴[07 Mar 19 15:07 UTC] No.19328568[source]▶
I'm pretty sure Facebook got this strategy from LinkedIn too.
23. _57jb ◴[07 Mar 19 15:26 UTC] No.19328741{3}[source]▶
Omg...so simple...so brilliant.
24. pjc50 ◴[07 Mar 19 16:37 UTC] No.19329457{3}[source]▶
This sounds like a stupid question, but it's a consequence of Google using a ridiculous product name: how do I tell if I'm using Inbox?
replies(1): >>19329545 #
25. arminiusreturns ◴[07 Mar 19 16:45 UTC] No.19329535[source]▶
This is also how I do it and one of the reasons I encourage people to own their own domain and email (among other reasons). I have used dreamhost since 2007 but I am really not happy about their recent move to a non-foss webmail. (to atmail from squirrel) Besides that though they are pretty awesome.

So any service that feels slightly abusive gets its own email like that, and then ignored usually.

26. omosubi ◴[07 Mar 19 16:46 UTC] No.19329545{4}[source]▶
Inbox.google.com - they also have separate apps
replies(1): >>19329629 #
27. pjc50 ◴[07 Mar 19 16:55 UTC] No.19329629{5}[source]▶
Right. In that case I'm not and never have been using Inbox, but I still got the separated lowercase-i-inbox from https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox
28. craigds ◴[07 Mar 19 18:08 UTC] No.19330430{3}[source]▶
Wow this is perfect! It wouldn't work well for my work email where I need tk keep track of emails from service providers etc, but this is perfect for personal emails. Thanks :)
29. JohnFen ◴[07 Mar 19 18:31 UTC] No.19330678[source]▶
> Even more annoying is the same thing that they do with email notifications.

Oh, so much this, especially with LinkedIn. The email problem is, in the end, what got me to delete my LinkedIn account a couple of years back. And I STILL get frequent emails from them.

replies(1): >>19337415 #
30. pasta ◴[08 Mar 19 12:09 UTC] No.19336843[source]▶
This is an indication that user commitment is very low on Facebook.

As long as users are actively involved there is no need to send emails.

Sending emails is a (bad) trick to make people curious and make them login to your platform again.

I think the Facebook app is just 'dead' and Facebook is lucky to have Instagram.

replies(1): >>19337700 #
31. mad182 ◴[08 Mar 19 13:48 UTC] No.19337415[source]▶
I saw your comment and thought to myself I haven't seen any emails from LinkedIn in a while. Then I remembered why - https://i.imgur.com/J4d4VLk.png
32. ardy42 ◴[08 Mar 19 14:27 UTC] No.19337700[source]▶
> This is an indication that user commitment is very low on Facebook.

> As long as users are actively involved there is no need to send emails.

IIRC, Facebook sends those messages only when they've detected an account's usage dropping off. When I was a regular user, I never got them; but when I stopped logging in for days or weeks at at time, they got more intense.

They're a deliberately designed mechanism to keep addicts hooked.

replies(1): >>19342833 #
33. ardy42 ◴[08 Mar 19 14:30 UTC] No.19337732{4}[source]▶
I managed to get the emails under control (IIRC, there are only about two or three dozen different types you have to individually opt of, and they haven't been aggressive about adding new ones to that list), so I never have to check the app. The only think I want a notifications for are event invites, and that's pretty much what I have.
34. ardy42 ◴[08 Mar 19 14:32 UTC] No.19337745{3}[source]▶
> I wonder if you can still post to Facebook by email. Having this automatically loop would make me happy.

Nope, and you can't reply to messages either (you used to). It's actually so bad that they don't even show you the message content in the email notifications, to better lure you back to their site.

Whatever engineer who worked to implementing those regressions was being an asshole.

replies(1): >>19337923 #
35. martin_a ◴[08 Mar 19 14:51 UTC] No.19337923{4}[source]▶
It's the same for LinkedIn and it really sucks.
36. cl0ne ◴[08 Mar 19 17:36 UTC] No.19339843[source]▶
I haven't logged in for a long time and they've started sending me text message notifications about friends posting photos.
37. Slartie ◴[08 Mar 19 22:30 UTC] No.19342833{3}[source]▶
That would match my usage pattern, so I guess you are correct. I'm using Facebook only rarely and am definitely and completely away from it for several days or even weeks between periods of usage.