This is partly why I am not installing Facebook or Messenger on my iPhone X. Additionally, both apps are massive time wasters for me and, last time I checked, collectively take up a nontrivial amount of space on device. While I haven't been able to entirely exterminate Facebook from my life, restricting myself to accessing it from a "real" computer only has been most refreshing.
> I get fewer features that way but fewer distractions.
Not necessarily. I use the Facebook web app because I'm not crippled from using Messenger as I am on their main app. Who needs the notifications anyway?
And seriously, why does Facebook need to be a >30 MB download? It's just a frontend pulling from an API.
>I think the happy medium here, where you can still keep in touch with people but not get sucked into checking it all the time, is deleting the app from your phone. It used to be habit for me to unlock my phone and if I didn't have anything to do, just open the app and begin scrolling. Once that wasn't easily accessible I stopped completely. Now I only go on Facebook if I have a reason to, like looking someone up or checking the only group (fantasy sports) that is active. I also can still use messenger for those few people that prefer it.
The service goes out of its way to make you install the app too, which I find annoying. The mobile site doesn't actually allow you to check your private messages without installing Messenger.
Really the only thing I use it for at this point is for invitations to events, notices when bands I like are performing, and the like. But every day it seems like they make it harder to just be an intermittent user of the site.
> For instance, I’d use Facebook and Twitter much less on my phone if I had to use them through the browser
This was the most interesting line in the article for me because I recently had the same thought. But my reaction was to uninstall Facebook because I wanted to use it less!
It's one of the best computing decisions I've made in years. I still have Messenger so I don't miss anything truly important. The FB web app is perfectly serviceable for the rare occasion when I need to use it. My battery life has improved. The rest of my Facebooking now happens solely on my PC and all I really miss out on is scrolling through the same items in my feed 6 times a day.
The two simple acts of uninstalling Facebook and turning off push notifications for email have given me back those periods of the day where I'm alone with my thoughts. You know, those moments that people are always lamenting have been destroyed by the smartphone.
> As soon as someone discovers the non-App store version of Facebook is somehow worse then there will be a thousand Facebook posts and articles telling you not to install it that way.
The problem is, Facebook could easily take the iOS App Store option away and make the alt-store option mandatory. And they have the power to do so and get away with it. People are too entrenched in their ecosystem, and there's no viable path off of it. User protests like this on social media rarely end in favor of the users.
I'm one of the people that quit Facebook entirely, and it does actually hurt me IRL. Too many friends and family members coordinate events and share news exclusively through Facebook.
> Less Facebook == more happy. It's the best advice I can give.
I completely agree, and this works for me too. I take long breaks from Facebook and find it refreshing. It also becomes painful to think of logging in to Facebook afterwards. The tons of notifications and tags and replies. There's too much on the platform manipulating people to stay on it. FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) is real, and I know people who cannot stay without checking Facebook everyday. The main reason I haven't quit Facebook is because I use it for some activism related topics, and a huge audience exists on the platform.
For privacy reasons, to protect myself a bit more and to avoid ads, I mostly Facebook only from a browser on a computer. I don't use the app even though I know I can deny permissions for contacts, photos, camera, mic, location, notifications, etc., on iOS. Sometimes I visit mbasic.facebook.com from the browser on the phone for kicks and to get to messenger directly without jumping through hoops.
>This was the last straw that made me delete the app and my account entirely a few years ago.
Why not just disable notifications, or just uninstall the app without deleting your account? Facebook can still be of use to you without you being of use to it.
I've long used Facebook only for messaging and managing events because it's an effective and ubiquitous platform for both of these things.
> If they didn't like Facebook (or Android, or... etc) they'd just stop using it.
I don't like Android, and I am not using it.
But I have to use facebook because some real life events that I should attend are organized on Facebook.
Similarly WhatsApp. I give it no permissions, which makes it a little awkward as I have to memorize (or lookup) phone numbers; But I have missed several important announcements when I wasn't on WhatsApp.
> Anyhow it's sad that Facebook has so much of my family's lives hostage... Only there can I see what's up.
I'm not the social media kind of people, but I have some friends and family members, that my last words were through facebook. So as a communication tool, I see its value. Said that, I don't have the app installed anywhere. Just messages notifications via email.
> Are they taking about the same Facebook? I find it utterly boring and only use it for messenger anymore.
Same. But I've also stopped using Messenger lately, mostly because I haven't had much of a social life due to Covid. Messenger is super convenient though to get in touch with people, as you don't have to exchange phone numbers to be able to message someone you recently met. But at the same time I'm worried that years worth of my private communication are being stored unencrypted and eventually leaked, so I've been nudging friends I communicate with frequently off FB, successfully (Signal or Whatsapp).
All that said I do miss FB a bit, since a lot of actual friend updates happen there. I don't really understand people who complain about political bullshit. I suppose a) you don't have proper adblockers (if political ads are a thing in your area) and/or b) you are friends with the wrong people.
But also, as you say, people are too afraid to share the more intimate stuff that made it interesting and social in the first place. So it's kind of a dead end.
> My problem is just with the addictive nature of apps in general. Facebook is probably a worse violator than Snapchat, but in the end all popular apps by definition sort of have to do this. Call me a hypocrite since I've been obsessed with computers and tech my whole life, but something about this makes me so sad. I hope we can live in a future where we are not all glued to our phones all the time.
Agree! Your hope is my hope, but I'm losing faith fast.
>Mid-2021, I stop using FB for anything beyond Marketplace.
The only things I find FB useful for are Marketplace and Messenger. Marketplace is an OK way to sell your junk locally (it basically took over from Craigslist because CL was taken over by scammers and CL never bothered to do anything about it), and Messenger is a convenient glorified phone book and chat app which has a video chat feature that actually works quite well through any browser and doesn't require a local client application like Zoom. It's also really convenient that it works through both my phone and through a browser on my PC, so it's easy to switch back and forth (much easier to type messages on a PC, for instance).
> Facebook is a very good product - as a social CRM and messaging service, no one even comes close.
No, not really. Messenger is the worst messaging app I am obliged to use daily; perhaps tied with Slack. All of my friends with whom I’ve discussed this agree, but the sheer number of people we would like to chat with that use Messenger, plus Facebook’s refusal to support open standards, means Messenger’s quality is irrelevant.
This is partly why I am not installing Facebook or Messenger on my iPhone X. Additionally, both apps are massive time wasters for me and, last time I checked, collectively take up a nontrivial amount of space on device. While I haven't been able to entirely exterminate Facebook from my life, restricting myself to accessing it from a "real" computer only has been most refreshing.
reply