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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI cancelled my Facebook account today.
The reason I did it is because I was outraged that they took down Elizabeth Warren's post about them but left up the fake videos of Nancy Pelosi. I guess that I just got to the point where I had had enough of this bullshit It is not easy to cancel Facebook and I got some help from the good folks in the DU Lounge to do it. What I did not realize is that the only way to access anyone else's Facebook page is if you, yourself, have an account. Somehow or another, I thought Facebook was open to everyone. Silly me. So now, I can't follow any of my friends or family on Facebook. It's like being banished.
I think Facebook has become a sewer. I think we could find better ways to communicate with each other. Facebook is dangerous, and addictive, like opioids. It will be hard to quit it.
abqtommy
(14,118 posts)I've never gotten involved in any other similar website and I'm glad for that! I'm sure that DU is my substitute!
blueinredohio
(6,797 posts)I never joined Facebook and never will.
hlthe2b
(105,817 posts)never posted, never "liked", never responded to a "friend" request. I only did so to be able to see videos people would link to and I was not about to register myself. LOL
But, I was fed up after what happened in 2016 (actually well before that) and deleted the whole damned thing, closed the email I used to open it and never looked back. I'm told it was a sewer back then, but I never used it enough to know.
But, this is why I get really frustrated when DUers link to facebook.
ResistantAmerican17
(4,071 posts)Endless steps it takes to delete your account. Anything that makes it so complicated to quit is a red flag. Hated them more with each passing breach and spy scandal and glad to be rid of that pox.
erronis
(16,715 posts)They'll never let go of the information they have from you or your friends and friends' friends. They may say you can't see it any more but they can.
And they also capture your online browsing activities even though you aren't an open account.
Any page with a F symbol is tracked with lots of information that is very hard to circumvent.
your digital footprint never leaves facebook.
mitch96
(14,551 posts)It's like knocking down your mailbox and saying your house is not there...
I guess I'm old school.. no face, no tweet.
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ResistantAmerican17
(4,071 posts)Tell me your whole life story surveys and my page getting bombed as a result of their stupidity that was the final straw. Hell, I can find animal stories on reddit. Fuck Facebook
UniteFightBack
(8,231 posts)Dennis Donovan
(24,207 posts)CousinIT
(9,894 posts)They're nothing but a social media version of Fox.
erronis
(16,715 posts)I wouldn't believe a single word that their corporate suite/lawyers say.
Different Drummer
(8,383 posts)This is true. It's not a good site for liberal Democrats.
defacto7
(13,485 posts)A smart and devoted move. We vote with our pocket books, we vote with our internet clicks and we vote by the social media we devote our time to. Our votes count... all of them.
Facebook is a cesspool.
Raven
(14,077 posts)malaise
(277,180 posts)to hand over my life to some greedy millennials
Skittles
(157,807 posts)it astounds me how many people willingly join the Facebook Borg
SWBTATTReg
(23,957 posts)using other platforms to communicate w/ regulars (friends, family, etc.) instead of FB. FB is basically a numbers game, w/ the creator of FB, so they can push their ad revenue. I don't think they really care about the individual person per say on their platform, but instead, deal w/ millions of posts/entries, to push their sales.
Kurt V.
(5,624 posts)japple
(10,272 posts)We can communicate much more quickly with our supporters, transporters, and the other groups who help get help for animals in need everywhere.
A HERETIC I AM
(24,560 posts)Lots of really good people who no longer post here.
I don't want to lose touch. Some sewer systems are so interesting they offer tours.
Like most things, your experience on Facebook is what you make of it.
japple
(10,272 posts)for keeping up with family/friends near and far.
Skittles
(157,807 posts)A HERETIC I AM
(24,560 posts)But the perceived slights others tend to find extreme, political or otherwise are things I generally tend to not take so seriously.
It will bother me when it bothers me. Before that point, not so much.
Skittles
(157,807 posts)alrighty then
CrispyQ
(37,961 posts)You win the internet today!
patphil
(6,853 posts)japple
(10,272 posts)EOM
grantcart
(53,061 posts)sinkingfeeling
(52,862 posts)businesses and organizations but have to plug in one of those cryptic code thingies.
mnhtnbb
(31,913 posts)I use it to stay in touch with family and friends all over the country and around the world as well as to support animal rescue groups.
defacto7
(13,485 posts)You most certainly are not in control. Don't believe for a minute they haven't far out maneuvered common usage practices. They know exactly how to retrieve and use information you don't even know you're giving them. They're not the only ones either, just the most capable.
Irishxs
(622 posts)extvbroadcaster
(343 posts)Facebook popularity is fading. At first, it was just college kids exchanging keg parties and hookups. Then anybody could join, and suddenly it was fun! Everybody was your "friend" and you were contacted by old acquaintances from school and past jobs. Once you saw how old everybody looked, and how fat, and caught up on their lives and their 2.5 kids and their crap - well, you kind of figured out why you lost touch with them in the first place.
Hekate
(94,160 posts)They unwarily post all kinds of info bad actors can use -- you know, fake ransom calls on the teenage grandson who's on Spring break. The kid is not in the Tijuana Jail needing bail, he's not in the trunk of some car, but the guy in the other end of the phone telling grandma to just send money or the kid gets it sure has a lot of personal info to work with. As a local cop told me: grandmas are notorious for posting their brag-books to the whole world with no filters.
Other than that, the positive uses of FB connection are real. During a regional natural disaster, my specific town didn't get much tv coverage once the raging fire crossed the county line into the more important county which incidentally has a tv station. The maps they showed of the danger zone literally stopped at the county line. I went onlne: same thing. Interviews with our Fire Chief -- couldn't find any. But some citizen set up a Facebook page, and it was amazing. Through the fire and the flood and the rescue efforts that followed, he covered the region.
That's one big reason I didn't actually try to unwind my account, aside from knowing that Zuck already has my info and isn't going to delete anything anyway.
Evolve Dammit
(18,317 posts)It's too ripe for the manipulation of so many things. Your "friends" can call, email or text you. If they are really your friends.
Freethinker65
(10,991 posts)still_one
(95,747 posts)and the type of business he runs
erronis
(16,715 posts)tentacles into the internet ecosystem.
Any page that displays a fb "like" is probably sending information back to them about your browsing habits. Even if you don't click on the "like". Same for twitter and google and microsoft, etc.
The web technology is advancing to allow beacons/signals/pings to be broadcast back to them just by hovering over parts of the page or scrolling down. They are monitoring almost all actions we take.
If we are very tech savvy we can disable some of this but even with "private/icognito" browsing these people can link you to other web activities.
Many say they don't care - they have nothing to hide.
I don't know about you but I am frequently looking up medical conditions and cures, scientific and religious articles, tax advice, articles about friends and associates. You'd be surprised how all of these seemingly innocuous searches can be used to formulate a very close idea of who you are as well as who your friends and relatives are.
CDerekGo
(507 posts)But because of Elderly Parents, who just about insisted I reactivate, I'm back on. Probably post a 'funny' meme once a day, just to let them know I'm alive. Otherwise, unless I go visit my folks, and we go to Bok Tower Gardens and I shoot some neat Gardens photos for Mom to see, that's it.
It was tough at first, amazing how much time you'll spend in front of this screen. Of course, almost same can be said for DU...
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)It's how most people around here communicate to a wide area group.
It is NOT a source of news. Even if there's a reference to a news article, I get irritated that people don't take the time to go to the original source. That's how Trumpers get duped. They read a "story" in a secondary source, and never read the original or question it.
I did start following my state's reps (all Trumpers). That may have been a mistake.
Cozmo
(1,402 posts)I did so as well. Didn't know I could do it. First I just shared that FB was dead to me and now I can really stand by my words. I urge everyone on DU to take this stand and show zuckerberg what is right and what is wrong. Bye ~ Bye FB, I will not miss you!
Skittles
(157,807 posts)too many people find convenience trumps any outrage....and yes, it is sheer hypocrisy
welcome to DU
gopiscrap
(24,125 posts)LastLiberal in PalmSprings
(12,838 posts)By the brothers at AVByte
Beringia
(4,481 posts)I do get turned on to lots of good articles about Trump and republicans and democrats and all kinds of different voices on facebook by friends and friends of friends. Things I don't see on DU. Plus as others have pointed out, it is good for animal rights feeds.
Beringia
(4,481 posts)Hekate
(94,160 posts)The proximate cause was my anti-vaxxer issues-with-her-mother daughter blocked me. Since looking at my grandkids that way made me feel like the Little Match Girl in a Hans Christian Andersen story, pressing my nose against a window, I figured I'd just let my SIL give me the news since she is connected to everyone. Hey, I got a phone call for Mother's Day and we had two of the boys for an overnight during their Spring vacation, so not all is lost.
Aside from that, I was dissatisfied with FB already. It's an incredible time-suck. The "news" goes by so fast I can never find a way to get back where I was -- I feel like a rock in a rushing stream watching the leaves whirl by. I would much much rather read the Los Angeles Times or come on DU. The pace is slower, the news more thorough and more reliable.
I was invited to join Pantsuit Nation, and was overwhelmed with the incoming messages, few of which seemed to have anything to do with fixing the political mess we are in, with a preponderance of feel-good stuff. A lot of us thought since it was named for Hillary Clinton.... Hm?
Some old colleagues got in touch, sort of, but when I told them to please email me as I did not trust FB with really personal info ("How are you, Hekate?" -- "Well, since you ask, I am deeply mired in regret and depression, but I don't feel like telling the whole effing world about it. So please email me, you have the address." No I didn't broadcast that negative info. So far, crickets.)
That's the personal stuff. But FB has done zero since 2016 to inspire me with trust. It's infested with trolls from one end to the other. The last most personal straw for me was learning that the anti-vaxxer mommy groups are being targeted by Russian trolls -- because why the hell not, it's a wedge issue.
The thing with Nancy Pelosi is just the frosting on the crap cake. Jeff Zuckerberg is not our friend. He created a product that people just adore and get really hooked on. But he takes no responsibility for the results. None. He's a genius in his field, but he's just another effing sociopath.
Captain Stern
(2,211 posts)I've been on Facebook for over ten years.
I have about a hundred 'friends' on Facebook. I've never added people to my friends list just because we went to high school together, or college together, or that we once worked at the same place, or used to live on the same street. I've never made anyone on Facebook a 'friend' that I wouldn't happily invite into my actual home.
Each, and every, one the people on my friends list is someone that I actually want to be in contact with. We share photos of our grandkids, or landscaping, or something we find humorous.
It's been a good experience for me. On the few occasions that I've had someone that shared a lot of political links, I simply hid those sources. Problem solved.
And as far as Facebook being "open to everyone"...it generally is. But, surely, you couldn't have expected to be able to see everyone else's posts and pictures without sharing your own.
I suppose quitting Facebook is sort of like being banished. But it's not exactly the same as being banished at all. Being banished means you got kicked out. Quitting means you left on our own. So, essentially, you have chosen not to follow your friends or family on Facebook. That's not necessarily a good thing, or bad thing, but the choice was yours.
TheBlackAdder
(28,810 posts).
Thanks for giving me the nudge.
I was thinking about this for a while. Sent my update that I am deleted it, and poof.
.
Opel_Justwax
(230 posts)Who wants to be monitored 24/7 with your phone and computer by a creepy looking kid.
2naSalit
(91,848 posts)You have us, and... and...
Well, you have us!