I Deleted My Facebook Account...

WilliamG

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... And I feel good!

I started using FB in 2009 to keep in touch with my whitewater kayaking friends. It was fun to stay in touch during the off season and to plan and discuss boating. We posted pics and stories. Planned river trips... My family soon joined in. I then had more friends from years past showing up. My old surfing and high school people were on board. All was fun, posting things we were eating, how cool life was, and cat memes...

Then the 2016 election campaign started (2014 to be exact)... Being the Progressive Activist most of us water people are... I started to join the banter. By 2015, I started hiding and then finally dropping friends that were becoming hostile about their devotion to 'Dear Leader'. I even unfriended many of my boating friends because I didn't want to subject them to my political banters. I learned very fast that if you posted a comment against the Far Right on the Fox News FB page... All my wonderful friends would see it. But I felt it was important to share my views. So I dropped them (we are still friends in real life though!).

It's now post election 2021. My wife (who does not will not ever use FB) asked me why on earth I was looking at the comments on the Fox News FB feed. My view was: There are 50 million folks that follow Fox. Not all of them are "stupid idiots". Knowing what that large sector of the voting population is thinking is important no matter how crazy it seemed. I wanted to know how they came to their conclusions politically. Why they looked to even Civil War. I even took the time to report the violent and propagandists to FB. They never ONCE did a thing. The response was always, "There was a technical error - please resubmit...". I was starting to see a pattern.

So my point of all this? I replied to Mr. LPSG's post about what could improve this section. One thing here is there is more of a community of members with some skin in the game. I may not post much. But I do have a much clearer picture of how things work.

Anyone else a Facebook refuge? <g>
 
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ActionBuddy

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Back in 2008, I think, (?), I joined it, then left it after two weeks of being totally annoyed by the intrusiveness of it. I had nothing to "promote", so why be on it?

I have this thing, called a "telephone". My parting message on Facebook was: "If you are actually a friend, then you have my phone number. If you want to know what I am up to, call me."

And, then I deleted the few items that I had posted, all "Friend" requests, and changed the default language of my profile to Serbian.


A/B
 
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deleted1074483

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i also have pointedly refused to join FB - more because I actually read the T&Cs - OMG do people realise what they sign over? FB is not 'free' to users, users give over pretty much control of anything and everything on their laptop as well as their lives. I often ask organisations, even where i work, why they post everything on FB as it almost means i am forced to join ( I haven't joined) - i've missed things from work and when challenged I say that FB is not the route for communicating with me! hate it!!!
 

WilliamG

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i also have pointedly refused to join FB - more because I actually read the T&Cs - OMG do people realise what they sign over? FB is not 'free' to users, users give over pretty much control of anything and everything on their laptop as well as their lives. I often ask organisations, even where i work, why they post everything on FB as it almost means i am forced to join ( I haven't joined) - i've missed things from work and when challenged I say that FB is not the route for communicating with me! hate it!!!

This fact was stunning: "In 2015, Facebook was calculating a user to be worth $3.73 per quarter. By the end of 2017, this was up to $6.18 per user. That's a 165% increase in two years".
 

bar4doug

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... And I feel good!

Anyone else a Facebook refuge? <g>

Not a refuge, because I was never on it to begin with... Glad you have found peace with it. I thank myself everyday for never taking the plunge.

I like to keep my personal life personal. I feel that actively participating on Facebook just sucks the life out of you.

Social media, and internet connectivity has changed how we live our lives... I am not sure it's for the better.
 

bar4doug

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i also have pointedly refused to join FB - more because I actually read the T&Cs - OMG do people realise what they sign over? FB is not 'free' to users, users give over pretty much control of anything and everything on their laptop as well as their lives. I often ask organisations, even where i work, why they post everything on FB as it almost means i am forced to join ( I haven't joined) - i've missed things from work and when challenged I say that FB is not the route for communicating with me! hate it!!!

If it's still on Netflix, I recommend a viewing of "Terms and Conditions May Apply". It's shocking how much data they collect on you...
 

WilliamG

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If it's still on Netflix, I recommend a viewing of "Terms and Conditions May Apply". It's shocking how much data they collect on you...
Yes. That movie really spelled it out. But you know how it goes: You start with chatting about your pet, what you ate, and how your day's going... And down the rabbit hole we go!
 

ActionBuddy

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After so many years since I dropped off of Facebook, a few years ago, I attempted to rejoin it, using the same username that I had chosen the first time. It was nowhere to be found, which seemed odd because there is no "Delete My Account" button to click on, and I have read, repeatedly, that your username and posted content is permanent, for all eternity. I even asked a couple of friends to search for my username... Na da.

The reason
why I wanted to rejoin, (in sleuth mode), was because for the third time, I had missed a funeral and/or wake for someone that I cared about, and when I confronted some mutual friends about why I had not been informed about our friend's death and funeral and/or wake, each and everyone of them all said, "Well, it was on my Facebook!", in a tone that implied that it was my "fault" that I was uninformed. (SO disturbing that no one bothered to me a phone call!) They just all now assume you are also on Facebook or Instagram, slobbering over their "feed".

I've also missed many parties and other events, (even a fucking wedding!), because the ONLY way they were promoted was via Facebook... Ugh!

Missing out on things was my only motivation to attempt to rejoin it. But, since that time, so much new information has come out about the evils of Facebook, so I'm glad that I did not create a new account on it.

A/B
 
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halcyondays

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I applaud your choice.

I dropped Facebook years ago for the same reasons I dropped MySpace (anyone remember MySpace? lol).

1. I rarely used it.
2. I had no desire to look at vacation pics/video of family & friends. Anyone remember when that was torture?
3. Or what they ate at a restaurant and with whom.
4. Or what sports, hobbies or other activities they, their kids, grandkids or pets are doing.
5. Or hear their monologues about their lives or opinions.
6. It's the height of narcissism to take pics of myself and post them. That goes double for video. Triple for pics of others.
7. Are we really this narcissistic as a species? Social media has exposed this dark underbelly of human nature like nothing else. People are falling in love with their own image and falling to their deaths trying to take the perfect selfie. And selfie sticks? WTF.
8. Instead of bringing us closer together social media has isolated us behind screens. And screams. It's making us increasing asocial and antisocial.
9. It was known well before 2016 that FB used and was being used to influence elections. By that definition it's free press and should be subject to the same law as the press.
10. The shithead who started FB began it as Facesmash--a place where college boys posted and rated girls without their permission. Harvard should have expelled him and he should have been prosecuted. Anyone remember what smash/pass meant? Since then he's become an advertising billionaire. He's a robber baron. Nothing more.

This goes for insta, snap, twitter, and all other social media platforms except YouTube which I use to geek out on science, history and other educational topics I like.

I applaud all who drop social media and get take back their lives. :cool:
 

ActionBuddy

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I applaud your choice.

I dropped Facebook years ago for the same reasons I dropped MySpace (anyone remember MySpace? lol).

1. I rarely used it.
2. I had no desire to look at vacation pics/video of family & friends. Anyone remember when that was torture?
3. Or what they ate at a restaurant and with whom.
4. Or what sports, hobbies or other activities they, their kids, grandkids or pets are doing.
5. Or hear their monologues about their lives or opinions.
6. It's the height of narcissism to take pics of myself and post them. That goes double for video. Triple for pics of others.
7. Are we really this narcissistic as a species? Social media has exposed this dark underbelly of human nature like nothing else. People are falling in love with their own image and falling to their deaths trying to take the perfect selfie. And selfie sticks? WTF.
8. Instead of bringing us closer together social media has isolated us behind screens. And screams. It's making us increasing asocial and antisocial.
9. It was known well before 2016 that FB used and was being used to influence elections. By that definition it's free press and should be subject to the same law as the press.
10. The shithead who started FB began it as Facesmash--a place where college boys posted and rated girls without their permission. Harvard should have expelled him and he should have been prosecuted. Anyone remember what smash/pass meant? Since then he's become an advertising billionaire. He's a robber baron. Nothing more.

This goes for insta, snap, twitter, and all other social media platforms except YouTube which I use to geek out on science, history and other educational topics I like.

I applaud all who drop social media and get take back their lives. :cool:

Wait!... Does that mean you don't want to be alerted every time one of your "friends" is going to take a dump, with a detailed report of the "outcome"?

Geez... Some "friend" you turn out to be!


:D
 

ActionBuddy

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Recently I read that FB had formed a 'Government Oversight Committee". As in a virtual Facebook government. That creeps the hell out of me!

I think "they" and Google ARE the "new government". Overseeing our every activity, and profiting from it.

A/B
 
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bar4doug

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I applaud your choice.

I dropped Facebook years ago for the same reasons I dropped MySpace (anyone remember MySpace? lol).

2. I had no desire to look at vacation pics/video of family & friends. Anyone remember when that was torture?

Reminds me of that Flintstones episode where Fred wants to show everyone photos and home movies of Pebbles.... Hanna-Barberra nailed it 60 years ago...
 

ActionBuddy

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Another item to add to the "What Made Me Laugh Today" file:

BusinessInsider.com:
533 million Facebook users' phone numbers and personal data have been leaked online
  • The personal data of over 500 million Facebook users has been posted online in a low-level hacking forum.
  • The data includes phone numbers, full names, location, email address, and biographical information.
  • Security researchers warn that the data could be used by hackers to impersonate people and commit fraud.
A user in a low level hacking forum on Saturday published the phone numbers and personal data of hundreds of millions of Facebook users for free online.

The exposed data includes personal information of over 533 million Facebook users from 106 countries, including over 32 million records on users in the US, 11 million on users in the UK, and 6 million on users in India. It includes their phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, locations, birthdates, bios, and — in some cases — email addresses.

Insider reviewed a sample of the leaked data and verified several records by matching known Facebook users' phone numbers with the IDs listed in the data set. We also verified records by testing email addresses from the data set in Facebook's password reset feature, which can be used to partially reveal a user's phone number.

A Facebook spokesperson told Insider that the data was scraped due to a vulnerability that the company patched in 2019.

While a couple of years old, the leaked data could provide valuable information to cybercriminals who use people's personal information to impersonate them or scam them into handing over login credentials, according to Alon Gal, CTO of cybercrime intelligence firm Hudson Rock, who first discovered the entire trough of leaked data online on Saturday.

"A database of that size containing the private information such as phone numbers of a lot of Facebook's users would certainly lead to bad actors taking advantage of the data to perform social engineering attacks [or] hacking attempts," Gal told Insider.

Gal first discovered the leaked data in January when a user in the same hacking forum advertised an automated bot that could provide phone numbers for hundreds of millions of Facebook users in exchange for a price. Motherboard reported on that bot's existence at the time and verified that the data was legitimate.

Now, the entire dataset has been posted on the hacking forum for free, making it widely available to anyone with rudimentary data skills.

Insider attempted to reach the leaker through messaging app Telegram but did not get a response.

This is not the first time that a huge number of Facebook users' phone numbers have been found exposed online. The vulnerability that was uncovered in 2019 allowed millions of people's phone numbers to be scraped from Facebook's servers in violation of its terms of service. Facebook said that vulnerability was patched in August 2019.

Facebook previously vowed to crack down on mass data-scraping after Cambridge Analytica scraped the data of 80 million users in violation of Facebook's terms of service to target voters with political ads in the 2016 election.

Gal said that, from a security standpoint, there's not much Facebook can do to help users affected by the breach since their data is already out in the open — but he added that Facebook could notify users so they could remain vigilant for possible phishing schemes or fraud using their personal data.


"Individuals signing up to a reputable company like Facebook are trusting them with their data and Facebook [is] supposed to treat the data with utmost respect," Gal said. "Users having their personal information leaked is a huge breach of trust and should be handled accordingly."
...

A/B
 

twoton

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One concern about not engaging in the social media is that “you have a social media presence whether you know it or not,” and engaging in SM practices is one way of controlling your narrative.
 
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Good for you. I want to delete Facebook. The only thing stopping me is how it has come to serve as an elaborate phone book for me (in an age without phone books). If I really need to reach out to someone from my past for some reason, they're likely on Facebook.

To me Facebook took a huge dive when they introduced "negative" reactions like the mad face and (depending on context) the laughing face. Before then, Facebook somewhat mimicked "real life," which dictates that you generally stifle the urge to glare or laugh when you disagree with something someone around you has said, even if you thought it was really dumb. (Well, I'm from the Midwest. We keep the peace.)

If someone wants an online space where the heightened social rules don't apply, then anonymous forums like this one are perfect. Facebook chose to be in that uncomfortable middle ground of NOT being anonymous, but also permitting and promoting a lot of negativity.
 
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