So after a long period of getting progressively more irritated with FB I deleted my account last night. While I didn’t delete every single item I have ever been a part of, I decided that if I was going to be on social media, I wanted more of a say on what is shared and wanted to find a place where my participation wasn’t predicated on targeted ads and being a product to be shilled.
So, now I’m on ello. We’ll see how that goes.
Truly a MPSIMS, but I had to get that off my chest.
I’m curious what irritated you so much. Thinking about all the things that have irritated me, Facebook has various tweaks and such to let you control what pops up in your news feed. I’ve managed to become 150% less irritated by simply blocking a dozen or so of the most common game invites.
As for the odd irritating person who happens to belong to a group I’m in, it’s easy enough to “see fewer posts like this” and poof 99% of them disappear.
ello.co is nice. My wife uses it (in addition to FB, LJ, and Instagram).
I’m getting close to jumping ship, but for a different reason: the news feed will display two or three items, then stop on one that looks like it got stuck halfway (the outline shows faintly, but there’s no content). At that point the feed is frozen and won’t go any further. Happens on both my computers and with multiple browsers, so I have to conclude it has something to do with my profile. But the biggest sticking point is that several requests for information and/or help seem to have gone straight to the proverbial bit bucket.
If for some reason there are any photos or anything that you want from your account, there’s an option to download your entire history/picture albums/etc. before you delete your account.
I don’t use my real name on Facebook. They have dinged me about that once already. So I gave them another fake name. Their insistence on policing pseudonyms greatly irritates me.
Sure, they want to sell my personal information to advertisers. I knew this. But being so damn brassy about “they won’t pay if we can’t give them your real name and possibly your phone number…”
Did you clear your cache(s)?
I did a lot of that already (I never have, and never will play Farmville so stop giving me bales of hay…) , but overall it’s the thought of having everything I put online tailored so that I can be sold stuff that has put me over the edge. That and just how much data farming goes on. I know Google and their ilk are just as bad, but I’m taking steps to mitigate that as well.
Thank goodness for this. I’ve already discovered that someone I really respected and liked is totally against a woman’s right to choose. And I HATE all of the pathetic dog posts. “Adopt this cute widdle puppy and give him a forever home.” NO. :mad: Stop trying to milk my sympathies. Oh, and then there’s the runner guy who posts all his running updates. Kill me now.
I admit I can almost totally ignore FB if I want. As for the data mining, yes, well, I hates it too, but I figure they’ll get you in one way or another. Just need to have a strong will, which I do.
Yup, several times — no effect. It also happened with a squeaky-clean Chrome install that I did specifically to test the issue.
Removing Facebook from my life is an idea that I find amazingly bright and cheery. Will you help me?
Were you actually able to delete the account, so that when people look for you, you have left the building?
Is there a setting or a user contol panel option for this? How did you do it?
Thanks!
I have not deleted my account because I use the PMs more than email with family but I almost never check it anymore. I always end up getting in to it with someone over news stories or I feel I must say something when one of my cousins posts some stupid shit about how there are no real atheists, or how they will turn when in need, or how they aren’t real Americans, or how the not real god-rejecting atheists are trying to take way their freedoms. I can’t help myself. So I just stay away as much as possible. It’s been especially bad since the marriage equality act passed and even worse with this Confederate flag garbage.
There are really cool Straight Dopers on my friends list though, so I doubt I’ll ever go away completely.
Thank you!
I have just run through that. A few clicks was all it took. There was a note at the end saying that I had 2 weeks to log in if I wanted to take it back, so if anyone else would like to be free of that burden, it ain’t like a bullet to the head.
Thanks again.
more and more I’m glad I never had a Facebook account. can’t understand why the hell anyone would want one.
I can keep up with all my friends and family. I have it tweaked pretty well so for the most part I don’t see crap that annoys me.
Mostly I wanted to post that between the Chrome add-ons AdBlock Plus and Social Fixer I haven’t seen an ad in years.
I don’t use my real name, either, and FB is none the wiser. The account has a generic yahoo email address attached to it that is not used for anything else. I run Adblock Plus and Social Fixer to further anonymize myself. Friends know who I am and that’s OK. I am always referred by them by my pseudonym.
I never see ads nor game requests.
So what do you useuse FB for, then? Why even belong?
Note that these are real questions. I’m not just being snarky. I’ve never been on FB because I could never figure out the point. So let me in on the secret: what is it for?
Like any social networking site, it’s useful as a content aggregator. I find it handy for following a couple dozen blogs, celebrities (both the famous and ridiculous) and assorted news outlets. Is there a better way of doing this aside from manually checking each blog and news site several times throughout the day?
I’m confused. Sort of doing a background check on you how would they have any knowledge that the FB name you choose to use is not your IRL name?