I find myself using LinkedIn more than i used to. Which isn’t a lot. But there are a couple of people i sort of keep up with on LinkedIn, that i might have kept up with on Facebook.
I pretty much only use the messenger function, but I don’t have the app. I’ll look in occasionally on my laptop, see if anyone’s messaged me, and once in a while I’ll message someone, say if I’m going to be around their area visiting, but I don’t post general updates any more. I think I posted when I moved to Scotland. I rarely bother looking at the feed, and it’s always only the ‘friends’ feed if I do.
It’s still got some uses for me; there’s a bunch of people I see occasionally at events, or I used to see, and people I’ve met in other countries that aren’t close friends and I may not see for years on end, so it’s nice to have the option to occasionally catch up in a low pressure kind of way. The advantage of drifting away slowly is that I can give updated contact details to anyone I find myself still chatting to, and I’m not cut off completely if one of them emerges from the murk and wonders how I’m doing.
My experience is about 6 years old, but:
- There was an infuriating 30-day cooling-off period. Infuriating because they second-guessed my choice, worse than cancelling an Amex Skymiles card, and infuriating because they were kind of right (if not for worthy reasons).
- I downloaded an archive of all my activity and was somewhat consternated to find that messages I’d deleted for privacy reasons were still there. Yes, everything on the internet is permanent, and both parties of a PM actually have it, but I wanted it gone from my account in case I lost access for whatever reasons, and it was still available in the archive.
- Eventually I decided I had to keep the account, if for no other reason than to ensure I control it while I’m alive, but it’s also baked into a lot of social events and my kids’ activities.
- I went back and forth on the political drama and finally unfollowed every single person in my contact list except for immediate family. Now I don’t see the trivia or drama unless I have to.
- I’ve gone back and re-followed a couple here and there. The reality is it’s a social nexus for a lot of people I know, and if I’m not keeping up with them there, I’m losing them entirely, so a couple of times a year I put my left foot in, take my left foot out, and hoky-poky back out of there.
So that’s that. I have no recommendations, just the warning about private info, and insight into my experience.
I did create an account years and years ago. Never used it. But sometimes I would get ‘pinged’ or whatever by some random person that I might have not known in high school.
So I deleted the account.
BUT it turns out I needed it because one company I use every year or so ONLY communicates via Facebook. Well, it’s a dog kennel and that’s the only place they post pictures of your dogs when they stay.
Facebook would not allow me to join up again. It said I violated their terms. HOW??? I never posted a freaking word.
Of course no one would tell me what was up. You might as well try to call Bill Gates to ask him about Excel.
After about a year of trying, it did start working again, I have no idea what that was about.
So, I would just think carefully if there are any companies that you frequent that use Facebook.
I used to have a cartoon on the fridge, not sure what ever happened to it, with a cowboy hog-tieing a calf. The calf says “I thought we were friends!” The cowboy replies “Facebook ‘friends’, sure!” That pretty much sums up how I felt about FB before I quit. A lot of your Facebook “friends” weren’t really your friends at all.
I quit the second the Cambridge Analytica scandal came to light. It has been years, so I don’t remember exactly what I did, but I deleted/canceled everything I could and have never revisited the site.
Oh, yeah, and it recommended JillGat (a Straight Dope admin? or moderator)? as a friend, even though I had never ever mentioned on facebook that I was a member of the Dope. Somehow it snooped through my browsing history and tried to link us up. This creeped me way out.
I was pretty active on Facebook for a while, but a few years ago I finally got disgusted enough with Zuckerberg, so…I announced I was leaving, but instead of flouncing out of the room I just unfriended most of the people I was friends with and set my account to private. I would like to get rid of it entirely, but unfortunately a lot of communication and information in my town passes through it, plus I serve some town functions that have social media accounts. Also, there are a handful of people I’d like to stay updated on, so I still lurk and check in on them. I think I may have one or two posts in each of the last two years…
My story similar to many here. Joined early, 2005ish ? fun message group, found old friends, new ones…politics intruded, Zuckerburg showed his bad side. I really got disgusted with the bots appearing, but had lost interest by then. I still have an account, but have notifications silenced, check in here and there if summoned by someone RIP. Instagram seems as bad, and a pox on everything else…(feeling crabby towards the whole lot,this AM sorry)