I’m still on Facebook to keep up with family I don’t want having my phone number. I’m on Insta to support friends who’s business is kind of tied to it (tattooers and other artists mostly). I’m on Threads because my work requires me to be in there (and elsewhere) to promote their stuff. I don’t actually do that, but apparently once you have an account it’s there forever unless you want to nuke your Instagram account as well.
I’ve receeded from FB and Insta (along with Twitter {“X”} and Reddit) as well as being fully adverse to posting on Threads in favor of Fediverse alternatives. Been on Mastodon since the 2021 Facebook whistleblower and Lemmy since Reddit’s API BS last year. Haven’t tried BlueSky or the other Twitter alternatives. Now… getting away from using Google/Alphabet has been another struggle entirely.
I was never really active on Instagram or threads. I do still use Facebook as I have a number of friends who are on there who aren’t on any other social media (and also, neither am I really). But my usage has dropped a lot since they’ve made the mobile client so horrible. Ever since they kneecapped Most Recent I refuse to be at the mercy of their algorithm. So I really only view it on desktop.
I used to for communicating with friends. I felt I was starting to become addicted to doomscrolling, basically said “screw this, message me on Matrix”, and deleted my accounts. Two of the lot actually made an account, and nobody except me actually uses it. So be it, then. I care more about my privacy than having people to talk to.
Cancelled in 2016 or so and never looked back. Now I look at people with a face filled with shock when I hear that they still use Facebook. Usually it’s “oh but the marketplace” or “oh but the events”.
I have only used Facebook for it’s messenger as many of the people I know can only be contacted there.
Outside of that I’ll occasionally look at my mother’s picture albums as the bitch has over 7,000 images posted and some of them are of me throughout my life so I’ll look to show people certain things.
I use Facebook to keep updated on some friends/family that use it as well as updates within my hoa community. Find it’s way better then nextdoor for that.
Instagram I hardly use, maybe check once a week and threads used it one day and stopped
I still have to use WhatsApp for my international family. That is what they use. My mom also still uses Facebook Messenger and won’t move to something else. I think it is because she uses it on her tablet and WhatsApp won’t work on it. I tried getting everyone to move to Signal but I was very lonely on that hill. I have FB account but I rarely every check it (once in every six months or so). I got off in 2018 after I felt so angry over something political in the US and realized that FB was making me angry on purpose to get clicks. I never had Instagram. Got into Pixelfed and I’m enjoying it a lot (perhaps because I have no prior benchmark with Instagram).
I’ve been quite concerned with Meta since I read “The Chaos Machine” by Max Fischer which goes into detail about how FB was heavily responsible for the ethnic cleansing of the Rohyinga in Burma.
I once read a series of articles where someone gave up using one of the big five tech companies (Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft) for one week each. It was interesting how hard it was do with some. Facebook and Apple were the easiest but Amazon was nearly impossible because of AWS. I’ve concluded that for me, I can minimize my Facebook, Google, and Amazon use as much possible but in the end, just have to live with Microsoft and to a much lesser extent Apple for time being. But to each their own.
PSA: beffore you set your account to be deleted, deactivate it. It takes meta 30 days to delete your account and this resets if you log back in. To avoid friends and strangers from messaging you or interacting with your dying account during those 30 days, it’s a good idea to deactivate it. This way you diss spear from Facebook immediately and people start messaging you over other methods
Facebook, Messenger and WhatsApp, every day because all my contacts are there. My Insta account is almost deleted, but I still have things saved there. And Threads, not touching that with a 10ft pole
There are a couple of people in my life who prefer to communicate via WhatsApp, and my immediate family has a group chat in Messenger. Other than that, nope.
Add comment