Ex-Facebook Users, What Do You Use Now?

Willie, 10 months ago

I did not replace Facebook. If someone is important to me, they know how to reach me.

symfonystation, 10 months ago

@curt Friendica

gingerrich, 9 months ago

Nothing. Out of all the ‘friends’ I had on there, only a handful were ones that are irl mates and I have their numbers. We text occaisionally.

zergling_man, 9 months ago

They can come visit me if they have something to say. Or email. I’ve invited them to XMPP and fedi many times and they’ve ignored it. I interpret this as them not wanting to talk to me.

Gutotito, 9 months ago

Pretty much just this. Well, and LinkedIn, but I don't post personal stuff over there. I moved from Facebook to Reddit about eight or nine years ago, and with Reddit circling the drain, am currently rudderless. Tried this Mastodon thing when it first got popular a few years ago and had no good experiences with it; this time around seems to be different with all the fresh blood. Just hope it keeps on keepin' on .

Christa, 9 months ago

I got into Facebook pretty late (around 2010) and it never grabbed me. I caught up with old friends, but the window into their lives that it provided me with just made them seem annoying. I fiddled with it for a bit and then switched to Google Plus for the brief window between it coming up and Google sucking all of the joy out of it. After that, it was Twitter and then Mastodon around five years back.

As for keeping up with friends and family, it’s mostly email, phone, and the occasional Signal group chat.

s_s, 9 months ago

My grandmas and I are pen pals. I text my parents.

I got on facebook to meet girls at university, not to keep up with family. I slowly got off facebook when my friends from university quit posting anything useful.

My other sort of anonymous social media stuff was on reddit and now Lemmy.

heliodorh, 9 months ago

Signal. We just have a group chat. No idea what the extended family is up to anymore though.

drwho, 9 months ago

Same.

NaoPb, 9 months ago

Basically this place. I got fed up with all the negativity on Facebook and how everything is about interaction and not positivity. Facebook and other (social) media thrive on getting people agitated because that gets the most views on their ads. However it is slowly setting up humankind against each other and killing us.

ellabella, 9 months ago

• Discord with irl and online friends
• Twitter for fandom stuff and random opinions
• Real Life dates with close friends

curt, 9 months ago

Other than a couple of recommendations for Friendica, it looks like everyone hasn’t bothered to find a replacement that does all the same things.

Friending all your relatives on Facebook was like attending a family reunion that never ends. At first, it was great catching up with everyone you hadn’t been in contact with. Pretty soon after that, Uncle Bert would start on some political rant, Cousin Stan would try to get you to invest in some sketchy startup, and Cousin Sally would go on about a new cult she joined. The same thing would hold for an endless high reunion.

Facebook made sense for its original membership of college students. It was a great way to meet other students. You all had similar goals, experiences, and questions. Once you graduated, you all went your own way.

Social media is in its infancy in regards to how we use it. We’re still learning about what works and what doesn’t. For many of us, Facebook doesn’t, more selective, less overall encompassing communication does. It’s probably why we’re all here on Lemmy and Mastodon.

TheyHaveNoName, 9 months ago

I quit it years ago (I think almost 7 years or so). The thing is I didn’t really look for a replacement. I realised that I wasn’t really keeping in touch with loved ones as much as I was looking at the heavily curated feeds showing me how “perfect” their lives were. The worst thing about this is I could look at a post from a cousin or friend showing me their kitchen remodel or their beautiful holiday pics and meanwhile the gossip from my family contacts told me what was actually going on (but they had maxed out their credit cards for the remodel and holiday couple were actually in the middle of a divorce). Rather than trying to get my family and friends to be more truthful I decided to give my sanity a a time to recover.

kglitch, 10 months ago

Anyone craving a FB style UI should check out a Friendica instance. It's all the same content as Mastodon except the way they handle replies and photos is way better.

I use https://verena.social but recently it has become quite slow. Possibly scaling issues.

FlashMobOfOne, 10 months ago

Nothing.

I hate Facebook. I spent most of my time on Twitter until Elon Musk pulled that stupid stunt with the sink, then I moved to Mastodon, which I love.

HowlsSophie, 10 months ago

Nothing. I never stayed in contact with people and regularly downsized my friend list. I found that I was keeping people as friends but hadn’t talked to or messaged them in years. People I actually talk to have my number and I have theirs. Scrolling through people’s lives kept me from reaching out and having real conversations with people so…yeah.

lemmyatom, 10 months ago

This. Ever since I quit facebook, I find myself reaching out to friends who I care about rather than just following their feed. I also find when we hang out, there’s more for us to discuss and we cherish each other’s company more because we no longer have the convenience of staying hyper updated about each other. It’s the whole idea of absence makes the heart grow fonder. My advice to everyone is to stop relying on social media to keep up with people and go have some real relationships with those you care about. You’ll find yourself much happier.

HowlsSophie, 9 months ago

Exactly. I remember I used to try to have the most “friends” possible but at some point it was like “yeah I don’t actually talk to these people and I don’t think I will.” Used to also keep FB for certain groups I was part of but in the end, there was just no point.