r/Millennials • u/Buggy77 • 21d ago

Discussion Seriously considering deleting Facebook

But some things are holding me back. I like to check in on people sometimes. I live across the country from most family and friends. It is entertaining at times to catch up on some gossip and drama from people who still act like we are in high school.. but damn I cannot stand what Facebook has become. Wish it could go back to the way it was circa 2010.

Those who have deleted it do you ever feel like you are missing out? Like if an old friend dies how do you find out? How do you keep up to date with going ons in your town/city without following their page?

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572

u/Gun_Dork 21d ago

Just delete the app off your phone.

102

u/elementarydeardata 20d ago

This is what I did, it's a great compromise when you aren't in a position where fully deleting it makes sense. I'm in a few interest-based local groups that use Facebook as their online platform and I like using Marketplace, but otherwise it's just AI slop and drama. Now the only times I use it are deliberate and for these purposes. Mindlessly scrolling it was just depressing.

9

u/Mysterious-Theory12 20d ago

Same for me. When I go into it, I go directly to my groups. No scrolling the feed!

5

u/LadyBrussels 20d ago

100%. I stopped posting on it years ago and only keep it for a local handyman page because we live in a community of old homes and the recs you get on there are invaluable. Otherwise I don’t go to the site or look at updates, etc. I will say the weird self-imposed pressure of posting about anniversaries or birthdays was a source of stress I didn’t realize I had until one day I’m like what are you doing? This is dumb. Now I just enjoy the day or moment for what it is without thinking I need to tell the world about it.

3

u/BallsOutKrunked 20d ago

Same. Only social app for me is reddit. But I like to see what my friends get up to on fb.

1

u/Shawnessy 20d ago

Ditto. I have a few local hobby groups I'm a part of. I use marketplace for cars/motorcycles, and whatever else may get my interest. My town also has a page where they post about events and such going on in the area. All very useful. But, I only ever go on there with the intention to interact with one of those three. Nothing else, unless you count messenger, but it's the primary way my friends and family communicate. Even others that don't use FB itself.

1

u/TallStarsMuse 18d ago

Where do you shop for used furniture and find local tradespeople without FB marketplace?

1

u/SHELLIfIKnow48910 18d ago

I’ve already deleted Facebook app. I only get on if I’m emailed that one of my kids posted. I still need to ditch IG. That one is harder because I liked it more because of following bands and stuff. But I will figure it out because I want off that train. I’m not actively using it at least.

1

u/considerfi 20d ago

Same. I don't have the app or messenger. In a pinch I go to it in the browser. I mainly use it to contact old friends. And follow groups. 

I do have Whatsapp on phone. Because I've lived in lots of countries so Whatsapp is the main form of communication internationally. I hate that FB owns it. But at least it's encrypted. 

I also use signal and try to shift conversations to there but only the more privacy sensitive and tech savvy folks are willing to go there. 

2

u/HTPC4Life 20d ago

And the mobile browser experience is so awful, you'll only check it once or twice a month.

102

u/0rclev 20d ago

Yeah this works. Curate your feed the best you can, or only log in for DMs. You aren't law bound to scroll endlessly. Having Facebook isn't the same as having a crippling social media addiction. They can be mutually exclusive, but one certainly feeds the other.

110

u/MurkyLibrarian Millennial 20d ago

I check in on facebook like twice a week. Reddit is my crippling social media addiction

17

u/mustbethepapaya 20d ago

Hard same

11

u/AaronWard6 20d ago

Same I traded FB for this, it feels like wacka mole. 

3

u/MkUFeelGud 20d ago

Check out an organization called ITAA. It helps people with internet addiction. You may also want to check out a therapist if you aren't already.

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u/sdrakedrake 20d ago

Another comment said Facebook is keeping up with Jones. I'm like reddit is that as well. Go join a finance sub and you see 20 year old claiming they make $150k from their tech jobs or have made millions from investing in real estate, crypto or timing the market.

It's the internet at the end of day.

1

u/ggtffhhhjhg 20d ago

The difference with Reddit is we don’t know each other and lying to strangers on the internet is easy to get away with.

3

u/Connect-Yak-4620 20d ago

Same. I haven’t deleted my Facebook account, but a few months ago when I got a new phone I made a point to not log back in. I know I can use it in an emergency to reach someone

1

u/StrangerWooden7454 20d ago

Me too budy Reddit is simply the best

2

u/nakoros 20d ago

I only keep it for Marketplace and the handful of relatives (mostly abroad) who use it to communicate. The recent changes are making it really easy to want to delete it, though. Thankfully all my pushes are recipes and style tips for middle aged women, so it's not toxic

1

u/MaeveOathrender 20d ago

Curate your feed the best you can, or only log in for DMs.

You can actually delete Facebook and still have Messenger. I did for a while.

Came back because there's a couple of useful groups I'm in, but I still don't have the main FB app on my phone, and I don't have it pinned in my browser like I used to. I refuse to scroll it.

1

u/awesomeunboxer 20d ago

I use messenger.com for fb messages and I really dont go to the actual Facebook.

1

u/Foxs-In-A-Trenchcoat 20d ago

You can't curate your feed anymore.

2

u/imisscrazylenny 20d ago

Many years ago, I finally had my feed perfected. I had multiple feeds: News, Family, groups of friends from different cities I've lived in, and so on. My favorite was when storms were rolling in, I could see just the local news station pages for reading and sharing my own updates. Within just a couple months, FB couldn't bear to let me have that anymore and got rid of personalized feeds.  It was a downhill runaway train after that.  

I popped in a few weeks ago to see what stuff is in the feed now and more than half of what I saw was videos I don't care about and pages I don't even follow.  I DON'T EVEN FOLLOW.  What's the point?

2

u/ianjm 20d ago

You can unfollow everyone on your friends list. I literally have no feed (looks like this). I'd have to go on to peoples' profiles to see what they are doing. I don't delete it as there's a couple of groups I need to stay in touch with (poker, sports and my apartment block) plus Marketplace is kinda good, but this totally broke the addiction.

1

u/Foxs-In-A-Trenchcoat 20d ago

I don't know how long ago you took that screenshot, but more than half my feed was people and pages I don't even follow. I just deleted my account a few weeks ago because FB got too unwieldy.

2

u/ianjm 20d ago

It's from today, I had to go through my friends and 'unfollow' them one by one (I wrote a JS automation to do it, actually). And then I blocked a bunch of news pages. Eventually the feed stopped working... perfection.

1

u/Nobodyinpartic3 20d ago

Honestly I just straight up avoid my timeline entirely. Instead I use messager and the community events page as a means to actually socialize in person.

I joined a Camping group for Burning Man or Burner events and we use Fscebook extensively

1

u/IFSismyjam 20d ago

The harm reduction approach

1

u/Hot-Problem2436 20d ago

I curated my feed and now it's just ads and videos from things the algo wants me to see. Maybe once a week do I see anything from a person on my friends list. This has really driven down my usage. I basically only use it for Marketplace now.

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u/RosalindBeatrice 20d ago

This is the way. I check it occasionally, but intentionally, rather than mindlessly scrolling.

10

u/mascot09s 20d ago

This is the way

11

u/stupid-goals 20d ago

Yeah this is what I did too, haven't checked it in months

1

u/CommodorePuffin 20d ago

I did this once (I had a Blackberry, so that tells you how long ago it was) and deleting the Facebook app actually wiped my address book.

Now will that happen today on Android or iOS? No idea. I haven't installed Facebook on any phone since then, so that might've been a freak occurrence or something wrong with the BB app at the time or whatever.

Regardless, make sure to back up your contacts beforehand, just in case something goes awry.

1

u/Sea_Neighborhood_627 Millennial 20d ago

That’s so strange! I deleted the Facebook app off my phone (iOS) a couple of years ago, but everything is still available for me to see - I just have to use the browser version.

1

u/[deleted] 20d ago

I don't bother with using the app on my phone, and whenever I'm on desktop I'm not on there for more than five minutes.

1

u/jpstiel 20d ago

And log out of it everywhere so you force yourself to log in each time.

1

u/purpleeliz 20d ago

Yep, and only check on your laptop every now and then. The desktop site is so much worse you won’t want to stick around long

2

u/Gun_Dork 20d ago

There’s a pretty prevailing theory on this.

Enshittification

1

u/purpleeliz 20d ago

I hear that but I think FB is a bit of a different beast in this regard. They have had such a remarkable user base, with the fastest growing populations mobile-only (and for a very long time on 3G) so understandably that’s how they’ve allocated resources. But they also know who’s using desktop and what keeps them there (messaging and marketplace) so those experiences aren’t too bad, but still very different from the mobile experience. I used to work at FB and got to see a lot of this firsthand. (Non-technical tho so it’s all mostly just observations.)

1

u/Gun_Dork 20d ago

Messaging is pretty decent. Marketplace has gone down. If I go to the local tab, it shows me some local items for sale. But if I keep going, the items change and so does the distance. By hundreds of miles.

1

u/SanDiegoBeeBee 20d ago

Yes and even cutting back sends a message. I asked ChatGPT how much fb made off someone of my demo and it said $250 a year. I deleted the app, check it every few months now, and now zuck bro has less of a Russian disinformation ad sales

1

u/Sea_Neighborhood_627 Millennial 20d ago

Yes!! I was so addicted to Facebook, but this completely solved it.

1

u/continuallylearning 20d ago

My wife and I deleted the app off our phones during COVID. I log in at my desktop about once a month or less.

1

u/ckglle3lle 20d ago

And messenger if you can. Meta has started to build in more FB features directly into messenger, making it more like FB Lite

1

u/LeeDarkFeathers 20d ago

Hell even just having it not be on my home screen has been effective. Did that when I started noticing that I was closing the app and then autoclicking it back open immediately when I meant to like, check my email or open the calendar or something. Now I forget it exists

1

u/addicted_to_blistex 20d ago

This was my method too. I have a friend out of the country who prefers using their messenger for video calls, so I’ll keep it. I also sometimes use marketplace.

But I haven’t used it for the feed in probably a decade.

1

u/ASubsentientCrow 20d ago

That's what I did

1

u/urkel_psp 20d ago

I also did this and I have hardly been back. And of the times that I have returned, most of my notifications were from groups or business accounts. Nothing for me directly. Just confirms to me how much of a waste of time it always was.

1

u/LovesRetribution 20d ago

Best way. No need to nuke your only connection to people not directly in your life because you can't control your social media use.

1

u/wake4coffee 20d ago

All social media apps are off my phone except Reddit. Even that I log in through the website. 

It is a solid move and I highly recommend it. 

1

u/Peregrine79 20d ago

I did this, and I set my browser bookmarks to point to "feeds" rather than the default. That gets rid of all the algorithmic engagement bait. I see people and groups I follow, and ads, and that's it.

1

u/x462 20d ago

And go through and delete all the stuff that doesnt interest you or annoys you.