Ask HN: How many of you quit using Facebook or rarely use?

I almost never use the Facebook website or app, but I haven't quit for the sole reason of Facebook Messenger. I still find it the most convenient means to contact my family and friends who are living overseas because Facebook is still widely used amongst these people.

I've tried to move my friends onto alternative means of communication, predominately Signal, so I could disassociate myself from Facebook, but my friends just don't stick it out. We converse as per usual over the first couple of months, but then their replies slowly dwindle down and if I go back and message them again over Facebook Messenger they respond as soon as they see the message.

Although them not moving to Signal is a pain for me, it's a bigger pain for them to move to an alternative messenger. Why would they want to use two different applications to message friends, let alone to just message one friend. A lot of these people aren't the technologically minded folk of Hacker News, these are the type of people who are Facebooks primary target audience. They don't care about how invasive Facebook can be with advertising or that their communications actually aren't that private.

I would love to see all my friends and family messaging me over some encrypted and decentralised messaging application so I can leave Facebook for good, unfortunately I just don't see that happening for the circle of friends and family I have.

I never made an account because I could never grasp what value it really had for me. It seemed to me that it was better suited for the "reality show" crowd that liked following other peoples drama.

I've kept my account because I joined a local music gear buy and sell group, and the experience blows craigslist and kijiji out the water.

I made a personal policy to not use it a few months ago. I still have the account, because of some messenger threads, but the app is gone from my phone and I have a policy of only logging into FB itself in a private browsing window. This at least reduces their tracking, and makes it a little harder for me to give in, so I only use it if I'm actively using it for something (e.g. looking for hours on a restaurant that doesn't have a real website, checking event information, finding somebodys birthday). I don't allow passive browsing anymore.

My reason is that it was just becoming too big of an echo chamber. Everyone on it was spouting their opinions and getting waves of agreement, making their opinions stronger, in an endless cycle. I just don't want to be part of it.

The biggest effect it's had on my life is that I get seriously bothered when someone asks me if I "saw their post". I immediately respond with something like "i'm not really on facebook anymore, what are you talking about?". The amount that it's dug itself into everyone's lives in pretty baffling. It's nice to not find myself absently staring at an endless "news feed" of the same soundbites and photos over and over again.

My wife will often be using it and get upset at the stupidity of something she sees, and I can't always resist a told-you-so.

I stopped using it entirely a few years back. It got to be an unhealthy obsession which I realised was making me quite unhappy.

While I read Hacker News and some technical subreddits, I don't think these are entirely benign, but they are an interest rather than an obsession. They do both have an element of gamification--your comment upvotes/karma etc., but they aren't actively sucking you in with a never-ending stream of status updates from the site members either.

I quit facebook and smoking together. I used to smoke 4-5 cigarettes a day and once i started being mindful about why i do and what i get, i took a stance to quit. I convinced myself to quit and also out of curiosity picked up a book about quitting smoking.After doing all this, I felt facebook and smoking are similar in so many ways. Trying to fill the non existent void in everyday life. And even though we are so much aware of our physical health , we hardly try to resolve our mental health issues. And then i quit facebook. Even though i used facebook for may be all together 45 mins a day. It feels so much better to not consume that insensible, utterly useless content.

I doodled with it a bit.

Added a few friends and relatives, then realized that most people that I know are either not on it, or not very active. And I couldn't figure out what to do with it. I posted a bit but that fizzled out.

Right now it seems such a primitive and restricted system and not of much use at all unless you are addicted to it or you have no idea of what is available on the Internet.

I get the feeling that it only appeals to those who like to get into a rut and stay there.

I'm probably just babbling but here's what it was like for me and what i think about it.

I think i just wanted to use it to show off... And then i eventually thought what's the point of getting likes on fb. I didn't find it translate into enjoying my life more or making my life better.

I thought maybe it's useful as a record of experience. But then i just kept my photos on my phone and share them in real life by handing the phone.

I don't think it's impossible to use fb in a way that works. Maybe there needs to be a class... How to use fb like a pro. I think messenger is more useful. But then i just used hangouts since its no setup required. I didn't get enough out of fb to be worth time.

Mostly i feel happier chatting on the phone or face to face irl, instead of texting or scrolling newsfeed.

I think in an ideal world fb would be a great tool to connect. But the world is not ideal. People are not ideal. Fb is not ideal.

I'm using it to source and sometimes to talk to my users (from my personal account) on days when I don't feel like going out. Most people in my country (Vietnam) use it to sell stuffs, sort of like how they'd using Craigslist. They particularly abuse the livestream feature to showcase their products... sort of a fascinating behavior in my opinion. None of us uses it to have "meaningful connection with one's acquaintance"... because we all know that can only happen in the offline world.

Never really used it, closed 3 accounts over time. Main use is to peek at pages, and I've advertised my business on it at one point, with really bad results. I deeply hate everything about FB, from the fakeness of it as a distant relationship maintenance tool, to its core business model, to the fact it is highjacking a big chunk of the web. To me, FB is a trap, tailor made to attract the Internet illiterate, as I-products does with hardware and music files.

Still have an account but haven't used it in about 5 years, except occasionally to deal with website integrations or answer an incoming message or invitation. My life is much better without it. I do sometimes miss out on announcements (especially weddings and births), and am not as much in touch with some friends and family as might be ideal. That's a price I'm willing to pay, but ymmv.

I closed my Facebook account a few months ago, and then reopened but deleted everyone and everything to use it as a dev tool and for login on certain platforms (I could not get a new account going without sending in a "proof of id"; I did not want to give Facebook a picture of my ID card)

I quit fb in 2013. It's a pesky habit to kick. I was an early adopter, early 2005. In fact, as soon as I got my .edu email I signed up. I tried giving it up several times. I could go without saying how much easier it is to leave fb when someone else does it with you; Finally, my future wife and I gave it up together at the same time. Present day, the unfortunate thing is certain apps only use fb auth and if you want all access to work with fb for developers, your only option is to login through a fb acct. I imagine if you wanted to work for fb one might need a fb account too.

Quit in 2013. Erased all posts. Unfriended all contacts. Asked others to take off references to myself in pictures and in posts.

Now only owns a blank account to get access to our rugby team group for logistics purpose. Al least, FB knows I love rugby.

I found that my friends and family didn't mix well, my crude friends were posting random garbage that my grandma was reading. Then there was family drama, backstabbing, angry political posts. The reasons for me to leave far outweighed the benefits of staying. I also don't like being a "product", I'm not interested in seeing advertising and the way they manipulate your feed now is also something I dislike. I pulled the plug and haven't looked back, I don't miss it at all.

I still have an account because of an IRL social group that likes to do event planning through FB Events, but that and using Messenger to communicate with one person are the only reasons I still have an account.

FB and Instagram were only contributing guilt, anxiety, and FOMO to my life, and I am so much better off without them. Weirdly, I've gone back to Twitter, but I only follow one person that I know IRL there. Twitter is great for news and weather.

I was on Facebook for a couple years, caught up with all my old High School classmates and a couple University classmates as well. Once I saw how everyone was doing Facebook lost interest to me. I got to the point where the only time I logged in to Facebook was to opt-out of some new option that automatically opted me into. It was easy to give it up and I haven't missed it since. That was probably 6 or so years ago.

Uninstalled it many years ago. Check about once a month and stay signed out. I totally avoid it otherwise, too intrusive.

I use Facebook once a year. Just when it is my birthday because last year I forgot to close the account and it is rude not to answer happy birthday messages.

I simply don't get the Facebook stuff... I really find interesting Facebook ads and all targeting options, but FB is definitely not for me.

I deactivated mine two and a half years ago and never looked back.

Besides the occasional surprise that I don't have a Facebook when I meet someone it has never been a problem. Sometimes I don't know about events going on with friends but I inevitably learn if it's important.

I made a New Years Resolution to stop using Facebook, deleted the apps on my phone but occasionally end up on it by accident through my browser through shared links etc. (never logged out, just stopped visiting).

The only thing I use is Messenger because people still contact me on that.

I rarely use it. About 2-3 times in the last 18 months or so. So yea, hardly. At some point, it got too much to look at every little thing that friends/family are doing and sharing. I have better things to do.

Long story short - facebook is dead, majority of the people migrated to Instagram. we went from myspace (personal) to FB (friends) to instagram (personal). Looks like people would rather focus on themselves.

Use it rarely. Figured there was too much information noise from people i barely care about. Use the web site version. There is one or two friends i chat over messenger, but that is about it.

Used in lurking mode for a few months in 2008. In the last few years I open it once every few weeks on average, mostly because of the email notifications. The facebook is a sad place

I use Facebook daily. I tried quitting before, but for one excuse or another I always come back.

I need to plan it better next time, where I have another way to contact everyone I usually do over Facebook.

Using it about 10 mins per day. Hacker News is taking much more time.

I stopped using it actively 3 years back, now i use very rarely.

Actually deleted mine yesterday, then had the fun of creating a new Spotify account as apparently that was linked to my Facebook and you can't unlink it!

I deleted in 2008 it is easy for me to stay off.

I lost touch with some people but it did not impact existing good relationships.

Quit in 2011, i believe.... Deleted everything and moved to a more dangerous platform called Twitter.

I use my Facebook account when I need to do stuff for work.

I never used it and never will. I want something better.

Quit 3 years back, Saved lot of time since then.

I hardly use facebook now-a-days.

Quit in 2012.

I'm a web developer.. takes me a while to get "in the zone" to do some programming, but once I'm there, I'm good to go! If I'm not, I tend to go on websites or randomly search Google for stuff which causes me to procrastinate. One of the websites is Facebook. I used to mindlessly get on Facebook and just scroll through my feed. It was the worst during the 2016 Presidential elections. Even though I really didn't care what was being said about either candidate, it was more fascinating to see how my friends were reacting. It was like watching a drama online with high school and college friends you used to have drama with back when you saw them everyday.

It got so bad that I was doing it at work and had to install software to block myself from Facebook. I give myself a little leisure, about 10 minutes a day or so, before it locks me out for the day. It takes me a few more minutes to be mindful of not typing in Facebook or whatever other sites I blocked myself from.

When I'm at home, if I hop on Facebook, I installed a button ( https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hide-facebook-feed... ) that makes you click in order to see it. This makes me fully aware of my actions. This has reduced my time at home to very little on Facebook. Occasionally, I'll type in Facebook and see that button and I instantly become aware of what I am doing. I trained myself to get back to something more productive.

I think of it this way: For every minute I'm on Facebook and not being productive, that is a minute they are making money on me and I'm not making anything at all. It usually helps me get back to work. Why don't I just quit? Because I live across the country, away from my family, who I don't get to see. I do pick up the phone every few days and talk to them all and make sure they are okay. But I also feel Facebook helps me keep in touch with them. I also have lived in a few parts of the country, and I've met, befriended, and Facebook'd many of those people I like to call friends. I may not be close to them anymore, but I still like to think of it as the best way as a means to keeping in touch.

There are two types of people on the Internet and Facebook teaches it very well: You are either a consumer or a creator. Creators make money. Consumers give money. If you spend your time on Facebook, which one are you? If you are working on something productive, even if it may not make you money right away or at all, as long as you are doing something productive: you are a creator. When you justify all of your time on the Internet, and even deal with your addiction to the Internet, which one will you be? A consumer or a creator?

Facebook has some AI scripts in it to learn your behavior and show you the stuff you think is most important and the stuff you want to see. Every "Like" (or reaction) is not just a like, but it registers into a series of algorithms. For example, if you like a lot of a person's timeline, you're more likely to see their timeline. The more you interact with each other, the more you are likely to see each other's timeline. If you both have a lot of mutual friends, you are more likely to see their timeline. Facebook, like Google, is not just one giant database, but algorithms get created to do different things depending on your actions within the application. And if someone has a wedding or a baby, I see it, because Facebook has deemed this a very significant event, based on the reactions it has. The rest is just news or something someone is posting from a page you liked.

And I'm on here.. Hacker News, procrastinating, but answering questions is relaxing and actually does help me to begin my focus. These are just some ways I deal with my desire to procrastinate and stay focused.