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I deleted my facebook. Its the only thing I can do it seems and I advice everyone to do the same. Screw this platform. Facebook’s scams have caused the elders i

I deleted my facebook. Its the only thing I can do it seems and I advice everyone to do the same. Screw this platform. Facebook’s scams have caused the elders in my family so much pain and me so much stress dealing with it, its not worth it. A monopolistic cancer on society.

D13Fd 9mo ago
I completely agree. I did this many years ago. The only thing that annoys me is that for many local things it’s the only option. I’m actually significantly less informed and involved in the local community because things are so heavily reliant on Facebook, and I refuse to sign back up.
- alex1138 9mo ago
  What's fun is how many things they lock behind a "fuck you, sign in to read this" popup (and now Instagram too) This from the same company that conveniently tends to reset privacy settings on posts (It ought to be possible to access info as a non-user, but you can't, so they force you to sign up)
  - withinboredom 9mo ago
    They globally reset the privacy settings for pretty entertaining reasons. Every few years a post goes around saying crazy privacy things that gives you instructions to change your privacy settings to only “share with yourself”. If you’re dumb enough to do it, you basically shadow-ban yourself. If enough people do it, they have to change the settings back because also those same people will complain about their aunt/neighbor/dad/sister whatever not being able to see their posts and have no idea why.
    - alex1138 9mo ago
      I just honestly feel Zuck's lost the benefit of the doubt but I'm willing to be proven wrong
- ceroxylon 9mo ago
  I left Facebook over a decade ago, and it was painful to realize how many people simply forgot that I exist, and how many events I missed because many people exclusively use it to invite people. Similar experience where I met someone in 2017 and was enraptured with them, and we eventually drifted apart because they only communicated through Snapchat and Instagram. I often wonder if abstaining from the platforms that I dislike was worth the increase in loneliness and detachment from society, but I don't have access to the alternative universe where I decided to grit my teeth and accept the data hoarding companies and dark patterns as a tradeoff for being able to interact with people who couldn't care less about the technicalities.
  - vpShane 9mo ago
    it is how it is, but nothing's stopping any of us from reaching out or calling a friend or sending a calendar invite. I used Facebook for a local animal shelter I was volunteering at, but from the infinite scroll filled with infinite ads, very little local things in the middle using "FB Purity" firefox addon to hide all the garbage you see how much garbage is actually there. it feels like I pulled away from a dark matrix of things designed to keep us hooked, then I look around and see everybody else hooked, commenting with bots, sharing facebook encouraging memes/new age spirituality posts and fb doing all it could to hook everybody's attention, getting riled up against political opinions, bots. is the loneliness worth it? probably not. is the freedom? yes. > where I decided to grit my teeth and accept the data hoarding companies and dark patterns as a tradeoff for being able to interact with people who couldn't care less about the technicalities. I know, right? that infinite scroll/showing all the good things on the timelines isn't their real life, they're filling a void within themselves surfing short videos and voicing opinions on nearly everything. even Zuckerberg said Facebook isn't for making/interacting with friends anymore, it's other things, and not good things. you're not alone, and you're not detached from society, you're just unplugged from the matrix. of course I say this while browsing subreddits and hn, but hobbies and activities where we meet people, these are always going to be the best thing available to us. in the digital world there's plenty of people who'd be down for a LAN, a hangout, an event like going hiking, and I've met some cool people outside of social media but there's many days where it was me, 4 walls, a book/finding things to occupy my time. trust me you did yourself a solid.
GuB-42 9mo ago
Are people still using Facebook in 2026? I sometimes go back to my Facebook account, it is a complete wasteland, my feed is just generic doomscroll material, nothing new from actual people I know. Communities I follow mostly moved to Discord, it is also no longer where events like festivals post their latest news. Facebook looks like it is #1 on paper, but my experience is completely different, it is nothing like it was 10 years ago, in fact, a significant portion of my Facebook feed is "remember 5-10 years ago".
- csa 9mo ago
  > Are people still using Facebook in 2026? Some of the best B2C customers are on FB — willing to spend, low expectations, low maintenance. If you add IG to the mix, it’s even better. Your typical HNer does not really fall into “ideal customer” profile for most B2C businesses. Our saving grace is our above average income profile. Other than that, on average we are tolerated rather than sought after (imho).
  - ahoka 9mo ago
    So basically the suckers stayed?
- root_axis 9mo ago
  > Are people still using Facebook in 2026? I know this is meant as rhetorical snark, but facebook is by far the most popular social network on the planet, so it just sounds silly.
  - not_a_bot_4sho 9mo ago
    You're right. But there's a generational aspect to this too. Younger generations won't touch Facebook. It's seen as a platform for "old" people. So Facebook is on a modest decline. (Enter Instagram and Tiktok and all that to fill the void...)
    - root_axis 9mo ago
zyngaro 9mo ago
Unfortunately this monopolistic cancer has become the only way for businesses to get to their customers.
giancarlostoro 9mo ago
I purposely don't use mine. They keep shadow profiles on you, if you're in IL you can sue them (there already was a lawsuit about it) and get some money from them.

D13Fd 9mo ago

I completely agree. I did this many years ago. The only thing that annoys me is that for many local things it’s the only option. I’m actually significantly less informed and involved in the local community because things are so heavily reliant on Facebook, and I refuse to sign back up.

alex1138 9mo ago
What's fun is how many things they lock behind a "fuck you, sign in to read this" popup (and now Instagram too) This from the same company that conveniently tends to reset privacy settings on posts (It ought to be possible to access info as a non-user, but you can't, so they force you to sign up)
- withinboredom 9mo ago
  They globally reset the privacy settings for pretty entertaining reasons. Every few years a post goes around saying crazy privacy things that gives you instructions to change your privacy settings to only “share with yourself”. If you’re dumb enough to do it, you basically shadow-ban yourself. If enough people do it, they have to change the settings back because also those same people will complain about their aunt/neighbor/dad/sister whatever not being able to see their posts and have no idea why.
  - alex1138 9mo ago
    I just honestly feel Zuck's lost the benefit of the doubt but I'm willing to be proven wrong
ceroxylon 9mo ago
I left Facebook over a decade ago, and it was painful to realize how many people simply forgot that I exist, and how many events I missed because many people exclusively use it to invite people. Similar experience where I met someone in 2017 and was enraptured with them, and we eventually drifted apart because they only communicated through Snapchat and Instagram. I often wonder if abstaining from the platforms that I dislike was worth the increase in loneliness and detachment from society, but I don't have access to the alternative universe where I decided to grit my teeth and accept the data hoarding companies and dark patterns as a tradeoff for being able to interact with people who couldn't care less about the technicalities.
- vpShane 9mo ago
  it is how it is, but nothing's stopping any of us from reaching out or calling a friend or sending a calendar invite. I used Facebook for a local animal shelter I was volunteering at, but from the infinite scroll filled with infinite ads, very little local things in the middle using "FB Purity" firefox addon to hide all the garbage you see how much garbage is actually there. it feels like I pulled away from a dark matrix of things designed to keep us hooked, then I look around and see everybody else hooked, commenting with bots, sharing facebook encouraging memes/new age spirituality posts and fb doing all it could to hook everybody's attention, getting riled up against political opinions, bots. is the loneliness worth it? probably not. is the freedom? yes. > where I decided to grit my teeth and accept the data hoarding companies and dark patterns as a tradeoff for being able to interact with people who couldn't care less about the technicalities. I know, right? that infinite scroll/showing all the good things on the timelines isn't their real life, they're filling a void within themselves surfing short videos and voicing opinions on nearly everything. even Zuckerberg said Facebook isn't for making/interacting with friends anymore, it's other things, and not good things. you're not alone, and you're not detached from society, you're just unplugged from the matrix. of course I say this while browsing subreddits and hn, but hobbies and activities where we meet people, these are always going to be the best thing available to us. in the digital world there's plenty of people who'd be down for a LAN, a hangout, an event like going hiking, and I've met some cool people outside of social media but there's many days where it was me, 4 walls, a book/finding things to occupy my time. trust me you did yourself a solid.

GuB-42 9mo ago

Are people still using Facebook in 2026? I sometimes go back to my Facebook account, it is a complete wasteland, my feed is just generic doomscroll material, nothing new from actual people I know. Communities I follow mostly moved to Discord, it is also no longer where events like festivals post their latest news. Facebook looks like it is #1 on paper, but my experience is completely different, it is nothing like it was 10 years ago, in fact, a significant portion of my Facebook feed is "remember 5-10 years ago".

csa 9mo ago
> Are people still using Facebook in 2026? Some of the best B2C customers are on FB — willing to spend, low expectations, low maintenance. If you add IG to the mix, it’s even better. Your typical HNer does not really fall into “ideal customer” profile for most B2C businesses. Our saving grace is our above average income profile. Other than that, on average we are tolerated rather than sought after (imho).
- ahoka 9mo ago
  So basically the suckers stayed?
root_axis 9mo ago
> Are people still using Facebook in 2026? I know this is meant as rhetorical snark, but facebook is by far the most popular social network on the planet, so it just sounds silly.
- not_a_bot_4sho 9mo ago
  You're right. But there's a generational aspect to this too. Younger generations won't touch Facebook. It's seen as a platform for "old" people. So Facebook is on a modest decline. (Enter Instagram and Tiktok and all that to fill the void...)
  - root_axis 9mo ago

zyngaro 9mo ago

Unfortunately this monopolistic cancer has become the only way for businesses to get to their customers.

giancarlostoro 9mo ago

I purposely don't use mine. They keep shadow profiles on you, if you're in IL you can sue them (there already was a lawsuit about it) and get some money from them.