I'm not talking about the recent scandal. I mean just Facebook, and other social media simply existing, and the general impact it had of making the human race even more vapid, stupid and shallow and easy to manipulate (intentionally or not) than ever, basically a worldwide mob taking a duckface selfie with their pitchforks, torches and a starbucks coffe.

Fine by me.

I rather be that than a fucking sheep. That said, e-mail still exists or, heaven forbid, people could actually call others by phone! I guess that takes too much effort though. =/

This. It's not like by refusing to use Facebook I sever all contact with my friends. They can still call me and I them, just as we always did. And if some of them no longer can maintain contact with a friend without Facebook... honestly, I don't think there's much point in maintaining contact with them anyway if that's the case.

That's the core of the "problem". I stopped using it back in 2011 because of the blatant privacy intrusion. Seven years later, people are losing their shit over something that has been common knowledge since the ancient days.

Media decides when people are gonna get hysteric about something. If media is quiet, everyone remains calm.

Talk about bad timing...

I grew up in an era in an area where about 1/1000 people had computers until about 1998 where it shot up to about 1/500 and in 1999 it was about 1/250. Those that got computers didn't readily get internet access or if they did it was AOLonline or Earthlink and they didn't really DO email. I graduated HS in 2000 and I moved away, and so did my parents - never to return (okay once on a road trip) to the area I grew up. I kept #s of friends but, college takes hold and before you know it 5 years has gone by and life is completely different and everyone is somewhere else and none of them have their AOL or earthlink accounts that they had in the late 90s. and social media is still on the fringes for most people - find a couple on myspace, cool, but it wasn't until about 2008-2010+ that facebook really took hold and 'most' people became users, and by then it was "I wonder wtf this person this person this person etc etc etc etc etc are doing in life? but FuCK facebook, I'm not sinking to that level" - hold that position for a year or 2 but knowing you can possibly find great friends from earlier in life, the advantages and benefits outweigh the issues, got facebook, aware of how horrible it was for the most part, but loving how it allowed me to find people. Just know how to set your settings and don't share personal stuff, just like anywhere else on the internet. I don't think I've shared 1 personal thing in the 7 years I've been on there. I post awareness-raising information and am part of groups that are decent groups dedicated to certain topics (survivalism, bread baking, hummingbirds, etc.)

so yes, it is a POS entity in many ways, there are better things to use that aren't terrible, but there really is no other tool that performs an even close to similar function

JUST LIKE A FuCKING CAR - people could protest and go "omg stopmaking fossil fuel cars that support all these terrible industries" and demand change to a better non-corrupt entity, but you don't, and the car, oil, insurance industries are much more evil than facebook

and you still use your car and wouldn't like someone to come demonize you for using it, right?

quit demonizing and putting down people who use a tool for a purpose when there really aren't other viable options that provide the same abilities - we're not eating baby dolphins in the process, k?

yes, you can buy a bicycle and get around that way because it's 'better', but do you?

Well, my brother has stopped communicating by email alltogether, apparently that's not apple enough for him. So I'm stuck with the choice whether to receive pictures of my two months old niece via facebook's WhatsApp or, uhm, not at all. I mean, for two months I have told him that Zuckerberg is getting all those niece photos because he's doing all the encryption himself with an abacus and... well, let's not go there. The despair shows.

My company has a WhatsApp channel. They're organizing the after work stuff via that channel. I can install that shit or not be there. And so on.

I haven't, as of yet. I mean, I boycott Valve in full, I boycott facebook in full, it's just getting harder by the month and the holy grail is of course to boycott Amazon, which I almost completely fail to do.

"Don't like it, don't use it" just doesn't cut it. These services have a de facto monopoly, and even if there are alternatives, you'd have to get your "but I only want to use one service" friends and folks to use another, which I have repeatedly tried. And, yeah, mostly failed just as well.

As you can see, the peer pressure remains immense.

Peer pressure is the ultimate warning sign that the thing in question should be avoided at all costs.

Stopped using facebook a year ago, blanked everything out, defriended everyone, have not looked back since.

Indeed. Why, there was once a time when people used proper diction, grammar, and punctuation. Times have changed.

Or as some might say, timeeez dun chanjareedooded.

Reading this and thinking,is it addictive? Contagious? It must be like detoxing oneself off something that's bad.Never had nor never will be attached to those crap sites as having real life friends is much better,I guess congrats is in order for quiting:)

It was never a question of addiction, I hated the site going in, I always was looking for a chance to leave, and the political bullshit following the 2016 US election and the Canadian elections a couple of years prior finally made me just leave,.

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