Facebook deserters and abstainees unite!

zegh8578

zegh8578

Keeper of the trout
Orderite
A while ago Facebook informed me that I need to change my name to my real name, and - I have to provide legal ID (they suggested credit card info) to prove that my name is indeed real. Untill I do, my account will be locked.

This was a pretty easy choice for me, good bye Facebook!
(I'm on Twitter instead, in order to not disappear from the internet, but I have yet to gather up a lot of buds and stuff from there)

The loss of Facebook - while seemingly dramatic at first (all them contacts D: ) was surprisingly easily overcome, not only that, but I experienced a great releaf in not having to see all... the stupid crrrap... that FB constantly guessed that I wanted to see. A neverending wall, neverending suggestions, neverending political argument, bickering, reposts of animal cruelty, people cruelty, human rights violations, naive petitions to make war go away, and the racism racism racism racism racism. FB has the ability to recognize the TOPIC of racism, but is not able to deem wether the content is FOR or AGAINST racism, and so I just got showered with so much racism, because sometimes I click it, and FB remembers and goes "this guy is totally into racism! *recommends more Hitler*"

By now, the lack of FB feels so natural to me, I have almost forgotten that it exists, that people use it.

My Twitter is for now dominated by paleontology-farts, so I'm mostly getting dinosaur fossil updates, which suit me just fine.

Originally, I didn't even want Facebook. I didn't want Myspace either, before that, but you know... peer pressure!

I would snarkily predict that FB is just another social media site, and like them all, it will soon enough step aside for a replacement, but nothing is certain in this world, the predictable cycles and patterns we think we know are only simplifications of reality around us, and for all I know, the FB of today is the seed that would grow into a world-dominating militaristic super-federation where a minority of masters rule all the slaves on earth, untill the earth itself goes under, BUT I DIGRESS

Since I was always too weak to stand up against this peer pressure, I always admired those who never got a Facebook account in the first place - and even more those who are still not on ANY social media site - you are my troglodyte heroes!
 
If they asked for my ID or some other stuff I'd leave it blocked as well. I'm currently not using my real name in FB either. Also, because of political bullcrap I unfriended about half my contacts anyway.
 
Gonzalez said:
If they asked for my ID or some other stuff I'd leave it blocked as well. I'm currently not using my real name in FB either. Also, because of political bullcrap I unfriended about half my contacts anyway.
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Yeah, I'm not wanting to sound like a tinfoiler - but I seriously am in NO need to give these people my name, address AND political affiliation, like a complete package.
At least they should work a little for it, if they really want it...

What also bothers me a bit is - with all the weird-ass names people can have in this world, how the hell do they know a name is fake or not, and enough to make ultimatums like that?
Tattletales I say, and FB is full of them too. One of my contacts, a guy I always found to be entertaining, in his own bizarre way, had his photos reported by his own friends. Reported! For humorous semi-nudity, as in, male toplessness, I mean come the hell on, talk about minding other people's business...

In fact, among the more random additions - friends-of-friends, one chick told me to change my name because it looked stupid on her friend-list. *Unfriend* problem solved. But where do people get that level of entitlement from?

Again, it was a relief to be rid of it... The only thing I lament is, well, the loss of a handful of contacts that I would have liked to keep
 
I don't have FB account and never had. Mark Zuckerberg is selling your arses to advertising agencies anyway, so enjoy his new real-name policy and prepare yourself for a fresh load of targeted ads, folks! :razz:
 
I don't have a fecesbook account, purely on principle.
People used to look at me weird when I told them I didn't have an account, but nowadays, no one is surprised.
Still, sometimes it's annoying. Like when old friends try to track you down or when they organise a party but only post it on FB.

I do have a LinkedIn though, since it's just an online CV.

Interesting tidbit: Belgian court ruled that FB doesn't have the right to track visitors which are not logged in, due to privacy concerns. Instead of complying with the ruling, they just closed the entire site to all users which are not logged in. Classy move.
 
"Instagram makes you think you are a photographer, Twitter makes you think you are wise and Facebook makes you think you have friends." Someone.

I make do with WhatsApp for keeping in touch/contact with IRL people. FB until recently was mostly for internet friendships, until a lot of IRL people added me there. And if you want to just talk crap on internet, well, that's what we have NMA for ;)

Also, sites like Twitter and FB limit you to use their particular format and fill you full of ads, anonymity internet forums FTW!

Actually probably the only reason I would want to keep FB is because I made internet "friendships" there, and I want to keep commenting and talking to those people, kind like the people I got to know here in NMA.
 
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It's too late for me. I've had Facebook for too long, if they didn't have my info through that, then it's going to get to some database in one way or another. I'm not a secretive hermit. They know.

Besides, I have group chats with friends. Some of which I no longer can meet in person, but we all regularly talk (and argue) this way. Still, I feel guilty for using it since my personal information has been made into a product voluntarily.
 
@Dopa

Why? I have you in NMA, the only place that matters.

I try to lie about personal info as much as possible, if they want to cancel the account because of it so be it.
 
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I have used Facebook briefly 6-7 years ago...maybe more. It was nice and practical to keep in touch with friends you don't see often, but that's about it. Loads of shit on that one, and the fact that modern way of socializing is almost completely dependent on it, not to mention that oftentimes you can only find some new critical information only on FB, it's suffice to say that this cancerous creation is only metastasizing further... I don't use it, but I'd be lying if I would say that I don't contact people often to check something for me etc. It's unfortunate (and highly unprofessional) that most of the new info regarding my university is only posted on its Facebook page - like, fuck the official website (which exists). That is just one example.

But yeah, I get weird looks when I say I don't use Facebook and am constantly bothered by folks about making an account. I guess that's the burden of being part of the social network generation. I don't miss it though, but it's true that it's easier to meet girls if you have one. I don't know how many times I've approached (or got approached by) a girl at some random party and upon responding that I don't have an FB account (apparently, one of the first questions asked) she would walk away. As if exchanging phone numbers or something is a great intrusion into one's privacy, but being a "friend" on social network and seeing hundreds of snippets from that person's private life is not.

That being said, I do use social networks - in a way. Twitter - because following dozens of interesting websites/companies/bands/publishers/people/news networks on the same page is way more practical than listing dozens of same websites one at the time. It's time-saving. I don't tweet though nor do I really have followers and I don't want those.
Other than that, Steam I guess. Several forums. Skype and e-mail. That's about it.
 
I use it because messenger went Kaput. I mostly use the chat functions and join interest groups to keep up with news and maybe a tourney or two. I seldomly add anyone unless I personally know them.
 
Yea I'm there but I rarely ask anyone to be a friend, I don't want to bother folks. I do accept all friend requests. I've always been sceptical of FB, I wish there was a European FB, I would prefer that. And why couldn't there be, why are all these big mostly software-based giants (Microsoft, Google, FB, etc.) American? It's high time Europe started to do it's own thing, and other parts of the world as well. I think China already kind of has it's own FB, and Russia too I think?

FB has such an unintuitive interface that's constantly changing, it's annoying. Plus after the whole Snowden thing it's clear that NSA etc. get all the info one puts into FB.
 
MutantScalper said:
Yea I'm there but I rarely ask anyone to be a friend, I don't want to bother folks. I do accept all friend requests. I've always been sceptical of FB, I wish there was a European FB, I would prefer that. And why couldn't there be, why are all these big mostly software-based giants (Microsoft, Google, FB, etc.) American? It's high time Europe started to do it's own thing, and other parts of the world as well. I think China already kind of has it's own FB, and Russia too I think?

FB has such an unintuitive interface that's constantly changing, it's annoying. Plus after the whole Snowden thing it's clear that NSA etc. get all the info one puts into FB.
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Many of the bigger languages tend to have "their own internets" in many senses, like Chinese versions of Youtube (which explains the lack of Chinese on sites such as Youtube, compared to westerners)

I think FB is huge enough to attract even those who would otherwise stick to their local versions of such, another reason to hope for its imminent collapse :V

Spanish and Portuguese-speakers (in particular latin-Americans I suspect, especially in the case of Portuguese(Brazil)) also tend to flock to "their own" sites
 
I mostly go to english speaking communities, most pieces of news obviously come out first in english and there is a bigger wealth of content on english speaking websites. Spanish websites tend to be pretty shitty and the latin american nerds tend to be the absolute worst. Most of them don't even seem capable of using google and eat up all rumors like a bunch of idiots.
 
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Walpknut said:
I mostly go to english speaking communities, most pieces of news obviously come out first in spanish and there is a bigger wealth of content on english speaking websites. Spanish websites tend to be pretty shitty and the latin american nerds tend to be the absolute worst. Most of them don't even seem capable of using google and eat up all rumors like a bunch of idiots.
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I have a similar relationship to whenever a website wants to be kind and recommend the "norwegian version" of whatever - especially Wikipedia.
1. I can read English
2. I prefer 5 million articles over 100 000, any day... :D

What good is this kind of service, if all I get is some empty bucket to play with?
 
zegh8578 said:
Many of the bigger languages tend to have "their own internets" in many senses, like Chinese versions of Youtube (which explains the lack of Chinese on sites such as Youtube, compared to westerners)

I think FB is huge enough to attract even those who would otherwise stick to their local versions of such, another reason to hope for its imminent collapse :V

Spanish and Portuguese-speakers (in particular latin-Americans I suspect, especially in the case of Portuguese(Brazil)) also tend to flock to "their own" sites
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Yes I know, I don't mean a 'Europe only' - style FB, I mean a globally big site based in Europe. I mean, Europe/EU and USA are two different economic zones and thus each other's competitors. Why do euros put all their info into US systems for free? :confused:
 
MutantScalper said:
zegh8578 said:
Many of the bigger languages tend to have "their own internets" in many senses, like Chinese versions of Youtube (which explains the lack of Chinese on sites such as Youtube, compared to westerners)

I think FB is huge enough to attract even those who would otherwise stick to their local versions of such, another reason to hope for its imminent collapse :V

Spanish and Portuguese-speakers (in particular latin-Americans I suspect, especially in the case of Portuguese(Brazil)) also tend to flock to "their own" sites
Click to expand...

Yes I know, I don't mean a 'Europe only' - style FB, I mean a globally big site based in Europe. I mean, Europe/EU and USA are two different economic zones and thus each other's competitors. Why do euros put all their info into US systems for free? :confused:
Click to expand...

Because they saved us from the Germans and the Ruskis and Iraq and Grenada, we couldn't be more grateful!!!

I think there are many contributing factors, but there is the American need to be loud and visible, Hollywood, for example - this in turn creates a certain image, where - traditionally - cinemas and TV channels show a LOT of American productions simply because there's an endless ammount to pick from.
This creates a sense of credibility. You could probably try to make a new social media site, based in Finland, and then try to advertise it as "the new, Europe-based social media extravaganza!" - and wait and wait, because you'd lack this instant credibility that U.S.A posesses, and Finland does not (no offense meant towards Finland!)

These things develop and establish over time, untill they are like... a global norm "Of course almost every movie on TV is American. That's what's on TV, since forever!"

Then things also have the ability to push and shove a bit, like waves of Chinese martial arts movies - we trust their credibility more, when it comes to Kung Fu. Japan, with the anime. If we see an attempt at anime from, say, Spain, we would roll our eyes and call it a ripoff, it's all about credibility.
 
MutantScalper said:
I've always been sceptical of FB, I wish there was a European FB, I would prefer that. And why couldn't there be, why are all these big mostly software-based giants (Microsoft, Google, FB, etc.) American? It's high time Europe started to do it's own thing, and other parts of the world as well. I think China already kind of has it's own FB, and Russia too I think?
Click to expand...
What exactly makes you think there are no european alternatives? There are/were several, but most of them never really gained enough market penetration because everyone wanted to be on facebook. The reason is simple, if most people are already on facebook, why bother with an alternative that has less of your friends. That's the same thing Google+ ran into. The small advantages of one network compared to the other are entirely offset by the fact that one network is already hugely in the lead.

Now, as for your reasoning, do you really think euro alternatives to facebook would be more ethical in how they handle data? I wouldn't join any of those just on principle alone.
 
I'm highly positive that European social network would be the same tool as American. Heck, German authorities started with active hunting for anti-immigration posts on FB recently - any persons making racist, islamophobic, anti-immigrant, or non politically correct enough posts on FB, are being tracked down by groups of dedicated "informers", various volunteers, who are reporting such content to said authorities. Culprits stupid enough to make such comments under their real names and adresses on FB are being prosecuted then. Now imagine the same situation without the middle-man, on hypothetical social network owned by German company! That would make such dirty job much easier for any cretinous snitch.
 
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