I've tried. I deleted my FB account. All it really got me was cut off from a lot of old friends and extended family. I ended up re-creating the account after a year, and then slowly building my friends list back up (but I'm far more restrictive now about who can be FB friends). A couple old friends won't talk to me because they think I de-friended them specifically and took it personally. Oops!
I always have dreamed of a world in which the global Facebook that won was more like Wikipedia.
I bet if we didn’t have Wikipedia, people would say such a project would never work. Fortunately we do.
Now, imagine a basic, open “friend book” with barebones Wikipedia-esque design for the purpose of maintaining social connections. Wouldn’t that be grand?
Bah, Larry Sanger tried to shill me Everipedia at a crypto conference a few years ago. Maybe he is worth listening to on this topic but Everipedia is a complete joke.
All platforms have problems. I don’t like a lot of Wikipedia’s policies. But I’d for damn sure choose a Wikipedia run “Face Book” over Facebook, Inc.
The old friends who assume such negative intent… Are those friends worth keeping around anyway?
I deactivated my FB page over a year ago and never looked back. I still keep my Messenger and Instagram accounts active, so while I’m still in Facebook’s sphere of influence, I’ve got two ways of staying in touch with most of the people I like and I’m no longer susceptible to the doomscrolling and perpetual outrage machine of their newsfeed. It’s been a huge net positive for me. Much like fitness or improving our environmental impact, harm reduction is still worthwhile even if it falls short of some the most extreme ideals. I’d love to be completely out of Facebook’s ecosystem but for now, I’m happy to settle for limiting its ability to wreck my mood and devour my time.
I feel that. I realized the same. But my view was...if people couldn't be bothered to reach out to me if it wasn't plastered in their face, were they really important in the first place? To me obviously, no, so I didn't rejoin.
Secondly, the system will only break down with people leaving. Once your friends are gone, whats the point. Just being the first in your friend or family group is really tough.
The worst part is there's no viable replacement outside of what, MMS group chats?
Maybe it's evil. But it fulfills a useful role.