Gradually quitting while planning to reuse does not seem like a good road to recovery from an addiction, if an addiction is what it is. I always thought the bulk of Facebook users shared family photos with grandma, auntie and uncle and random pedophiles. What will those users do, if the empire collapses? I might still have an account. Every so often you might get an extra chance at winning a motherboard or CPU cooler or something for liking a manufacturer of such things on Facebook. Best of luck as you wean yourself from the Beast.
Maybe you are right, a gradual exit may not be a good idea. But I spent some time, and also money, building an FB page to promote my book on the Future of Transportation, and I'll see to keep it alive at least for a few months. Then, I'll quit for good. After all, to divorce you don't need to kill your spouse!
From your keyboard to God's ear, professor. The world can't be rid of Facebook too soon. I myself have never had an account, for reasons which time has shown to be valid. It's worth pointing out, however, that "Facebook the Corporation" is one creature, and "Facebook the Platform" may be another thing entirely.
The primary goal of any for-profit corporation is to make money. In Facebook's case, since the product is offered "free of charge", it extracts value from them in other ways, many of which are not beneficial to them. It has shown itself to have little concern for the welfare of its customers, and as with all sales operations, has an incentive to hide any downsides of its product's consumption. No drug dealer points out the downsides that long-term use of its product carries.
However, "Facebook the Platform" can also be considered the sum total of its users' interactions with one another, and it is what they have made it. Our behavior toward one another as individuals has changed in recent years, and Facebook either reflects that dynamic or has helped create it. It is hard to tell which, since our "betters" have been striving ever harder to manipulate public opinion in so many ways. One of the greatest of these is in encouraging the public to abandon reason and rely more and more on emotion, because (as the long-lost discipline of Rhetoric reveals) that is the way to sway the public.
If there was a way to measure the ratio between reason and emotion in public attitudes about the important issues of our time, I think the real Seneca cliff would reveal itself as the abandonment of reason and the embrace of emotion.
Your suggestion of a feed reader is a good one. I have been using RSS for many years to keep up on the things that matter to me, using sources I trust. It is actually much like using Substack--you choose which sources you want to follow, and it informs you when there is new material available to read. It is important to continuously vet your sources, adding new ones and sometimes removing others.
Some companies / institutions only can be contacted via Fb so quitting might not be a good idea. Just visit once a week or month, depending on notifications via email (which can be redirected to the trash, saving time).
Using / setting up platforms that allow in-depth discussion and applying the results via small scale experiments might be the better idea. Those who can't be addicted could have noticed that Fb effectively transforms any topic / discussion to junk-food for "the largest common denominator" which is a euphemism for "dumbing down the masses".
I quit Facebook cold turkey seven months ago and my mental health has improved. It's an instrument of censorship and surveillance and an arm of the US deep state. Just quit it. Life goes on.
I think Facebook is stupid. I was on it briefly but canceled my account and never missed it. Now that there is Substack there is no need for Facebook anyway. I think Facebook is trump people. I agree with the comment that going off and on is not a solution for you. You are a substantive writer and philosopher and thinker and professor. I recommend that you trust your gut and get the hell off!!
My 2 millennial sons and 2 Gen z granddaughters (ages 13 and 15) have taught me instagram which we are all on because we are activists against the Gaza genocide. I do like instagram. I follow Bisan in Gaza and watch Al Jazeera to know what’s going on.
I found that Instagram censored me badly. It is meta stuff, after all. But if you can use it to do something against the Gaza genocide, then it is good.
Luckily my ad-blocker keeps me from any and all ads on Facebook. Several people I communicate with have been blocked by the "alzhiemer bunch", but mostly temporarily. None of my anti-modernist, anti-capitalist screeds have be blocked yet, as comments come back every time. Lucky for now!!
I assume you've been using FacePlant from Italy. So you may not be aware of the nefarious power of Fückérbérg and friends, when faced with the spectre of reasonable government-imposed limits.
Canada has been concerned about the accelerating loss of independent journalism. It attacked this with a law (C-18) that said that if you re-used news from some Canadian news site, you had to pay into a fund that would be distributed to those other sites.
In the old days, this was called "copyright protection." But today, there is nothing that keeps anyone from taking verbatim text and photos from YOUR website, putting it on THEIR website, and then surrounding it with paid advertising, that THEY then call "profit."
This used to be called "theft." Today, it's called "the Meta business model."
After some negotiation, Google settled with Canada, and agreed to provide some $100 million to the fund for independent journalism.
But not Fückérbérg. No. He said, "FU! You're just a country! But I'm FACEBOOK!"
At that point, he blocked all news postings from anyone coming in from a Canadian IP address. "No problem; I'll just use a VPN to post."
But it gets worse; he also banned all news postings from all Canadian news organizations, including the government-funded Canadian Broadcasting System. If you, as an Italian, try to post this link from CBC from Italy on FacePlant, it will be censored, too.
In effect, Meta made Canada "invisible" to the rest of the world.
Want to learn more about Summer McIntosh, the incredible Canadian swimmer who won three golds and a silver in the Paris Olympics? Tough luck, unless you can find scant coverage in the US media, which is all hyped up on fellow Americans like Simone Biles.
This is an odd form of "cultural de-appropriation." Meta has said, "Canada doesn't matter."
So, as a Canadian, I humbly and gratefully appreciate your saying "Facebook doesn't matter."
A FB-Meta Seneca Collapse would make my year, even more than Trump being on the wrong end of an electoral landslide in November. I left FB 6 years ago after hanging on for several years because of family and a circle of friends. Then I (like thousands of others) discovered that FB had assembled a record of my online activities going back to the Nineties -- I'd opened my account in 2008. Some people have missed me and I miss them but I haven't missed FB for a nanosecond.
What a coincidence! I did the same thing on Saturday!
On Sunday, my dopamine receptors were seriously working me over. I almost gave in when I came across a photo of mine that I liked, and I had to fight the impulse to put it on FacePlant. There are also a couple people I keep in touch with via FacePlant Messenger; I'm trying to get them to switch to WhatsApp.
But I quit "cold turkey." It will be interesting to learn how your "incrementalism" works for you.
I don't think that would work for me — just putting an "f" in the URL of Firefox "suggests" that I want FacePlant, and I'm sure that if I just hit return, I'd look up puzzled and annoyed in a couple hours, wondering where the day had gone.
Please keep us posted, particularly if you find good, preferably non-profit alternatives!
Gradually quitting while planning to reuse does not seem like a good road to recovery from an addiction, if an addiction is what it is. I always thought the bulk of Facebook users shared family photos with grandma, auntie and uncle and random pedophiles. What will those users do, if the empire collapses? I might still have an account. Every so often you might get an extra chance at winning a motherboard or CPU cooler or something for liking a manufacturer of such things on Facebook. Best of luck as you wean yourself from the Beast.
Maybe you are right, a gradual exit may not be a good idea. But I spent some time, and also money, building an FB page to promote my book on the Future of Transportation, and I'll see to keep it alive at least for a few months. Then, I'll quit for good. After all, to divorce you don't need to kill your spouse!
No.... watch out for my next article on "Il Fatto" this week-end
I understand you very well.
But in the mean time, it seems young people tend to leave Facebook (or just never joined) for Tiktok. I'm not sure this is an improvement...
Here's a little self-promotion. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0247214
This paper fits population to a model for technology-driven carrying capacity in a limited world. I need help improving it.
From your keyboard to God's ear, professor. The world can't be rid of Facebook too soon. I myself have never had an account, for reasons which time has shown to be valid. It's worth pointing out, however, that "Facebook the Corporation" is one creature, and "Facebook the Platform" may be another thing entirely.
The primary goal of any for-profit corporation is to make money. In Facebook's case, since the product is offered "free of charge", it extracts value from them in other ways, many of which are not beneficial to them. It has shown itself to have little concern for the welfare of its customers, and as with all sales operations, has an incentive to hide any downsides of its product's consumption. No drug dealer points out the downsides that long-term use of its product carries.
However, "Facebook the Platform" can also be considered the sum total of its users' interactions with one another, and it is what they have made it. Our behavior toward one another as individuals has changed in recent years, and Facebook either reflects that dynamic or has helped create it. It is hard to tell which, since our "betters" have been striving ever harder to manipulate public opinion in so many ways. One of the greatest of these is in encouraging the public to abandon reason and rely more and more on emotion, because (as the long-lost discipline of Rhetoric reveals) that is the way to sway the public.
If there was a way to measure the ratio between reason and emotion in public attitudes about the important issues of our time, I think the real Seneca cliff would reveal itself as the abandonment of reason and the embrace of emotion.
Your suggestion of a feed reader is a good one. I have been using RSS for many years to keep up on the things that matter to me, using sources I trust. It is actually much like using Substack--you choose which sources you want to follow, and it informs you when there is new material available to read. It is important to continuously vet your sources, adding new ones and sometimes removing others.
"In Facebook's case, since the product is offered "free of charge""
Can't attribute it, but I've heard that, "If something is free, YOU'RE the product!"
Some companies / institutions only can be contacted via Fb so quitting might not be a good idea. Just visit once a week or month, depending on notifications via email (which can be redirected to the trash, saving time).
Using / setting up platforms that allow in-depth discussion and applying the results via small scale experiments might be the better idea. Those who can't be addicted could have noticed that Fb effectively transforms any topic / discussion to junk-food for "the largest common denominator" which is a euphemism for "dumbing down the masses".
I quit Facebook cold turkey seven months ago and my mental health has improved. It's an instrument of censorship and surveillance and an arm of the US deep state. Just quit it. Life goes on.
I think Facebook is stupid. I was on it briefly but canceled my account and never missed it. Now that there is Substack there is no need for Facebook anyway. I think Facebook is trump people. I agree with the comment that going off and on is not a solution for you. You are a substantive writer and philosopher and thinker and professor. I recommend that you trust your gut and get the hell off!!
My 2 millennial sons and 2 Gen z granddaughters (ages 13 and 15) have taught me instagram which we are all on because we are activists against the Gaza genocide. I do like instagram. I follow Bisan in Gaza and watch Al Jazeera to know what’s going on.
I found that Instagram censored me badly. It is meta stuff, after all. But if you can use it to do something against the Gaza genocide, then it is good.
Luckily my ad-blocker keeps me from any and all ads on Facebook. Several people I communicate with have been blocked by the "alzhiemer bunch", but mostly temporarily. None of my anti-modernist, anti-capitalist screeds have be blocked yet, as comments come back every time. Lucky for now!!
I assume you've been using FacePlant from Italy. So you may not be aware of the nefarious power of Fückérbérg and friends, when faced with the spectre of reasonable government-imposed limits.
Canada has been concerned about the accelerating loss of independent journalism. It attacked this with a law (C-18) that said that if you re-used news from some Canadian news site, you had to pay into a fund that would be distributed to those other sites.
In the old days, this was called "copyright protection." But today, there is nothing that keeps anyone from taking verbatim text and photos from YOUR website, putting it on THEIR website, and then surrounding it with paid advertising, that THEY then call "profit."
This used to be called "theft." Today, it's called "the Meta business model."
After some negotiation, Google settled with Canada, and agreed to provide some $100 million to the fund for independent journalism.
But not Fückérbérg. No. He said, "FU! You're just a country! But I'm FACEBOOK!"
At that point, he blocked all news postings from anyone coming in from a Canadian IP address. "No problem; I'll just use a VPN to post."
But it gets worse; he also banned all news postings from all Canadian news organizations, including the government-funded Canadian Broadcasting System. If you, as an Italian, try to post this link from CBC from Italy on FacePlant, it will be censored, too.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/online-news-act-meta-facebook-1.6885634
In effect, Meta made Canada "invisible" to the rest of the world.
Want to learn more about Summer McIntosh, the incredible Canadian swimmer who won three golds and a silver in the Paris Olympics? Tough luck, unless you can find scant coverage in the US media, which is all hyped up on fellow Americans like Simone Biles.
This is an odd form of "cultural de-appropriation." Meta has said, "Canada doesn't matter."
So, as a Canadian, I humbly and gratefully appreciate your saying "Facebook doesn't matter."
A FB-Meta Seneca Collapse would make my year, even more than Trump being on the wrong end of an electoral landslide in November. I left FB 6 years ago after hanging on for several years because of family and a circle of friends. Then I (like thousands of others) discovered that FB had assembled a record of my online activities going back to the Nineties -- I'd opened my account in 2008. Some people have missed me and I miss them but I haven't missed FB for a nanosecond.
"I took a decision: I am quitting."
What a coincidence! I did the same thing on Saturday!
On Sunday, my dopamine receptors were seriously working me over. I almost gave in when I came across a photo of mine that I liked, and I had to fight the impulse to put it on FacePlant. There are also a couple people I keep in touch with via FacePlant Messenger; I'm trying to get them to switch to WhatsApp.
But I quit "cold turkey." It will be interesting to learn how your "incrementalism" works for you.
I don't think that would work for me — just putting an "f" in the URL of Firefox "suggests" that I want FacePlant, and I'm sure that if I just hit return, I'd look up puzzled and annoyed in a couple hours, wondering where the day had gone.
Please keep us posted, particularly if you find good, preferably non-profit alternatives!
I completely agree, I have mostly disengaged because it is a load of time consuming tedium.