Tschüß Facebook

Update 1 & 2
I’m on Facebook forever. At least it feels like this and I’m really happy about the time I spent there. I got back in touch with a lot of people I haven’t seen over the last years, even the last decades.

I mostly had great discussions, nearly no “fights” or posts with comments from so-called “Trolls”. And I’m – of course – very thankful for this experience for the last hmm. 7? years. I shared a lot of my life, holiday pics, opinions, must read + must see things, bike routes –> a lot. And when I was on holiday or away from my city and friends it was great to touch base with the people at home. Sharing Means Caring.

But now I’m fed up with it. It suddenly became to big. So big, that I realized, no it’s not just a small group of close friends. It’s the public. Even I set the stats of my posts to “private” which is today nearly the same as public as it is visible for friends of friends and you know how this story ends.

But there’s another reason: I’m a grown up person and I do not want a company from the US telling me what to read, watch or listen to. I’m really in charge for my own filtering system, I’m dealing with it all my live and I’m doing it quite ok.  My news-system includes twitter (unfiltered via Tweetbot) a very good reader (Reeder), a lot of YouTube channels, some fantastic newsletters and of course: talking to people. And I love reading newspapers – on paper – .

This whole “Zuck-Imperium” doesn’t feel good anymore, it overrules all geopolitical standards, trying to build a new world order. Ok, thats a bit over the top but somehow it feels like this. I must point out, its week 2 after the election in the US and the news are full with articles like this: Mark Zuckerberg is in denial about how Facebook is harming our politics. Which just underline my bad feeling about this social network.

It is still challenging, not to follow the impulse to open FB in the morning at first. I deleted it from my mobile which felt like the first act to get free. Yes, it sounds kinda silly but thats how it is. After all those years it became an addiction, a habit I spent so much time with on a daily basis.

There are some things I’m missing: Groups & Events. This is why I check back in from time to time to go through these. Thats it. From time to time means maybe 2 times/week. Of course I’m missing out on immediate things, job offers etc.. But lets be honest: What did I really achieve the last years compared to the time I spent there.

When I’m there with my original account, there is of course a strong impulse to click the like button äh.. “reaction” button. Thats how FB is calling it nowadays and its a big part of their learning system for the algorithms. This in mind, it lowers the impulse. If there is really something I have to comment on, I have two possibilities: I can send a private message or just don’t do anything. And I don’t feel like I’m missing out much on discussions. The time I’m saving here to do more rewarding things is just awesome.

How to deal with own FB pages:
As I’m having 2 pages I’m filling with content on a daily basis, I created another (empty = no friends) account and made this as an admin role for my pages. So I have a pretty nice and empty timeline every time I open FB. I subscribed to some pages and followed just 2 or 3 people with interesting content/discussions. Thats it. And as nobody knows who is behind this new account it makes no sense to comment at all, so this impulse has no reason.
My Pages: Music Business News and Support Your Local Ghetto

And no, I don’t think I will come back anytime soon. Maybe I go back for a bit to Ello.. its still there and has a strong focus on beautiful things but for sure will spend more time on Reddit.

The pic used for this post is from the fantastic Luke Ramsey and I do not have any rights to use it. Luke, if you find out about it and you don’t like it, I will remove it immediately!

UPDATE 1:

Messenger:
Some might say its not very consequent to still use the FB messenger. Yes, agree – but –> I don’t want to cut communication with the people. My fave communication tools are Signal or Telegram but if I want to talk to certain people I need to use messenger.
–> ToolTip: For dealing with all different platforms on the desktop I use the app: FRANZ

 

UPDATE 2:

Make the FB feed quiet:
There is a solution out there on Github –> get it here It makes the timeline quiet but lets you still access events. Thanks to Blog&Bleistift for the tip!