
I deleted my Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram accounts, and felt great since - shog_hn
https://www.shogan.co.uk/life/how-i-deleted-my-facebook-whatsapp-and-instagram-accounts-and-felt-great-since/
======
ericol
I lived in Spain for 5 years and then I returned to my country 13 years ago.

Some 8 years ago, Facebook was something that I really enjoyed using. I left
way too many friends, close friends, and well, lovers behind. Facebook allowed
me to have a healthy relationship with them, even if at a distance.

I went back to Spain on 2010 for the wedding of a close friend, and it was
like I've been out of the country for 2 months instead of 2 years, and that
was mostly thanks to Facebook.

I can't point exactly at the moment when all that went to shit (May be 5, 6
years ago?) but nowadays FB is a constant string of shitty videos from
companies trying to stay afloat, shitty videos made by shitty people, fake
news by the thousand - and people adhering to the fake news narrative! - and
stupid motivational shit of the kind that really demotivates you, people
viciously attacking other people for the stupidest reasons...

I disabled my account some 3 months ago, and I feel much better without it.

Instagram, on the other side, is a different beast. Even with the strong push
by FB in order to monetize the network, I think that fact that people can't
easily share other people's post, and are kind of forced to post their own
material still makes it an interesting place.

As long as instagram does not allow reposting, I think it'll maintain a
certain degree of quality.

I also have disabled my insta account, but I do miss the information from the
people I was following there (Mostly, artists and crafstmen of all kinds).

~~~
SkyMarshal
_> Instagram, on the other side, is a different beast. Even with the strong
push by FB in order to monetize the network, I think that fact that people
can't easily share other people's post, and are kind of forced to post their
own material still makes it an interesting place._

 _> As long as instagram does not allow reposting, I think it'll maintain a
certain degree of quality._

This is a fascinating insight I never considered. Disabling reposting results
in higher quality, higher-effort discourse. Trashy memes and fake news can’t
spread as rapidly or at all without the ability to easily, mindlessly repost
them millions of times. It’s like a circuit breaker to our lizard brain,
forcing us to actually think about what we’re doing instead of thoughtlessly
queuing up another dopamine hit with a quick repost.

~~~
lokedhs
I think reposting with a comment is the worst. Mastodon has "boosting" which
allows you to repost, but you can't add your own commentary to it.

This seems to work pretty well in preventing the spread of bad messages, as a
boost of such message will imply that you agree with it. That way you're not
getting the typical "look at what this horrible person said" messages.

------
ImaCake
Whenever this topic comes up, there are always a lot of comments to the effect
of "facebook isn't the problem, you are". Maybe it is best to think of
facebook like sugary food. Many people have no trouble having one piece of
chocolate and then leaving the rest for later. Many other people are unable to
stop themselves from downing the whole 200g block.

I think these comments come from people who have no trouble engaging with
facebook without any unhealthy habits forming. But there are people who are
unable to engage with facebook in a healthy way. I personally struggle with
facebook's newsfeed and have to put up some serious barriers to ensure I don't
waste an hour of my day looking at it. Presumably many of the negative
comments about how terrible facebook is come from people like me.

The first step to helping those who are impacted negatively is to acknowledge
that there is a real problem here. The next is to attack the problem with
various solutions. Some of them facebook will not like.

~~~
faitswulff
I think of so many human problems as the "sugary food" class of problems now.
Internet addiction†, pornography, gossip, sensationalist headlines. All sugary
food. Our brains are wired to seek out that hit of glucose or dopamine in
resource scarce environments and it's maladaptive in the long-term for
resource rich ones.

† which is why I'm here on HN, if I'm honest

~~~
anon9001
"Internet addiction" seems like a different thing than the rest of those to
me.

Being addicted to discovering new information and sharing with others sounds
pretty healthy to me. I think the difference with HN vs FB is that at some
level, _you_ are driving your HN interaction, while FB is driving your FB
interaction.

I think it only becomes "internet addiction" when you're not the one in
control.

~~~
usr1106
I was "addicted" to discovering new information before the internet existed. I
biked 20 kilometers to the city to spend hours in the library and dig around
in the shelves. When I got got access to the internet in the early 90s I spent
hours to search in Usenet news and gopher sources (www hadn't been invented
yet). I would not call that always a healthy behavior. It can be pretty
inefficient and lacking any direction. Yeah, I sometimes wonder how narrow
knowledge my fellow programmers or my early colleague from university who is a
professor of computer science today can have.

My interaction on HN could be more focussed to learn something new and not
comment something old...

------
stevage
Scientifically, it's not a robust conclusion. The kind of person who _wants_
to delete FB etc is the kind of person who will feel better after they do it.

Personally, I just use FB in a pretty restricted way. I unfollow most friends
unless they post stuff I like engaging with. I give FB the bare minimum of my
own personal data, and block all the ads they serve. I mostly post questions
for discussion, rather than highlights of my life.

I don't use Insta, although I'm considering it. Lots of friends have described
really fun, healthy little communities they're part of. (I still think of
Instagram as a photography community, which is how old I am.)

I don't use WhatsApp by choice, but occasionally it's someone else's preferred
way to communicate. I don't have a problem with it.

~~~
dijksterhuis
> I still think of Instagram as a photography community, which is how old I
> am.

Wait what? When did that change? I must be old too...

~~~
grawprog
It still kind of is, though, from what i've seen of people who use it, it's
become more of a marketing platform now. Both, personal and professional.

------
ccktlmazeltov
Recently I went to Milan and remembered that I had a good friend there. I
tried to reach out to him on Facebook and it turns out that he had deleted his
account. I couldn't reach out to him again because I never knew his email, or
really had much friends in common. It was pretty sad when I think about it.

I'm happy that with Facebook I can still keep in touch with most of my friends
that I made around the world traveling. I end up meeting quite some friends
that I haven't seen in decades when I travel.

I understand that some people are unhappy about the downsides of social
networks, and Facebook in particular, but I wish more people would realize the
upsides as well.

~~~
Scarbutt
Why didn't you ask him for his email?

~~~
bigbugbag
Because he had his facebook.

When you outsource you usually lose in resiliency.

------
anta40
I still use Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. Why?

Facebook: I met lots of elementary/junior high school friends many years ago
who have been lost contact with more than 2 decades via this platform. Useful,
isn't it? Remember, it was before 2010. And I don't spend much time scrolling
on my timeline because I prefer group discussions. Remember that Google had
shut down it's consumer version of Google Plus.

WhatsApp: My de facto messenger app. Many years ago, it was BlackBerry
Messenger. Now Whatsapp. I like this app because it's essentially just a
messenger app without useless stuffs like news, job search etc (yes Line, I'm
looking at you). Telegram is also cool. It's open source so you can make your
own modified version.

Instagram: Ahh Instagram. I don't want to sound like an grumpy old man. Do you
remember that in 2010 till 2012, it was a "privillege" only iOS users can
enjoy? And when they announced Android version, we Android users shouted in
joy? I'm a photography enthusiast so I purposefully post my photos on it. You
won't find my latest dinner photos or selfies on beautiful beaches there,
promise. I also follow the accounts of some famous photographers and
photographers hashtags to provide me more visual references.

People some also to forget that many many years ago, back in the film era,
gaining recognition is harder: you need to build years of reputation, publish
your works on magazines, do exhibitions on gallery etc. Now? We have social
media. Waaayyy easier. Post your photos and in less than 5 minutes, people in
Africa or Alaska can enjoy them. Even any kid can do that.

Despite the useless craps, I'm glad that there are people who still use social
medias in a sane way :)

~~~
GuiA
As a photographer, i can guarantee that spending 10 hours on preparing an
exhibition will be much more useful than 10 hours “engaging” on Instagram.

A gallery show will bring people to you and your work, let you sell prints,
collect emails, potentially meet publishers/other curators/etc. Good luck
getting noticed in all the noise on Instagram, or making any money.

------
standardUser
WhatsApp is a popular communication interface. Giving up WhatsApp is like
giving up email or texting or phone calls. In some countries, it's a more
dominate form of communication than any of those.

If you want to give up communicating remotely with humans, OK I guess. Have
fun. But giving up one specific interface? That's meaningless. It's like
giving up Sauvignon Blanc but drinking Pinot Grigio everyday.

------
stickfigure
"I use Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, and I feel fine!"

\-- most of the planet, but you'd never know it by reading HN

~~~
bigbugbag
"I'm used by Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, and I feel down!"

\-- most of the planet.

~~~
shog_hn
This.

I never personally felt depressed when using these platforms in the past. In
my post I suggest that those who may not necessarily understand the unfair
comparisons they make of themselves versus other people's 'picture perfect'
life could be negatively affected.

For me the issue was more about my data being used to serve ads back to me,
and being disgruntled over all the outrageous things they were allowing to
happen across the platform.

------
celestialcheese
It's tough for me to get rid of facebook these days, purely because of FB
marketplace. It has almost completely eliminated craigslist in my area for a
lot of used items and is significantly nicer to buy/sell things in your area.

I got rid of the timeline by unfollowing _everyone_. Timeline is completely
empty. It's bliss

~~~
commoner
There are other local marketplace platforms, such as OfferUp, that offer the
same experience as Facebook Marketplace without tracking users as severely as
Facebook does.

[https://offerup.com](https://offerup.com)

~~~
est31
But if nobody is using it in the area you live in, those platforms don't help
you. The fact that such software exists isn't what brings the value to users,
it's the fact that other people use it that you want to interact with. The
term for this phenomenon is "network effect", and Facebook just simply buys up
tons of platforms that have network effects.

~~~
commoner
In my area, OfferUp has a significantly larger selection of items than
Facebook Marketplace. If you mainly use Facebook Marketplace, it's worth
looking at OfferUp, Letgo, or other local marketplaces to see if that's the
case for your location.

------
qwerty456127
Why did you delete WhatsApp? Don't you have to text some people occasionally?
Or how do you communicate? Do you use Signal, Telegram, E-mail or something
instead?

BTW I also had to use Facebook once - because everybody at the uni did so its
Messenger was the way we texted each other. Now I use Telegram and WhatsApp.

I mean Instagram is a pure time&attention wasting tool, Facebook is the same +
a messenger (which is an essential thing everybody needs nowadays - that's the
way we communicate with people who don't stand right in front of us at the
moment), WhatsApp is a pure messenger, isn't it?

~~~
wackro
There's literally a section on how he switched to Telegram.

~~~
qwerty456127
I see. Thanks. It was deep down there.

By the way, I've just came up with an idea of what's really wrong with
messengers like Telegram and WhatsApp: you can't read a message without
telling the sender you've read it. And this forces you to answer. This way I
often have to avoid viewing a message so they don't get notified. This is a
huge annoyance which kind of ruins my life every now and then. Thanks G-d they
don't insist to show when you are online. I would even pay some reasonable
subscription to have a stealth mode so people would have no means to see
whether I am online and if I've read their message.

~~~
wackro
In whatsapp you can turn this off in privacy settings

~~~
qwerty456127
Cool! But you can't edit messages in WhatsApp and desktop support is very bad
- I need both all the time.

------
imgabe
Is there some aspect of WhatsApp that I'm missing? The way I use it, it is
purely a messaging app. No different than text messages really. How does this
get lumped in with Facebook and Instagram? (other than being owned by the same
company).

~~~
weston
I think OP is deleting WhatsApp because Facebook is the parent company. But I
agree, WhatsApp is not a social network site but a messaging tool.

~~~
shog_hn
That's it. The clincher for me was when they announced that they would be
starting to share user data from WhatsApp with parent company Facebook for ad
targeting purposes.

------
rvz
Very insightful blogpost and good for the author. It shows its possible to get
away from Facebook's social network drug store which they purposefully make it
hard for you to quit or delete your profile(s). With Facebook, there's no such
thing as 'privacy' and 'account deletion'.

I hope that everyone else isn't addicted to another drug that is called
'Twitter' which one of its side-effects is 'getting the worst out of everyone'
and all sorts of nasty media stories spreading over there.

~~~
amanzi
This may sound overly-dramatic, but I think Twitter is to blame for many of
the problems in the world. The "cancel culture" and lack of real debate that
stems from Twitter is all due to a race-to-the-bottom environment with people
competing to get the most blunt/sarcastic/outlandish statement distilled into
a tiny soundbite to try increase their engagement.

So many important topics are "discussed" on Twitter with the outcomes of these
discussions often leading to financial, political or mental ruin. Complex
topics such as politics, inequality, racial issues, or gender diversity should
never be discussed on Twitter. It's impossible to adequately to condense these
complex issues into 240 characters.

~~~
blondin
> It's impossible to adequately to condense these complex issues into 240
> characters.

it is possible. it's even more so when you there is a picture or a video with
a caption.

~~~
mjevans
While you are technically correct, that isn't the spirit of what was being
said.

Only 240 letters for a words alone that offer a nuanced, carefully crafted,
fully informative message? Sounds unlikely to me.

A link to some other richer media; maybe.

------
kjgkjhfkjf
Comparing your inside with others' outsides will make you unhappy. It's
important to learn not to do that, because it can happen in offline situations
too.

Deleting Facebook etc. is not the solution; it seems like the author threw out
the baby with the bathwater here.

~~~
bigbugbag
Facebook is entirely designed around this, being used by facebook without
falling to this would mean an incredible mental load and fatigue that would
take a toll on your ability to properly function through the day.

getting rid of facebook is the right move here.

------
artifact_44
I too have felt the benefit of complete social isolation.

------
deviation
I'm getting quite sick of reading these blanket templated "I stopped using X
and I feel great!" blog posts.

Don't get me wrong, having more freedoms is an extraordinary thing. But
everything has a valid use-case, including Facebook. Blanket deleting social
media at this point just feels like a cheap-shot to get clicks and overshadows
the more realistic benefits such as reconnecting with old friends, talking to
tech illiterate family members, etc.

------
fit2rule
I treat my FB and other accounts just like any other inbox.

And that's the rub: all of these things can be replaced with email.

Email - plain old text - can carry just as much info as all the web things, to
my eyes - and, doesn't allow for much emerald-king manipulation behind the
mirrors and smoke, either.

If only my friends and family all understood how to _use_ email properly, in
the first place.

Because this writing skill has been supplanted by software-usage skills. Why
learn to top/quote/bottom, or properly cite text, or contract a useful file-
archive and include URL's .. when this 'is what the computer is for' ..

Seriously though, I could radically reduce my social sphere down to the people
I know can handle email etiquette and methodology well enough, and I won't
need any other third-party service. Even my pizza guy can handle an email.

However, literacy being what it is, people don't have time or motivation to
become proficient in email, as a tool. Its far easier just to swipe and touch
things to share information, apparently .. perhaps the time has come for me to
finally write an email client, hmm ..

------
johannes1234321
I got off Facebook 1.5 years ago as well. Removed my special Facebook browser
I used (removed the app long ago) and at first it was weird as I was used to
hitting it, whenever I had a few minutes of nothing. But after a week or so it
felt great. Less screen time, less mental burden from seeing "stupid" posts,
less useless discussions, ...

Couldn't get of WhatsApp, yet, as it's too often the default for friends and
family.

~~~
standardUser
I lived in a foreign country recently and Facebook groups were far and away
the most important tool I had for meeting people and establishing myself.
WhatsApp was the dominate form of communicating with people who lived there.
And Instagram was the primary way I kept in touch with my closest friends on
other continents.

These things are useful, and just because they can be misused does not make
them any less useful.

~~~
johannes1234321
No doubts that there are uses. Travelling Indonesia WhatsApp was a must (due
to free basics / internet.org they were most reliable communication with local
Services) and now in Corona lockdowns many shops here in Germany don't update
their website, but Facebook with current opening times and offers.

However I spent way too much time on it and Facebook is way to hungry for
personal data.

------
onyva
Removing Facebook from my life was the best thing I’ve ever done and I don’t
feel I miss anything. Also, will never use any app or service that requires a
social account.

Facebook was very easy to get reed of in fact. IG I was hesitant, since I like
photography. It was obvious though quickly after it was bought that it had
quickly become a narcissistic sewage and nothing to do with photography.

------
amanzi
I'm in a similar boat to the author and have also recently deleted my Facebook
and Instagram account - although I'll note that the sneaky "to be deleted"
state is now 30 days instead of just 7.

But, similar to the author, I'm having more difficulty getting rid of
WhatsApp. This is my primary means of communicating with friends and family
all over the world. And for some of them I know it's just not an option to try
get them to switch to another platform, especially since I'm not sure which is
the better platform. In my opinion, WhatsApp strikes the perfect balance of
security and usability. Telegram makes me nervous due to the Russian roots and
the numerous security concerns I've read online. Signal is overly secure to
the point that usability for regular folk suffers (I've personally had
terrible experience with their support after losing a bunch of SMS messages.)
Matrix, Riot, MatterMost, and many other opensource apps all look good but not
overly user-friendly for novices.

What else is there?

~~~
ccktlmazeltov
Why would anyone want to get rid of Whastapp.

~~~
bigbugbag
Because facebook.

Also security issues, lack of privacy, lack of proper encryption, censorship,
etc. among a long trail of reasons.

Also whatsapp founder quitting and leaving 850millions dollars on the table
doing so over the way facebook makes money out of whatsapp and for th way
facebook made him mislead the european commission to have them green light the
sale of whatsapp to facebook. He also called repeatedly for people to get rid
of Facebook services.

for exemple this:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WhatsApp_snooping_scandal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WhatsApp_snooping_scandal)
and this
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reception_and_criticism_of_Wha...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reception_and_criticism_of_WhatsApp_security_and_privacy_features)

~~~
ccktlmazeltov
whatsApp is end-to-end encrypted and has better encryption than most secure
messaging (cough telegram). So stop spreading FUD.

It's also not related to the Facebook app so it makes no sense.

------
forgotmypw17
I deleted them, but eventually I made new accounts. Sometimes I just really
need to get in touch with someone via Facebook or Instagram, though not many
WhatsApp users in my sphere.

I hardly ever use them, but sometimes it comes in handy.

For example, at least twice I found someone's wallet or ID and was able to
contact them quickly using Facebook, because their name was the same.

------
kayman
I've been off Facebook for many years now. I deleted my account when I found
myself typing "f" into my browser. Facebook dropdown, select and lose time
scrolling feeds.

I never got into instagram. As an american expat I find whatsapp convenient to
contact my family overseas using their day-to-day telephone.

------
brnt
I never made a Facebook account. These problems seemed quite apparent to me
from the get go. Fundamentally, handing over control to your data and
connections just seemed like a bad idea with tons of potential for misuse,
even if it was well intentioned.

Anybody else never really joined social media?

~~~
rimliu
Could you explain how does having FB account hand over control to your
connections?

~~~
brnt
1\. What's the source of truth for your contact list now?

2\. Do you have backups? Can you make them?

3\. What guarantees for consistency have you?

4\. How do you know handing over such private info will never be abused? Did
you hand out your contact list before to third parties?

5\. How do you control the spread of your contact info?

------
ipiz0618
I understand the motivations behind deleting Facebook and Instagram, but
switching messaging platforms is really not as easy as how the article made it
look like.

When most people in your circle are on WhatsApp, you're tied to it as well.
Sometimes even your bosses and colleagues need to reach you with that. Also if
you just delete the account for Telegram there's less motivation for friends
to reach you to just catch up because they don't use Telegram. Sure your best
friends and family will reach you through whatever platform but that's about
it. You lose friends. Some are ok with that but others should be aware of what
switching messaging platforms costs.

------
JoeMayoBot
Good for OP - I hope more people will do that. There used to be a saying on
the Internet, "Don't feed the trolls", but FB is breathing life into the very
worst edges of the human experience imaginable. I hope that enough people
leave the service that this activity will end (or at least diminish). I tried
to delete FB a while ago. However, I still need an account for professional
reasons, so had to open a new one. This time, I blocked all requests from
people to avoid the negativity in my stream. Instead it's only groups and page
traffic that I need to see and that's worked out pretty well.

------
bobsyouruncle11
Great summary of Facebook newsfeed, loved it! I've also deleted facebook and
instagram over a year ago and don't miss them at all. I do keep use WhatsApp
though as there aren't that many people using Signal yet. I'm wondering, how
many people contacted you on Telegram once you messaged them you're deleting
WhatsApp. Did anyone make the switch? Or did they find any other means of
communication with you - text messaged, emails, etc. I'm wondering how many
people I'll stop interacting with if I delete whatsapp.

------
haunter
I only have Facebook (Messenger) because my larger family use it for instant
messaging but we are willing to move on.

What's a good alternative that has a web client at least when you are on
desktop + you can video call too?

~~~
fossuser
Signal and Matrix/Riot are the best replacement options.

You can pay $10/month for your own Modular.im Matrix server host and use that
with your family (it also funds the devs).

They have Jitsi support for video (you can also just use Jitsi stand alone).

I think signal also has video calling, but not sure about group call support.

Both have mobile and desktop apps. Both are encrypted and ad free. Matrix is
federated, but modular.im makes setup easy.

------
hellofunk
I deleted my Facebook account several months ago, I did not merely deactivate
it, I did a full deletion. Then about one month ago I got a notification for a
Facebook group. I wonder how that works? Either Facebook groups can somehow
contact you based on an email address rather than an existing profile, or some
other weird shenanigans are going on that reflect the account was never
actually deleted and some bug somewhere managed to still get a notification to
me.

------
BrandoElFollito
One evening, I deleted my Reddit account when I realized I was angry
responding to some insignificant comment.

I also realized that the hundred thousands points I had mean exactly nothing.

It was a relief beyond what I expected.

I created a new account for the only sake to ask questions on the tech subreds
which are of interest. I do not read r/all and other similar trash subreds

------
AnonC
Also stop (or reduce) following the news and online aggregators of news (like
reddit, HN, etc.). You'll feel even better and freer.

------
a_imho
Deleting an account is giving up control over that. Keep the account just
never log in. Better yet, add a few GBs of noise.

------
corycollier
I did the same thing a couple of weeks ago. Social media platforms have turned
into a disease.

[https://www.corycollier.com/2020/06/10/why-i-removed-my-
soci...](https://www.corycollier.com/2020/06/10/why-i-removed-my-social-media-
apps/)

~~~
app4soft
> _Social media platforms have turned into a disease_

To be honest, OP deleted _only_ Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram accounts
(all Facebook family), but NOT Twitter[0]

[0]
[https://twitter.com/shogan85/status/1275924633678684161](https://twitter.com/shogan85/status/1275924633678684161)

------
inDigiNeous
I only use facebook these days by systemically unfollowing all my friends. And
I mean all, I don't follow anyone. The experience is much better this way, I
can sometimes check what my friends have posted, and I am not forced to see
all the crap.

I unfollow most pages also. Can recommend testing this method out.

------
davesque
I still have a FB account strictly to do messaging with a certain group of
friends. I would feel great about browsing FB too if it didn't feel so much
like I was contributing to the downfall of modern society.

------
anukriti
Try using Signal side by side with telegram. Telegram has more features but it
works the same way as whatsapp. On the other hand signal is trying its best to
provide privacy which whatsapp and telegram never do

~~~
thekyle
I think you're being a little harsh on WhatsApp. Although I use Signal
personally, I consider WhatsApp to be a good middle. It has more users and
features than Signal but also much better privacy than Telegram.

------
chiefalchemist
My routine includes what I call Facebookless Friday. That is, no FB from Thur
pm to Sat am. It's liberating.

I'm in the process of adding a day on each end. Or perhaps going *less Mon,
Wed and Fri.

------
nso95
Unfollowing all news sources on Facebook has improved the experience for me. I
would see an article, and before long be reading comments from white
supremacists and/or SJWs.

~~~
ntsplnkv2
Yep, Facebook in my day (I deleted it in 2014), was a lot better. It was just
people saying what they did, sharing photos. It seemed a lot less political.
And companies weren't fully onboard yet in using their ad campaigns, and
politicians weren't either.

And perhaps too bad actors weren't involved.

~~~
bigbugbag
Facebook has not changed a bit, it was a glorified birthday reminder capturing
as much personal data as possible and it still is. Well except maybe that at
some point it started to aim at replacing the internet on order to keep the
investor storytime running, which had the interesting side effect of facebook
putting a dictator in power[1].

[1]: [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-12-07/how-
rodri...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-12-07/how-rodrigo-
duterte-turned-facebook-into-a-weapon-with-a-little-help-from-facebook)

~~~
ntsplnkv2
Obviously I meant from an end user perspective.

Behind the scenes FB was nefarious then and now.

------
TwoBit
The logic for deleting WhatsApp pretty weak and undermines the argument here,
especially given the fairly strong encryption WhatsApp uses.

~~~
eitland
Just remember that while WhatsApp encryption seems really good, they still
upload backups of all your conversations unencrypted to Googles servers.

If you trust Google to protect them that is fine. Personally I don't expect
Google to fail me _in that particular way_.

But it also means any E2E-encryption argument from WhatsApp goes out the
window.

------
mister_hn
it all depends on how do you maintain relations.

Living abroad, having a few friends and contact locally but a lot of
connections non easily reachable physically makes the shutdown of FB, WA or IG
hard, especially when most of your contacts uses ONLY the aforementioned
platforms and nothing else.

That means killing your connections and cut bridges with people.

------
peterburkimsher
I have accounts on many platforms, including those 3. If you feel like you
can't give something up, that's a good reason to spend a few weeks breaking
the addiction.

When I did that for BBC News and 9gag, I decided that I didn't want to go back
to reading those sites (although I do click through sometimes from HN).

I still use Facebook messages through mbasic.facebook.com on an old phone. I
don't use 3G (or 4G or 5G), but read books on my phone or offline Wikipedia
when on the bus. The news feed never interested me; it was all about having
contact Lists, organising Events, and discussing topics in common-interest
Groups.

WhatsApp won't work on my old iOS 6, so I use it on Bluestacks and check it
only when needed. The group chats on there would drive me crazy if they
actually made notifications on my phone. Instagram seems to be full of pretty
girls and memes, which I guess isn't that different to 9gag in some ways.

Instead of complaining about data being sold, why don't we try to build a
better social network? CouchSurfing put up a paywall. The community is moving
en-masse to BeWelcome, a donation-funded, volunteer-driven, open-source, ad-
free platform.

The BeWelcome site is managed under a French non-profit, BeVolunteer: the same
structure as Wikipedia and Wikimedia. I think that other projects could be
part of the same organisation. Why stop at hospitality exchange? I think that
if BeWelcome can get critical mass, a related site could then break into
mainstream social networking.

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davidandgoliath
Felt great, yet still needs to post publicly on 3rd party sites to attract
attention: Sure thing.

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gigatexal
I did the same and have never felt better. I just replaced the addiction with
twitter. Oh well

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thenoblesunfish
WhatsApp is indeed a sticky one, but I manage to replace it with Signal.

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usr1106
I never had WhatsApp or Instagram. I have Facebook for historical reasons that
I searched a job more than a decode ago when Facebook was a thing. I have not
logged in since January, so for some 5 months now. I think my record is 9
months without logging in.

~~~
usr1106
Forgot to mention: occasionally I spend too much time writing trivial HN
comments, which don't make me a better programmer.

------
jonnypotty
Enjoy your honeymoon

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m0xte
I never had any of them and feel great! No LinkedIn either!

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ece
Same.

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Markoff
aka How I become hermit

good luck deleting Whatsapp (and Messenger) in Europe, you essentialy cut
yourself from most of the communication

also replacing Whatsapp with E2E Signal encryption by default with unsafe
Telegram with no encryption by default and even optional with questionable
quality doesn't seem like very clever choice, I would have expected switch to
Signal, Riot etc. instead notgoriously unsafe service, which doesn't even
provide videocalls

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diego_moita
> Telegram is by far a superior product to WhatsApp.

For one simple reason: bots.

One of my Raspberry Pi projects is a bot to delete from the family group any
post containing the name of politicians. This wiped out political flame-wars
and fake news.

It is very easy to make Telegram bots. You basically create a website,
register it in a dynamic dns, add an ssh certificate (letsencrypt or your own)
and add it to your group.

~~~
ciarannolan
Genius. How large and active is that group chat?

~~~
diego_moita
Not too big, about 50 people.

It is not a perfect solution, sometimes people send images with political
memes. For these I made another bot that temporarily puts the offender under
quarantine.

Also, remember to use regular expressions to filter out common letter
substituions. So, in Brazil, to filter out our very stupid president
(Bolsonaro) I use: b[0o][1l][5s][0o]n[a4]r[0o]

~~~
ciarannolan
>>family group

>Not too big, about 50 people.

Your country has a different definition of "big family" than mine :)

My family WhatsApp is 5 people.

------
okareaman
I don't understand these naive do gooders who want everyone to delete their
social media. "I did it and I feel better!" Really, how much more self-
centered can you get?

I'm a retiree. My kids and family are scattered. Social media is an important
part of maintaining family cohesion and my role in the family. I've
reconnected with old friends that I otherwise would have lost forever.
Deleting social media would impoverish my life and drastically increase my
loneliness and isolation.

Do gooders: give it a rest.

~~~
randycupertino
So everyone in your family should be beholden to a for-profit data scraping
company and advertising platform? How about use old fashioned ways to keep in
touch with your family like phone calls and letters. Text pictures via a group
text.

Facebook can decrease family cohesion and alienate family members as well. I
stopped posting on there and stopped logging into my accounts after too many
Fox news brainwashed great aunts and uncles ranted about how minorities should
get out of the country or the NFL should ban black players who kneeled.

If you're lonely and isolated, consider moving closer to family and
interacting with them in real life instead of expecting your family to
sacrifice their data privacy to make Mark Zuckerberg more rich.

~~~
okareaman
Facebook is free. It is understood that we provide clues about ourselves for
advertisers as a way to keep it free. Facebook is convenient. You're seriously
suggesting in 2020 that my nieces and nephews correspond with me by letter?
That's pretty hilarious actually. I can't move closer because I can't be in 10
locations at once. My family gets along. We agree not to talk about politics.
It works for us. I'm sorry about your family.

~~~
randycupertino
Our family gets along too, I don't know why you're trying to imply we don't?
We're all far flung and have an annual cousins party at the lake. My 13 nieces
and nephews aren't on facebook because it's for "the olds." Some of them have
instagrams but they have multiple accounts and different "finstas" \- candid
fake accounts they only share with certain friends etc and delete and remake
new accounts with friends etc constantly. They're also on TikTok lately but
generally will text the funny ones not through the ap. We have a family group
text and send photos. I send them snail mail bday cards with cash in them,
sometimes they write back and sometimes they'll call and say thank you or text
etc.

Group text is free too in case any of your family members have ethical reasons
why they don't want to be on facebook or want to get off it to improve their
mental health.

I'm sorry about your loneliness and isolation. I agree that Facebook is
convenient and free but imo not worth the time sink. Cheers.

~~~
okareaman
> Our family gets along too, I don't know why you're trying to imply we don't?

> Facebook can decrease family cohesion and alienate family members as well. I
> stopped posting on there and stopped logging into my accounts after too many
> Fox news brainwashed great aunts and uncles ranted about how minorities
> should get out of the country or the NFL should ban black players who
> kneeled.

I still have no explanation as to why people hate Facebook, the advertising
system (do they also hate TV and magazines?) and in particular the idea that
Zuckerberg is making money

------
arminiusreturns
One word of warning about this approach: it becomes one in a set of red flags
about you if you are ever being investigated by any entity at the national
level. Not having a facebook is viewed as an outlier, and hence will
contribute to some unknown weight of your other red flags that once triggered
will put you into national security letter, warrant-less wiretap type areas.
Beyond that, facebook retains shadow profiles on people even if they don't
have accounts, or have deleted their accounts...

...so my suggestion is to keep the account but start clearing the data out and
poisoning it. Be especially careful about the IP's you log into it from (and
randomize that MAC!).

~~~
randycupertino
> One word of warning about this approach: it becomes one in a set of red
> flags about you if you are ever being investigated by any entity at the
> national level. Not having a facebook is viewed as an outlier...

Isn't that all the more reason to do it, though? The more people who delete it
or don't have accounts, the more normalized it will become to not have social
media profiles.

~~~
arminiusreturns
Thats quite a good point I hadn't thought of, to be frank. You may be on to
something there.

