Memes

I keep FB as a cloud contact list, nothing more

Meta has the biggest platforms in the world that most people use. Not a big surprise, really. I have an Instagram, as much as I want to only use FOSS social media, I have friends there that will not move elsewhere.

The two reasons I'm still on Facebook are 1 my parents are on their, 2 to keep and eye on what bands are on locally at the pub

Well, I tried.

I refused to use messenger for about 6years and I tried to bring people to signal (at least ~most of my family still uses it), but after changing environment and essentially doing a semi-fresh start, I realized I had to give up some (much) privacy to have any social life.

I'd really like not to have such a dilemma, but I dont think I would go very far with ~zero social life (would probably have strong depression, no friends and possibly many other issues).🥲 Fb is ~forcing it to us.

At least while I might have lost some privacy, I help others gain privacy (I help them use/find open source, privacy respecting alternatives to various programs).

Also, Signal really didnt help me convince people use it by requesting a phone number... Its hard to convince people that dont care much about privacy and want ease of access to give their phone number to an unknown app (I know it's not that big of a deal, but they dont know what I know and dont care much even if I explain it to them).

PS. I'm still not making an insta account tho😅

I still use Fb because of the groups/pages there.

There are mentorship and professional groups there that aren’t available elsewhere.

Plus, the local groups for my town/state provide crucial information about weather, taxes, traffic, river safety, etc. In general, it’s a good source of knowledge.

I hate that I’m giving up privacy, but there are also no other social media networks that can compete. I can’t message/Signal my closest 5,000 neighbors to find out which local/free berry patch is ready for picking. But, there’s a fb group for that.

Don't people use it mainly as a calendar? You can see events near you and get alerts to those you've signed up for. There are alternatives of course but I feel a lot firms and people publicize their event through Facebook.

There are dozens of us that don't have a FB account!

It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. I do use it because that's where people are. You can't really not do Facebook at all. You can't talk to people on Messenger, you can't sell stuff on Marketplace, you can't get invited to events...

Facebook in my country is where you go to find the best deals on secondhand shit. i got a backpackers tent worth ove £100 from someone on FB marketplace for £15

There are a ton of people who got on reddit and never got on anything else. I like to stay in contact with some of them.

Normal people have friends and family and would like to use social media to stay in touch with them. There are network effects that make it practically impossible to switch. This is not something that can be done with the power of love and well informed agent in the marketplace.

One solution would be to nationalize facebook and other social media and turn them into public utility coops that are run democratically by giving the workers that work there a vote for who and how they should be managed. And give the users a vote.

Everything else is just fantasy. Facebook is forever. You'd need many billions in marketing and advertising to get enough people to switch. And then it will be the same shit.

Unless of course Elon Musk buys facebook, then it will be trash in less than a year.

I don't know anyone under 65 that uses FB unless it's their only contact method for a friend / family member.

I mean, I mentioned that my experience with Pixelfed has not been the best, since it lacks content and discoverability. I wouldn't sign up again to Instagram (I deleted my accounts years ago), but it's obvious that it has orders of magnitude more content, and maybe the recommendation algorithm can be useful sometimes.

Personally, even if I don't want to, I have to use WhatsApp since everyone in my country uses it, even government offices.

The only thing keeping me on Facebook these days is marketplace. If that wasn’t the main thing people in my city use to post used items I would have deleted it ages ago.

I can’t use meta out of self respect