I made a minimal website using Hugo just for writing blogs so I don’t have to post them in groups as posts. Hope it’s fine here. This is not a promotion. No tracking links either.
Unfortunately, it is simply impossible for me to stop using Facebook.
I never started.
The only valide excuse
I only ever made a Facebook account because of one club in college that never posted their meeting time and location, which changed, anywhere else and you couldn’t access it without an account. Believe me I tried. The last time I interacted with that account was a couple years ago when I Got a notification that someone tried to log into it so I went and changed the password just to make sure no one would be impersonating me. I didn’t give them more information than was necessary. I don’t know that I even uploaded a photo of myself. In the people you may know section I only ever saw one person that I actually knew, which means I was probably doing something right
No shit. Why people even started in the first place is crazy to me.
But if you are using them, please stop.
Here in Spain it was because WhatsApp took over cuz carriers charged for SMS and phone calls. Now there’s a massive captive audience that self-reinforces. Same with Instagram if you’re young or Facebook if you like having your brain melted
Because instant messaging died out. Then it seemed like you were nothing if you weren’t sharing the bitchiness of your life. Then tumblr died out. Now we’re at the enshittification of it, with algorithms curating everything with an advertisement every three scrolls and an Ai post every two it’s basically every one wheel scroll is your family and friends then three scrolls down you’re seeing your memes.
It’s shit.
None of those things would have made me interested in starting to use non anonymous services. We learned not to do that years prior to its arrival. Took one look and went hell no.
Now we’re at the enshittification of it,
Maybe, but it was always bad. Always. It was a bad idea from the beginning. No person who thought about it for 5 minutes should have thought it was ever a good idea.
Thats why when Zucks quote called the users dumbfucks for just handing over their data to him, it was no surprise. Thats what the facebook user was from the beginning: a dumbfuck.
I 100% agree, we should’ve stopped at MySpace.
Someone yesterday just tried to get me on Instagram. No thanks.
Because of not having enough time and money to maintain the app, like the implementation of encryption and new features, founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton accepted the deal and sold the app for $19 billion to Mark Zuckerberg.
I imagine I’d also find that I don’t have enough time and money to maintain something if someone offered me $19 billion for it.
😅 😂
Yah. Most ppl would. Not all! But most.
Which creates a perverse incentive, right? The ppl making s/w with no malware, no spyware, they are lucky if they even make a living. Often they do it volunteer, or for low income. But those who do it to amass power, and sell that power to somebody, as here, they can roll in money.
To fix the whole s/w world, I believe we must fix the bad incentives. Might be lots of ways to do it, but it certainly helps a lot, if most ppl shun spyware. And support OSS authors who are genuine about keeping it out. Right now, most ppl do the opposite.
To be fair to Brian Acton, afterward, he did co-found the Signal foundation and give it a hundred million dollar zero-interest loan.
Hang on… that’s not a gift. The hard work is making money from free software. You’ve indebted a foundation to the sum of $100,000,000.00 and you’re telling them:
A) pay it back
B) via commercializing free software
How the fuck do you do that? You can’t. What the fuck does a piece of software need that exorbitant amount for anyway? I guess that’s why Signal never really was libre software. There’s too much money to be made in spyware.
Generally couldn’t agree more, but
What the fuck does a piece of software need that exorbitant amount for anyway?
For a widely used chat app with calling and video calling, servers.
A self-inflicted burden because they refuse to liberate the server side code. Besides, they can’t be burning through that reserve as they need to pay it back and how on earth are they going to do that?
You’re talking about that?
https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Server
They refuse to federate, and the code does not include any federation mechanism. But it sure looks liberated enough to me.
matlag
Actually yes. I did not know they released this. I still think my point stands: it’s a self imposed burden that is not relieved by spending loaned capital. That only has increased their burdens, because not only do they have to continuously pay for a large quantity of computer resources they have to repay debts and find a way of financing all of it sustainably.
I don’t know a lot about signal. My understanding was open-source clients existed, but the server’s software was proprietary. I’ve since read the Wikipedia page and Signal’s servers were once federated: “Signal’s server architecture was federated between December 2013 and February 2016.” That later date is when they ceased federation, claiming it held back the project.
I don’t like Signal. The people behind it are the benefactors of looters that reside in Silicon Valley. The project purports to be a non-profit, but burns capital that was accrued in and by Silicon Valley. It could not exist without surveillance-capitalism. Though that’s a critique of, perhaps, the entire software economy. Its members are too closely related to its major players though, being ex-employees.
For encrypted communications I would like to direct readers to GNUnet. The entire internet is incompatible with the ideals of privacy and security. You can mount applications on top of it, but the underlying framework is not appropriate. GNUnet is an attempt at creating a secure, decentralized internet. It’s a worthwhile project.
19 years ago.
As with all things involving humans, you can’t really change minds with facts. It’s just emotions and peer pressure.
Not a bad post, but I expect it won’t sway people who aren’t already on board.
It wildly depressing how many folks are still on and refuse to get out of Zucks world. Most even acknowledge it’s bad but it’s almost like cigarettes
it’s almost like cigarettes
It really is. They employed psychologists to make it as psychologically addicting as possible. They studied the ways to make ppl engage the most. Which turned out to be in-group vs out-group rage. They designed their algorithms to pump that, nonstop. And on top of htat, every other psych trick they could find.
Avg person has no chance, when an entire ass team of big dollar PhD psychologists comes at them.
I gave up Facebook way before cigarettes… No but seriously it does kinda suck because I do have my buddies numbers and text/call em but I’m a zoomer & we grew up in the internet age.
Even millennials / Gen X are planning family gatherings, BBQs/hangouts, even underground punk rock shows are just private Facebook groups now. Nobody really hands out zines or posts fliers around anymore for word of mouth, why would you?
Anyone who would already wants to go heard about it on Facebook. The posters were made on a laptop, never printed, posted to Instagram and FB. Kinda makes it easy to miss stuff, especially if it’s like the only way your dad or the new friend you made contacts the world or whatever. I still would never go back, tho. Just go out and talk to people in person lol & then let other people tell you about their crazy facebook posts later lol it’s more fun that way!!
WhatsApp is probably the harder Meta app to quit.
I’ve had plenty of people say “But that’s different, it’s E2EE”, but it’s a closed-source black box that almost certainly has a backdoor built in already.
Show them this
It’s E2E but there’s a 3rd E. And they send material to subcons for AI labelling, so most likely low wages countries with sketchy checks.
what would it realistically take to move an entire country off of whatsapp?
The first people have to abandon the idea that they’re only allowed to use one product of a category at a time. It will not kill you to use to chat apps, it will not kill you to use two microblogging services. The second is that you need to prioritize the better one when you can. This eliminates lock-in effects which are a major moat
Same as what it took to have it take the whole market: a better alternative and enough advertisement for a critical mass of people to migrate at once, so that they stay active there.
Then the rest will flock more or less progressively.
what would it realistically take to move an entire country off of whatsapp?
Wisdom.
Since ever filtered in the Portmaster
Me too. via NextDNS.
This is the way
The only problem is market place. If you want to seel of buy something locally. Everyone has switched to that.
I’m my area it’s the only way to shop used
We have something called marktplaats.
Maybe you should create your own competitor in your country.
My area already has two competitors, but they are dead in comparison. It would be amazing if they took off, but currently Marketplace is sort of the only real option.
If you are not setting an example. Nobody will. It’s a self fulfilling prophecy.
Exactly! People keep saying “but everyone uses it”.
That is such a lame excuse. Yes you will lose convenience. In my country not having whatsapp is basically not having a phone number, but I am doing it anyway because I refuse to participate. Change isn’t going to happen while people wait for it, you have to stand up for what you believe in.
Same here as well wrt WhatsApp. I also refused to use it.
We had a competitor in Canada, way before Marketplace: Kijiji.
It is not nearly dead yet, but if you want to avoid Meta at all cost, be ready to miss a good 80–90% of buyers and sellers (estimate provided by the Royal Institute of Guessworking).
That means there are things you’ll never find even if they are sold. And things you’ll never sell even if there are people looking for them.
The main difference between them is marketplace is embedded in FB app. You can search FB and find offers. That’s it. That’s how it won.
For most people, FB is just convenient: all in one app. Why install another? With another registration. Another site to browse. etc.
Building a competitor… easier said than done!
I gave up on Facebook. I’ve been using the MEWE platform for a long time. I replaced YouTube with Odysee. And for messengers I have Signal, Viber, Line, Telegram, Ratspeak.
Only have messenger left. Considering doing another push to convince my stubborn friends to go on signal. Then I can finally be rid of meta
I haven’t been on in years. At first everyone said I was left out, IDC, text me better than fb/meta. I’ve been sm free since ~2016. It works just fine.
Marketplace is so active, it’s the one thing I’m tempted to use it for. But I wont install their apps on my phone
It’s active, but poorly policed and filled with scams. I’ve almost given up on it.
This is the way for me too. Disciplined web use, no apps.
I use React, but that’s about it.
the worst of meta’s sins, the web hasn’t been the same since React took along
It unfortunately became a hammer for every nail. IMO, it’s a great tool when a SPA is actually merited.
I’ve managed to escape all but WhatsApp but I’m going to do it
It’s been about 6 months after deleting WhatsApp, and there are no issues at all. only peace of mind.
I really want to. But around here it’s the de facto Craigslist, really really good for farm supplies and all sorts of used things. And well people use it for the events side, and there’s lots of specific interest groups that are very active and informative. Which is why it’s so hard for me to leave despite the fact I’d enjoy it if Zuck chucks himself into a volcano. I suppose I can just keep making sure I dont click a single ad, though I’m sure they’re making money off me somehow. A frustrating situation.
A lot of what is in this article is already common knowledge. And there’s definitely a “sky is falling” spin to it.
Meta is shit and Zuck can kiss my ass, but the article is a bit sensational.
Argh. but all other VR headsets are much more expensive.
