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Comment by nblavoie | Hacker News Reader

I tried to quit Facebook (for the 3rd time this year) the last week but it keeps remind me of the people that will miss me by email. I guess this is one of their mental tricks to make users feel that they did the wrong choice by leaving Facebook. Any ideas, tricks on how to solve this problem ?

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I promised myself I wouldn't be one of those people talking about how they quit, but here we are. I haven't used it in well over a decade (I quit back when it was much easier to do).

The snarky answer to your question is quite frankly, ignore them. Your friends will still be your friends without Facebook. I have personally NEVER been inconvenienced by not having an account, and the sheer abundance of communication mediums on the web today makes it so easy to stay in touch. Between just Email, Hangouts, and Texting, I am still in touch with everyone that matters to me, and they know how to reach me. It can't possibly be an inconvenience to text me since they're already almost certainly on their phones too.

You already hit step one of this - you KNOW Facebook is manipulating you. Step two is just to stop letting them.

1. Make a list of the people that you actually care to stay in touch with for social reasons (for professional connections you already have LinkedIn). Ensure you have other lines of communication open with them (email, IM, text, phone, Skype etc). If possible, and if necessary, inform them you're leaving FB and how you intend to stay in touch with them

2. Delete your FB account. Delete the app from your phone (if you have it)

3. Mark any email from FB as spam

4. Block all FB domains at the router level

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