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Comment by JumpCrisscross | Hacker News Reader

A few months ago I turned off Facebook notifications on my phone. Then I turned off Messenger notifications. I recently deleted the Facebook app. A month ago, the Messenger app moved to page two. Two weeks ago I deleted both from my phone (still have WhatsApp) and force myself to log out when I visit on my laptop.

I'm not sure this is the level of disconnection I'll remain at. (Maybe only in election years.) I do think it's a gentle enough curve that everyone should try it.

When I ask friends whom, among Facebook, Apple, Google, Netflix and Amazon, they trust most, the results are heterogenous. When I ask whom they trust least, it's universally Facebook. If you don't trust someone, they may not have your best interests at heart; keeping them close is like holding on to a toxic friend.

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Facebook seems to have adopted the dark pattern of messenger notifications of "1" even after I have deleted all chats.

Every time I open the facebook app I am alerted of a new message. I've gone so far as to file a report with facebook, but have not heard back. I assume this behavior is intentional at this point.

They do the same for me in the FB app on the Marketplace section. They’ll put a red icon down there that makes me visit that section to make it go away.

Unfortunately the only things I see on there are cars where the list price is $1 but when you open the ad it’s actually $20k. I’ve reported those to Facebook as scams but the response was “these are legitimate ads” so there’s no reason to go back. Other than that damn red icon.

I have had that happen at times with Marketplace also, which is pretty much another garbage feature on FB. My usage has personally declined drastically as they continue to introduce more features.

Their getting pretty aggressive with their notifications. I'm getting tons of friend x updated their status or other minor minor items they wouldn't send a notification for before, I suppose their trying to get people to reengage

I just noticed this myself in the past week.

On the meta subject of notifications: I've disabled all sounds and vibrations of my personal phone and I make frequent use of the snooze functions (either app level or os level). I feel like it's also good starting point.

I tried that for a while, but I ended up going on the app to see if there was anything new instead, it ain't really useful.

> I ended up going on the app to see if there was anything new

Deleting the app makes you aware of how frequently one gets the subconscious urge to do that. (Same with logging out on the computer.) Once you add that friction, it becomes easier to become conscious of the behavior and then decide if, in a car between meetings, what you really want to do is scroll through Facebook.

This to me is the very slow and then sudden death of things like Facebook. People will casually stop using just as they casually were using them.

And then one day, the numbers decline enough and people don't care much about Facebook anymore.

It's almost inevitable in business I feel. Enough higher-up business people at a corporation make safer and safer decisions, take less and less risks, until the corporation just starts acquiring companies to stay relevant.

Oh wait...

So, are you happier?

Yes. I'm more productive, spend less time pissing over semantics with my conservative friends (we still disagree, but more so in person or over text, where (a) it feels different, because one isn't playing to an audience and (b) I tend to learn things versus just getting pissed off), and more relaxed. I also noticed my sleeping patterns have become healthier.

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