Comment by 8fingerlouie | Hacker News Reader

Comment by 8fingerlouie | Hacker News Reader

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>Going cold turkey is never easy. If you're having trouble withdrawing, consider what I did over the past few years

The main issue, at least for me, is that everything social that is happening is arranged through Facebook. My kids school events, social events in the town i live in, hell even the good old paper adds from our local grocery store has been replaced with posts on Facebook. Everything is announced and coordinated through Facebook.

So going "cold turkey" is not really an option unless i want to be left out of everything that is going on. That doesn't mean i don't care. I don't have the app installed, and usually don't browse it on my phone. Instead i limit it to "checking todays news" on Firefox (with facebook container) on my PC at home.

It is always an option.

It starts with replying "I don't have Facebook and won't sign up to this thing" to everyone that explain that they are only on Facebook; even before you close your account. Just signalling that Facebook-only is not ok.

You're not so much being left out of everything as much as they are leaving people (you're far from alone) out of their events.

And that's part of the clever thing Facebook does to make you believe you have no option but theirs.

It took me 3 years from starting to reduce to finally deleting my account. I only wish I did it way sooner.

Being left out of social events is a significant reduction in my quality of life. I've got enough reasons to stay home all day without deliberately excluding myself from social events.

Organizers of these events have enough to manage without going to the effort of finding everyone who is not on facebook and contacting them. And let's stay away from "if they are real friends they will make the extra effort", as it is usually a good way to find out how few 'real friends' you have.

So, in some way, they let Facebook win by bullying people into their closed garden.

Edit: and I mean _they_, not you.

I haven't used my facebook account in over a year. Even if I logged in to follow something like this I'd never see it because I'd never remember to log in and look.

> So going "cold turkey" is not really an option

Ending an abusive relationship is always an option.

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