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Comment by stevage | Hacker News Reader

Scientifically, it's not a robust conclusion. The kind of person who wants to delete FB etc is the kind of person who will feel better after they do it.

Personally, I just use FB in a pretty restricted way. I unfollow most friends unless they post stuff I like engaging with. I give FB the bare minimum of my own personal data, and block all the ads they serve. I mostly post questions for discussion, rather than highlights of my life.

I don't use Insta, although I'm considering it. Lots of friends have described really fun, healthy little communities they're part of. (I still think of Instagram as a photography community, which is how old I am.)

I don't use WhatsApp by choice, but occasionally it's someone else's preferred way to communicate. I don't have a problem with it.

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> I don't use WhatsApp by choice, but occasionally it's someone else's preferred way to communicate. I don't have a problem with it.

I think this is a good point, just like you are expecting people to contact you on telegram there must be some people who would like you to contact them on whataspp.

On the contrary, _refusing_ to honor others' choice walled garden may eventually make it enough of a problem to warrant renewed efforts towards interoperability.

> I still think of Instagram as a photography community, which is how old I am.

Wait what? When did that change? I must be old too...

It still kind of is, though, from what i've seen of people who use it, it's become more of a marketing platform now. Both, personal and professional.

It's the biggest ecommerce platform in some social circles.

Years ago. I mean, ostensibly, it is still about sharing photos. But originally, it was more about "I took a really nice photo of something in the world, and I'd like you to see it". Now most of the photos are selfies, or otherwise express the personality of the poster, and it isn't about "photography" per se.

What specifically makes him “that kind of person”?

For me the biggest thing was: If you feel bad/less when you watch somebodies vacation or achievements, you are using social media wrong/in a hurtful way. Comparing yourself against a polished virtual image of someone just makes you unhappy.

I used Facebook pretty early on and still have my account but login less then once per month now.

> It started with an urge to delete Facebook around 3 years ago.

This. It's the same problem as when participants self-select into a study. They have different motivations than the average person.

I'm just making the point that if you are persuaded by this article to also get off FB (because it made his life better), you might be disappointed, because you weren't already dissatisfied with FB.

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