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Comment by mihaic | Hacker News Reader

I would love to stop using Facebook, Instagram or Whatsapp, but I would really need to criple my social life if I'd give up on any of these. And I'm not even a very active person, it's just that so many people I want to engage with have a huge chunk of their lives tied to one of these.

I can't understand the people saying there is a free market choice here, this can only be solved with simple regulation that targest large platforms.

If the SEC can use its judgement on what constitutes a security, than we can have a social media comission to oversee Facebook.

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If someone is important enough in your life, you'll both find ways to make it work.

The mental health benefits of leaving Facebook are worth it.

I think one thing this discounts is that you form loose connections and sometimes those loose connections become stronger later.

If you have a friend of a friend who you add on socials, and then you see their updates, and then you see them at a mutual party, despite not being well acquainted you are reasonably up to date with their lives. This can make the conversation flow better and you may form a meaningful connection.

What about a local running group that organises everything through Facebook?

You could try calling them or seeing them in person. If they refuse to interact with you unless it’s documented on Facebook are they really people worth interacting with?

Arguably for 1-on-1 relationships, but even then it would mean losing some not so close friends, that I still enjoy seeing once every 1-2 years.

But at times it's impossible in practice: my friends will create Whatsapp groups for instance to plan vacations/batchelor parties/random events, and I need to use that if I want any meaningful involvment in the event.

I've sometimes been passive and just showed up, but I'm losing a part of the shared experience.

I had this same problem so I made an app that allows me to use Instagram without using the Instagram app. It also blocks ads + suggest posts, removes all tracking, removes read receipts in DMs and when viewing stories, and also allows me to create custom feeds like Twitter lists.

Turns out a lot of people had this problem, so I made it into a company.

I don't want to blatantly advertise but let me know if you'd like me to link the website.

Out of curiosity, do you use Google for search?

I use mostly Duckduckgo for search, Google when in desperation (once per week probably).

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