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Comment by spodek | Hacker News Reader

I was nervous to leave Facebook but when I did I found leaving Facebook easy and fun -- http://joshuaspodek.com/leaving-facebook-easy-and-fun. I had read others say the biggest surprise about leaving was that you don't miss it. Using it is addictive but not using it doesn't leave any holes in your life.

Leaving Twitter sounds easy and fun too.

When I first started with Friendster I thought it was fun. Facebook seemed fun too. Until the company got creepy and I realized centralized social media companies are locked in an arms race to get as much of your personal data as they could with as little accountability as they can get away with.

So I left to avoid doing business with creepy companies.

But I found life was better without them. Mine anyway.

I hold out hope for Diaspora as non-centralized so you own your data, but I'm not sure how much social media helps my life.

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Funny that leaving doesn't leave holes in your life. I don't have Facebook or Twitter or IM or any kind of social media. The last thing I had was ICQ back in 2004 or so. But I do feel like I have a hole in my life.

I miss being able to easily keep in touch with old friends. People you rarely see anymore in real life. I think social media is perfect for that. I have often contemplated getting a Facebook account for that.

The problem is, if I am on Facebook than all my usual friends and family will want to add me ad well. People I often see and who's updates I don't want to read at all because I actually talk to them in real life on a regular basis. But I am afraid they're going to get offended if I decline their invites. That's what's stopping me from getting an account.

Well, that an the constant stream of security and privacy WTFs that always make me happy I don't have an account.

Just so you know, you can be friends with a person but 'unsubscribe' from him/her so that the person's posts and updates no longer show up in your newsfeed. I've started unsubscribing from people en masse recently and it's really gone a long way towards making facebook more pleasant to use, though of course it still has its problems when it comes to privacy, commercialism, distraction, etc.

Everyone I know who's left facebook - EVERYONE I know who's left facebook - has come crawling back. In most cases it's because they're tired of being left in the dark about events. So as to whether or not it leaves "holes in your life", I guess that depends how you feel about sitting alone at home while your friends are out skiing, watching movies, or catching a show.

Yep, I've left Facebook several times and Event listings (and the list of who is attending) are always what drags me back.

But that's just a network effect - if those listings were elsewhere, I wouldn't need to return. Someone really needs to make an events app where identity is tied to Twitter / AppDotNet / Email instead. And while you're at it, connect to my Last.FM & Rdio so you can suggest/predict events for me based on my musical taste as well as my interests & friends network.

Well, in your new event app, you'll want to allow people to log in with their Facebook as well, to take advantage of the existing network effect. If you came up with a compelling feature or two, and could get Facebook people to prefer it for their event, it seems you would have a decent chance of traction. Monetization is left as an exercise for the reader.

Working on it. Drop me an email if you'd like to chat.

Honestly, I'm sure good friends can spare three minutes for a phone call.

If it's a group, and not just you and two buddies, people forget. They forget you aren't on Facebook, they can't find your number, they just forget to call.

Fair enough. I prefer it to be just me and two or three of my friends, so I haven't hit that issue. I find it just becomes less personal after that (although your experience may vary, of course)

It might not be Facebook itself, but the overwhelming firehose of constant updates from your friends and family, combined with the knowledge that you CANNOT (should not?) use it for venting frustration or anger at the times when you most want to -- because the people you are likely wanting to vent about are your friends or family. ;-) (Well, that and the tinfoil-hat aspect of not wanting to post anything For Posterity that isn't completely sanitized.)

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