because social media companies decided you should see content from complete strangers over your friends in the name of engagement bait
this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2025
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Technology
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Katy over here dropping truthbombs! This is exactly why I left [insert shithole social media] site.
Edit. Autocorrect
Maybe being prey to the bald eagle of Big Tech is pushing people away from the original Internet "fever dream" (everyone will have a place and a say in the world).
"Engagement" algorithms broke it all, so you cant see what your friends write
millennial who quit all social media except Reddit/Lemmy (now just Lemmy) nearly a decade ago now.
it's great for my mental health. the only issue is that Facebook decided to take over as being the new Craigslist with Marketplace so I feel like I'm missing out on the best sales of used items because i refuse to make an account and give Zuck my data
I made a minimal account just to use Marketplace and then a few months later was permanently locked out of marketplace because some AI decided I was suspicious. It’s not with it.
I'm a frequent Craigslist user for both sales and purchases. Selling stuff has become extremely difficult since Marketplace took over as the the "standard" for the area I live in. I'm in the same boat as I refuse to make an account on that shit heap of a website so getting my sales to move takes a lot more work.
It also does not help that the second-hand landscape has changed a lot in the past 5ish years. People expect a lot more money for their used items now and buyers expect steep discounts for like-new condition items.
I actually kinda miss 2010 Facebook where everything being posted was actually from my friends. It was almost exciting to log on and see what was up.
Now I'm in a few group chats but those aren't quite as active unless some event is coming up for that group
The move between seeing “your brother in law took the kids to the zoo” to “your brother in law liked this trash article” was such a jarring transition.
The move between seeing “your brother in law took the kids to the zoo” to “your brother in law liked this trash article” was such a jarring transition.
It was awful.
"Oh, look. He's a little bit racist. Now I get to know that. Thanks Facebook."
Facebook went to hell when they let our parents and grandparents on. Not that they are to blame, but it was the beginning of the end.
I text my friends. I assume that everyone else just thinks I died.
When Facebook centered the algorithm over friend updates, I stopped posting updates for my friends.
They decided eyeballs were worth more than connecting friends. Fair enough, I’ll just leave.
I'd also say the "share" function was up there. I wanted to see real posts by my real friends that took real thought to post. Not shit shared at the click of a button.
Yeah, that was it. You could only post so many interesting updates, but a handful of people could “like” stuff all night long.
Social media was always kind of garbage, and the modern algorithmically sorted stuff is worse.
I'd rather just text my friends
I basically forced my wife to install FB Purity (a content sanitizing extension for Facebook) because most of what she was seeing on her feed were ads or pages she doesn't even follow.
I left Facebook years ago because I would rather be a person than a performer and I only really have like 10 close friends. Most know my phone number and email address, otherwise they can message me at the LinkedIn profile I monitor but don't use.
how do you keep up with local/town newd, club information and activities? all of mine post exclusively on the fb groups and since i deleted my account i'm out of the loop on everything lol.
There's a local bookstore lady that will literally not let us leave without telling us everything happening in town for the next month. Find your gossipy bookstore person. :)
See if you can find a Discord or three. Still a walled garden; it Zucks less. Takes some actual networking, but I'm enjoying local communities having been off Facebook for over a decade.
i tried this approach but those channels died. discord rarely works long-term from what i've seen. you see the activity and if its far too long since someone engaged with the channel then its dead basically - and you have to start a new server; but forget getting non-gamers to put in the effort of joining a new server.
Discord servers come and go. People have lives that change over the years. Also, there's the definite issue of hesitation to post on a server that last saw a message a month ago, which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The Beehaw Discord can go days without a post (in fairness, I can't speak to the #gaming channel, as I have it muted). My college roommate's ostensible gaming server is the same way. Ditto for the local server I'm in.
Discord -- at least the way I've used it -- is generally for low-volume, low-importance communication with people you know at least parasocially. It's a completely different beast from the firehoses of social media companies, and I prefer it that way. Also, while it's far from "secure," conversations aren't indexed by Google, providing a certain level of privacy.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to fetch my pipe and slippers, head out to the rocking chair and yell at a cloud.
Mostly through my wife who still has Facebook, but I also talk to people (in person) and read the news.
I love being out of the loop.
as an example, i'm an aquarist who focus on developing specific traits - being out of the loop basically means no access to shows, international exchange meetings, local swaps, events and would also set me back 10-20 years on potential development by trying to reinvent the wheel or even likely to fail in such attempts as well as an inability to acquire quality stock to revitalize genes in housed populations.
being out of the loop in this context is equivalent of quitting because its just impossible to do without facebook because these assholes all decided to move their social activity there.
🤝