Last I checked Facebook had the most active users it ever had. I don’t like Facebook either, but it’s also sad so many people here live in such a bubble that they think nobody uses Facebook.
I don’t think anything of the sort. I found that I didn’t enjoy my time on the platform so I don’t use it anymore. That simple evaluation had more to do with my decision to stop using it than any moral issues I could cite, of which there are many.
Meta has the biggest platforms in the world that most people use. Not a big surprise, really. I have an Instagram, as much as I want to only use FOSS social media, I have friends there that will not move elsewhere.
The largesr draw about a social media is who’s on it. I can’t tell you how many invites to things I miss for not being on social media. Anyone outside of my immediate friend group simply makes plans on Facebook and goes through their friends list to invite people and wont remember some one they maybe see every other month especially among the dozens of names they already looked through to invite. Some peopel are fine sacrificing social life for some small protest that has no effect on Facebook’s MAUs and profit, and other’s would rather not isolate for a fight they can’t win.
Might be depending where you live. I never had issues finding all the parties and having a large network of friends without Meta apps.
I was born before computers were really a thing though, so maybe that has an effect on this. Now I don’t even realize without reading these threads that I miss something. Life is just fine without…
I refused to use messenger for about 6years and I tried to bring people to signal (at least ~most of my family still uses it), but after changing environment and essentially doing a semi-fresh start, I realized I had to give up some (much) privacy to have any social life.
I’d really like not to have such a dilemma, but I dont think I would go very far with ~zero social life (would probably have strong depression, no friends and possibly many other issues).🥲 Fb is ~forcing it to us.
At least while I might have lost some privacy, I help others gain privacy (I help them use/find open source, privacy respecting alternatives to various programs).
Also, Signal really didnt help me convince people use it by requesting a phone number… Its hard to convince people that dont care much about privacy and want ease of access to give their phone number to an unknown app (I know it’s not that big of a deal, but they dont know what I know and dont care much even if I explain it to them).
Hm, that might be a good alternative, but I dont think I’ll trust any non-opensource front end and end up sharing my date with more people (though I see it has fewer trackers than messenger and they appear to care about privacy, so hmm).
(Also, I have long and of sentimental value chats there and I wouldnt want to get banned for using any 3rd party client. I know they probably dont care and apps usually hide it, but ugh… (this is a bit conflicting to the fact that I have an exposed module that turns off ads in messenger and I use an open source front end app for fb, lol.))
Don’t people use it mainly as a calendar? You can see events near you and get alerts to those you’ve signed up for. There are alternatives of course but I feel a lot firms and people publicize their event through Facebook.
There are mentorship and professional groups there that aren’t available elsewhere.
Plus, the local groups for my town/state provide crucial information about weather, taxes, traffic, river safety, etc. In general, it’s a good source of knowledge.
I hate that I’m giving up privacy, but there are also no other social media networks that can compete. I can’t message/Signal my closest 5,000 neighbors to find out which local/free berry patch is ready for picking. But, there’s a fb group for that.
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