How to Kick The Facebook Habit and Fuck Zuck
You can do it. Here's how.
Everybody talks about Facebook, but nobody does anything about it.
OK. Never mind the time you waste doom scrolling. Or how much of your personal information Zuckerberg hawks on the dark web.
How about how much money your continued use of Fakebook keeps putting in the pockets of the guy who just gave Trump a $1 million bribe?
Yes, the same techbro who reportedly stood with his hand over his heart at Mar-a-Lago as Trump broadcast the national anthem as sung by the Jailed Insurrectionists Memorial Choir.
Suffered enough, yet? Read on.
First things first: Few souls have the discipline to go cold turkey and close their Facebook account entirely. To them I say, “I salute you.” But I’m not ready yet to sever what might be my only communication link with childhood friends and former co-workers.
If you feel the same way, acknowledge that. Then stop worrying about closing your account. You don't have to. Drastically reducing your usage will still go a long way toward screwing Zuckerberg.
Here’s how: Facebook’s profits flow not from your having an account, but from FB showing you paid ads. The less time you spend on Facebook, the fewer ads it can show you and—therefore—the fewer eyeballs it delivers to advertisers.
Advertisers pay hard earned cash for ad delivery and sales. If those decline, as they will when you reduce your usage, advertisers will naturally reduce or eliminate their advertising on Facebook.
Voila! Facebook revenue drops.
True, by yourself you won't trigger noticeable losses to Facebook’s bottom line. But you can feel good knowing that you’re doing your part. And, if enough people do this, too, the losses will mount.
Plus, by reducing your usage you will have reasserted greater control over your time and your life and begun your own process of weaning that may lead to total abstinence someday.
I began this very process recently, choosing to substitute the social network Bluesky for much of my Facebook use.
Here are the first steps I took. You may want to try these. (Suggest your own ideas for weaning in the Comments below)
I posted an announcement on my Facebook page that I would be drastically reducing my usage and moving to Bluesky. I tagged a number of my Facebook friends so that they would see the announcement. I posted my Bluesky user name there, too. The announcement also said that FB friends could request my email address by private messaging me.
On Bluesky, I searched for the names of Facebook friends and found that around 10 had already opened a Bluesky account, so I “followed” them on Bluesky.
I'm setting goals, such as not using Facebook on certain days of the week.
On my phone and tablet, I dragged the existing Facebook app icon from the device’s Home screen to the device’s second screen and replaced it on the Home screen with the Bluesky app icon.
So now, when I instinctively go to tap that same spot, I tap the Bluesky icon instead. If I really do want to run Facebook, I scroll to the second screen that has the FB icon. Works like a charm.
Another tactic I use is not to click on ads if I’m interested in the product. I note the company and open in a separate browser so Meta doesn’t get the referral link.
I barely use facebook anymore anyway because it is mostly ads and weird posts I never asked for from accounts I never liked or followed (lad bible, stuff about the Flinstones-I guess because of my age?-, etc). I rarely even see posts from friends anymore. And FB marketplace, which I used to use, has become a joke because it keeps changing the algorithm and I rarely see local stuff anymore. I keep my account open because of not wanting to give up childhood friends and distant family. But I don’t know why, because of the way FB prioritizes ads and junk, I rarely see their posts anyway. FB is making itself obsolete with no effort from the rest of us. So is instagram.