It will be harder to leave Facebook than it was to leave Twitter

It was not that hard to leave Twitter. I removed the app from my phone and followed a lot of journalists and professionals on Bluesky. I still checked Twitter on my laptop, but not every day. Then one day when X asked me for my password to log back in, I decided not to bother.

It will be harder to leave Facebook, because I have more personal connections there.

I have no immediate plans to delete my account, but I have already removed the app from my phone. That helped a bit, because I see fewer clickbait ads.

I also practiced discipline, so that as soon as the algorithm stuffed something I didn’t want to see in my feed (clickbait or an ad disguised as a viral post), I would instantly block the source and close the browser window.

At the moment I don’t hate most of what my feed is showing me, and it was a pleasure to decline the invitation to join a techbro page celebrating Elon Musk (and block the source). Yes, if someone I know shares a cat or dog video I’m likely to react to it; no, I’m not interested in subscribing to funny animal video pages.

Now that I consume Facebook only through the ad-blockers on my laptop, I don’t actually hate what I see on Facebook.

But I’m not sure that’s a good enough reason to stay.

During the Meta Blackout Jan 18-27, my Facebook and Instagram connections can find me at dennisjerz.bsky.social