https://gateway.ipfs.io/ipfs/QmZpT1gDgPfY1wdiQiziNNAzhqjUFjzKxv9Vr6AFNUgc1P
In part 1 and part 2 of this series, I've detailed some of the reasons WHY I'm leaving Facebook and why you should consider making that move too.
In this article, i'm going to talk about HOW to go about doing that while keeping your friends.
The hardest part of leaving Facebook is not to delete your account...it's to not come back! Once you’re signed up, it’s hard to break up for good because now you’ve got private messages, event invitations, endless new baby photos, and life-changing announcements from your closest friends.
Truly, Facebook has a way of being sticky and hard to live without. This is why I decided to share with you this step by step guide to leaving Facebook without deleting your online social life.
Your Contact Manager - Who Owns It?
One of the reason why we are dependent on Facebook is that it is our contact manager. All our friends, family and acquaintances are on there and without it, we wouldn't have a way to reach out.
This is why you have to consider building your own contact manager so that no matter what happens, you have a way to reach out to those you need to reach out to. Phone numbers and email are a good start but nothing can stop you from including birthday's and physical addresses.
Too Many People? Maybe not...
The truth is that not everybody on your Facebook is your friend. There is a limit to own many relationships you can maintain...what people call the Dunbar Number
Dunbar's number is a suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships—relationships in which an individual knows who each person is and how each person relates to every other person. This number was first proposed in the 1990s by British anthropologist Robin Dunbar, who found a correlation between primate brain size and average social group size. By using the average human brain size and extrapolating from the results of primates, he proposed that humans can comfortably maintain only 150 stable relationships. Dunbar explained it informally as "the number of people you would not feel embarrassed about joining uninvited for a drink if you happened to bump into them in a bar".
As you go through your contact list in your messenger, you'll find this to be true. Most of those people are not even acquaintances...there are people that you have no ties whatsoever with anymore.
Putting Your Real Friends on Notice
Find those people that you want to cultivate a in relationship with, ask them for their phone number and email and compile this into a excel sheet for now. That way, no matter what happens, you have that information at end. You may consider printing it and file it in case something happens.
This process may help you realize how you need to reconnect with some of the people that you haven't connected with in a long time. Why not make the most of it and set up dates to reconnect with them?
Import Your Contacts To Your Phone
The next step is to transfer all that precious data into your phone, you can do this by converting your excel file to vcf format here: https://thewebvendor.com/excel-to-vcf-vcard-online-converter.html
Finally, by setting up whatsapp on your desktop (as see in the video below), you can transfer that file easily from your desktop to your phone in seconds.
Conclusion
I know that this is little tedious. It's way easier to stay on Facebook and bury our head in the sand...but believe me. There is a feeling of empowerment to know that you don't depend on Facebook to reach the people you care about.
By following this process, you end up OWNING all your precious contacts, having better messaging features and have an easier time at getting out of Facebook jail.
We are not done, there are other things we can do to make sure that you can dump Facebook while keeping your friends
You have been really think this through aren't you @cryptoctopus?
But its difficult to not use anything that is not owned by Zuckerberg, since he also owns Instagram and whatsapp.
And about whatsapp did you knew this?:
I’m thinking about dumping instagram. Haven’t really used it much lately anyways.
Still debating about Facebook. Rarely use it but it is useful for some groups I use for things like 3D printing and machine learning that are
much more responsive than other media.
Also works good for keeping family up to date with kid stuff.
Unless you like displaying yourself to the world, I would delete it. I have almost no inclination to take pictures of myself, nevermind sharing them with some randoms haha. I get the foodies and the vloggers, but that's just not me. I guess we gotta find a social media platform that is suited for us.
Yeah I will probably never delete fb because it's like my digital journal. All the back to high school, nearly 10 years ago.
Gosh dang it
It's true. The Facebook and Googles of the world have consolidated virtually all of the social media world under their umbrella. It is simply too lucrative a business model for them to pass up and people are all too willing to give them all of their personal data for free!
Let's hope for blockchain based social medias to take over then.
Steemit is just the first.
well i think it is easy to leave everything related to Mark because we have a better way now. Join FutureNet and leave Facebook today. I'm actually going to delete my Facebook account.
Not so spam you @cryptoctopus but I know you were interested in the Hivemind updates...he is one that just came out from the developer.
https://steemit.com/steem/@steemitblog/update-communities-hivemind
Most people, I know, myself included, keep it for the few people who still use the FB app. I haven't logged in, liked or posted anything in years. It stopped being useful for finding interesting people a long time ago. I give it a year before everyone moves on from it and we start seeing many deletions and dumping.
Lolz...now I love your conclusion because I was just about saying that as well. It is quite tideous and the humans I know would prefer to take the easy way out which is remaining on Facebook since it doesn't bite. But the need to take the steps you just outlined is very important because it will get to save us from the future disaster waiting to occure by using Facebook.
I will take the steps and delet Facebook and also want to seize this opportunity to implore others to do just same.
Talking about the Dunber Number ....150? I can't even keep 3 stable relationships. I can only manage 2 if they are same sex and 1 if it's the opposite sex. I have lots of acquaintances too and I would proudly say I don't have any Close friend.
Big ups to those who can manage up to 150 relationships ..mehn that's much. Lolzz
A wonderful information review, my friend and you hit, just in time for trouble! You are absolutely right and as I already wrote that I also left the Facebook , but the friends who stayed in my account, how to communicate with them, that's the question! Since I did not want to communicate with them through the Facebook, because of the policy of this social network, now you have clearly shown me and all of us how it can be done to stay in touch with them. Thanks for the current message @cryptoctopus
Another way is to get all your friends here on steemit. When all your close friends are on steemit, you will worry less about losing contacts on facebook
Nice way to make fb come out of our brains ,this could help a lot of people from saving alot of time , i guess the best technique to bury the shitty thing & yes thanks for the whats ap video i needed that direct chat thing..thanks Octopus.
Well, to be honest, coz of this facebook and it's videos it has restricted us from socializing with our family or friends, meeting or talking to them personally.
Facebook has been fucking us for so long, I guess it's time for us to move on. But as you mentioned we have our friend circle on Facebook and it's hard to let anyone go. You sure suggested to ask each one of them for their contact numbers and other details, but that's really very hectic. No one would want to do that all over again. So I don't see that an option, give me something else.
I invite all my friends to leave Facebook and their awareness that they are exploiting our personal information
Invite everyone to join Steam
@roselover I agree we may invite all our friends to join Steem. 👍
Isolation: One can suffer from isolation as one will tend to be glued to the computer and move out of the house and meet people. Normal socializing that is interacting with people is also essential. A shy child might prefer to communicate only through Facebook only and otherwise
Putting on weight: One may put on weight also as one will sit in front of the computer for a long time and eat. Naturally, one will not have many exercises and they will suffer from obesity
Abnormal symptoms: Surfing Facebook does show abnormal symptoms among many teenagers such as depression, excessive aggression, abnormal anxiety or even normal anxiety. Those suffering from social anxiety tend to immerse themselves in front of Facebook. Teenagers usual have emotional problems and are very conscious of their self-image, their bodies, and their looks. If socially, they feel inferior they tend to avoid social interactions. Obviously, they would like to spend hours sitting writing for the Facebook
Bad for the eyes: Too much exposure to the computer is bad for the eyes. Teenagers must go out and spend time in outdoor activities and relish the fresh air, rather than remain glued to the computer
Communication with strangers: On Facebook communication, it is possible that one might end up building up relationships with strangers, who can turn out to be criminals as well. Teenagers are vulnerable and are easily susceptible to outside influences. Their lifestyles are changing and want to build up relationships with people who are very hi-fi in their outlook. In this process, they try to communicate with strangers who perhaps can be very harmful to them
Lacks emotional connection: There is lack of emotional connectivity since one does not meet the other person. Feelings, when shared in person, have more impact than on Facebook. The feelings of care and warmth are there when the communication is face to face. There is a decrease in face-to-face communication. Face-to-face communication helps better messaging
Promotes laziness: Sitting in front of the computer and browsing through Facebook can lead to laziness. It is a sheer waste of time
Causes distractions: Browsing Facebook does distract one’s mind from many other activities. One can be involved in constructive activities that keeps one’s mind healthy. Merely spending hours on Facebook and conversing via it is not healthy
Lack of body language communication: Body language conveys a lot. In Facebook browsing, there is nobody language communication as one does not interact with another person
Unhealthy sex approach: On Facebook one tends to communicate on unhealthy sexual practices. There is no healthy sexual interaction as one is not meeting each other physically. Merely communicating via Facebook can prove to be detrimental to one’s overall self-image and also to mental growth. Perverted practices can be discussed or the person on the other side may be a pervert and wants to communicate sexually. Later on he or she may take undue advantage of the person’s weaknesses and try to meet the person
http://www.paggu.com/getting-into-roots/top-10-negative-effects-of-facebook-on-teens/
With the data leak and all the bullshiit on Facebook, this is the right thing to do
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Dunbars no. That was quite knowledgeable ,150 relationships , guess i could marry the same no.
lol
Facebook aint gonna survive ...i guess those are only the shitty persons that are still using the facebook after the Zukerburg himself hacked the Facebook ...lol to that ....i mean what the hell ....#deletefacebook that is enough ..no person in this world need to struggle to make the way out or go for some rehablitation...
Sayonara.
great information...its so essential..
thanks @Cryptopus for share
ur way of explaining how to leave Facebook is awesome i loved it, i don't think anyone else will have a way better than this and the previous 2 parts, hope part 4 will be coming soon and will get to know more about leaving Facebook without while keeping ur friends and without losing data...
This is really true
Hey this is actually really cool.
Even though my friends don't really like these ideas.
But my group of friends went over to using Discord mainly.
Only me and @m2nnari are using Steemit.
Fortunately Facewhat never existed for me, so I don’t have to deal with this issue. However, your journey through dumping Facewhat helped me convince my wife to dump it as well. It’s obvious Facewhat is government’s puppet selling its clients information. I’m still surprised how can people keep their heads buried in the sand so long as you mantioned.
I was never a fan of facebook for the pretentious lifestyle social media promotes. Pointless bragging and time wasted. This was even before i knew steemit. Its no hardship for me.
You really are doing this @cryptoctopus. Behind you mate.
3000 is a really large number of contacts to copy for me, but it's way more than worth it.
I must say facebook is a time wasting platform but steemit is a life changing platform
Sir Mark Zuckerberg will never ever upvote this post i presume hahahahahahahahhaahah
Are you also planning to switch to decentralized search engines and mailing platforms?
Good idéalement althouth at aime point having a distributed and private application that gives some extra features such as notifications and group messaging or chat would be interesting.
Slack and Microsoft Teams alliés it althouth web end up with the same giant IT firms issues.
So I should more search for a small independant and open source application that can work on desktop and mobile.
150 huh? And I thought I was impressive with 20. But what if they only communicate via Facebook? Some people are too stubborn and allergic to change.
But isn't WhatsApp owned by Facebook?
@cryptoctopus Facebook is an addiction not easy to leave but as @roseliver suggested we may shift to Steem by inviting all our friends over this forum gradually.
I mostly use FB to keep in touch with some groups of people. I'm not sharing my life on there. Some people won't use anything else, so it's still a useful tool to me. We can minimise the data we share with them.
Although FB owns Whatsapp, messages are encrypted and deleted there, right? So your privacy is mantained, I think. Messenger of course is completely different and FB uses everything on Messenger to track you and your interests. FB is completely intrusive but I also think if we know how FB is keeping a shadow profile on each of us, we can play games with it, post links to data we dislike, not be very active .. I think enlightened users are not swayed by FB and are not really its target group.
I'd like to recommend this podcast, Goodbye Reality, a conversation between Erik Davis and Mark Pesce. Pretty in depth about FB and the way it seeks to capitalize users' attention completely. Also how it has colonized so much of the internet and cultural space.
I always had trouble making friends, so, facebook was never an issue for me.
Hahahaha suckers!
Great post sir
we really need a decentralized facebook
Hola @cryptoctopus
De pana Facebook me las tiene acatarradas. Creo que tengo las personas que realmente me interesan y siguen llegando solicitudes de amistad.
Sólo por haberla conocido en el banco, el supermercado, etc. ¿Será que quieren algo conmigo? jajajajajajaj
Saludos y buena esa.
Have been thinking about leaving facebook also, but it has been hard for me to make the move. This article has just giving me steps and clues for me to make a move towards achieving that goal without distress.. Nice write up. Thanks.
Haven't really dumped it yet, but I sure have thought of it many times. Facebook is shit book.
My Facebook usage have been almost zero since past one month.
Even though you cannot really escape the surveillance state, you can minimize your exposure to it! You are exploring the right rabbit hole and asking the right questions @cryptoctopus.
We all need to re-asses who we want to keep within our tribe. Basically, who do we want to maintain connections with, and risk loss of personal information for? I sure as hell do not want to put my information out there just to maintain a relationship with someone who I do not know very well, or care about. It is all about reducing your cyber footprint. Highly encourage everyone to get an email with ProtonMail as your first step.
I like how you talked about putting your real friends on notice. I habe over 1000 fb friends. More than 80 % of them I wouldn't greet if I saw on the streets. I also have people on there who I consider not to be friends haha. Kinda true. I see your Point.
Guys guys , why are you still on Facebook when there is FutureNet that pays you. I would rather delete my Facebook account and join today. Infact FutureNet pays!!
Quitting Facebook might actually be harder than quitting smoking, there are your friends, your photos, those beautiful baby photos that we all love. Everyone making you feel guilty for leaving them. Not easy. But yes, definitely, we all should do it. I'll try to join you in this one.
Facebook over the years has become so important that it is difficult for us all to do without it. For me, even though I've deactivated my account a number of times in order to stay undisturbed by its notifications, I've always ended up reactivating it because sometimes I feel bored and stressed up and I randomly go on it to watch friends' pictures and read their posts which help relieve me from stress.
I think I can find most of my friends here but it will just take time.