Facebook used to be AMAZING! It gave me a way to turn my art into a business! My posts used to reach thousands and thousands of people. I used to spend 3-4 hours a day just replying to messages and comments, building relationships, connecting with people all over the world.
Then, bit by bit, it took all that away. First my business page lost 99% of it's reach, then my group. I even got blocked from posting and replying to comments in my own group. And now, even my personal page only reaches maybe 1% of my friends & followers. I made my living from selling my art online, at one point 95% of my sales were from Facebook, my website got 3-5000 hits a week from FB. Now I'm lucky if my posts reach 100 people and I get a handful of hits to my website each week...
Worse, people think you;re ignoring them, and you think they're ignoring you, but really it's Facebook not sharing/showing posts. I can't even communicate properly with my own family. Last week, an important message from my own Dad, who I am friends with on Facebook, and do follow, got put into my "filtered" inbox so I never got a notification about it and only saw it 2 days later. Meanwhile, my Dad thinks I'm ignoring his important message...
Stress, depression, anger, powerlessness, frustration are the result. I literally get cravings and withdrawls, just like a substance. Worse even because in my head I know I didn't take anything, so I get mad at myself - why should I be feeling like this? Snap out of it! "Just stop using Facebook so much", "Only log in once a day" But I can't, I'm addicted... Even other people in recovery from drugs and alcohol, people who are familiar with these symptoms, act like I'm overreacting when I tell them this.
And I am probably going to have to stop doing art full time until I can find other ways to reach people, Steemit, Minds and local events just aren't filling in the gap enough yet, which makes me resent Facebook even more... It'll be hard to find new ways to reach people while I'm busy working for someone else again. I just deactivated my Facebook account today, but I found out it's pretty much the same as just logging out, you can just log back in any time. I think I'll have to delete it completely to finally get rid of this horrible time wasting and soul sucking addiction.
One Facebook post is too many, and a thousand is not enough...
There will be doctorates about Steemit addicting.
I'm relatively new here, so far I find it easier to log out of, and I have less compulsion to check in as much. Maybe if my posts start to earn a lot in the future I'll become more addicted lol
I feel ya Adam.
Had the exact same experience with fb until it's just dead now. They amped up the bullshit so big that all my media work of the last years suddenly was for naught and it wouldn't reach any of my subs any longer.
The hilarious thing is, they always claim all changes are made... for the benefit of the user
BS. It's more likely that the social side effects of fb were the main goal.
The noise on there is so permeating, it's a madhouse.
In good shamanic tradition let me offer you a temporary substitute.
I read when coming to steemit, that comments are really important.
If you feel you HAVE TO log in, why not on steemit and build your network?
If you connected to contests, the art community, the psy community, and commented for an hour every day, you could not only build bridges to those who would adore your art and support you, but also you could quiet the FB demanding troll in you until he gives up.
While I am still looking for the catch in steemit I can say for now:
This place lets you build a presence that supports you. FB lets you build a presence where all your work is in the end turned into profit for that company, not for yourself.
And the array of friendly people on steemit I have already met really speaks for itself.
Good luck with your fb withdrawal man, you know it will be worth it.
Your art will carry you, you're too good for that already. Build a network, take part in a contest, really.
I wanna see it all click again for ya ;)
First off you are right on the money. Facebook is designed to cause you harm. And doing things to frustrate you and by fiat exacerbates that.
I'm sure it will all click again soon. Part of the difficulty with Facebook is that's where all my REAL family and friends are, the ones who I was connected to before I even started to paint. BUt, I've already shown myself that I can't just use Facebook a little bit. Like an alcoholic can;t have that first drink, the first login to FB is the one I have to avoid because it causes the cravings for the other 20... So, it's hard. It;s like having friends at a bar and not being able to hangout at the bar without getting cravings to drink, but, you know you'll miss those friends if you don;t hang out at that bar...
That's the only reason I still have an account on fb. I have gotten sick of the plattform but until I set up some kind of safety email for my connections I will keep it activated.
Wanna do that soon, I really want nothing to do with BF any more.
On a related note to the earlier points, southsea does a geometry challenge every week. You could win small prizes but more than that, you would get people interested in art and geometry to see your work.
https://steemit.com/@southsea
Sweet, thanks! I'll have to spend more time on here to get used to it, takes me a while to learn a new platform. I've already learned a lot in the last few days, like about how reputation works and how to check my voting power etc.. :)
I have been here for about a month and I totally know what you mean.
From what I can tell though, it's worth it.
I'll stop stealing your time now ahahaha. But before I go I can share Jerry's series with ya, it really is a good introduction. small steps every day.
Much love dude!
Its all about the reward system on the brain and dopamine we need more meaningful true relationships in order to feel secure and have less need for likes
Yes, and no. I didn't have this"need for likes" before Facebook took away my audience. It was always growing. NOw that my audience has been shrinking down to almost nothing, it is those relationships I miss. I miss all the people who used to comment regularly on my posts. I miss the chats I had with other artists about how to make art a career etc..
I don't think the problem is you first off. Facebook is failing in many ways and their platform hardware and software is failing for scads of reasons.
Much of that is ethic, rest is incompetence and lazyness.
Their want to not be able to open new accounts, close existing accounts for no reason, and enable and support all forms of abuse as they have tells you and others this is a waste of your time.
You as a business person rely on what MZ said he can do for you. He is wrong not you since you have time and money tied up in this.
I agree, very unethical to let people build your company with their content, then hide all their content from their followers. Even paid ads are a scam, they wouldn't let me boost my art prints for sale, their "system detected the image had too much text" - my signature, the title of the print and my website... Garbage.
That is odd and thanks for sharing this with us. I don't see many others other than me (and now you) making offers as to what went wrong with Facebook for them.
It looks like they are quietly going away and with them not opening new accounts this spells the end.
For me it was less of a problem since I don't market with them and my content is all saved for use on other sites.
For you it matters more.
Overall this is the definition of an abusive relationship.
You are blamed for things done to you.
You are abused by others and then your account is "sanctioned" etc.
No dialog with them is possible to explain what the problem is or how you can remedy it etc.
Overall MZ is a fraud and so is his product.
He overstates and mis-states his abilities and with that he can't account for much at all and the behaviours are abusive or otherly odd and obtuse.
your comments made me follow
you seem like an honest freethinker
Thanks, following back. I likely am as you said and my content is fairly good. My witness is accurate and I have some experiences that are worth knowing about.
Precisely my mission, awesome dude.
Are you familiar with Leader technologies and their alleged role in the story of facebook?
And I don't like bullies....
No I am not. Can a web search turn that up? I see their failings from the outside and since I have expertise in computer systems hardware and software my intuition there seems to have been right. Thanks!
I have had atrocity done to me in and by the USA. And Facebook and Zuckerberg targeted me for abuse, witness suppression, character assassination, and other forms of abuse. They conspired.
AND those who acted to harm me, a group of them, used his product to share information and to assist in that effort.
whatever it was, you probably hit the nail on the head somewhere to make them act in a concerted fashion.
take it as a compliment for your freethinkerdom ;)
Thanks ! I would have felt it not likely they'd do this but.... motives are compelling on it. I have witness of some serious problems done to children and myself. Police, clergy, educators, etc are involved.
My avatar photo is of me as a boy. Done for a reason about child harms made to me.... this is odd.
I never looked at facebook in that light... But u r right it is addictive... But steemit compared to facebook is like an obsession. You feel me?
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Thank you so much! I'm still relatively new to Steemit. I'm ok with being addicted to something that helps me build better relationships, new connections and to help me make a living from my art! It's when all that doesn't work, when the "high" goes away, that I have a problem with it lol
All the #feels for you and the art!
At least I've been able to recognize and admit the problem. Now the rationalizing kicks in "But my Mom keeps in touch with me on FB" "But I do still make a FEW sales on Faecbook" "But what if Facebook changes and gets better again down the line and I delete my account with all my contacts?" etc.. Argh.
You are so right about Facebook. I tried to open an online business once and use Facebook as a platform to reach customers. Facebook intentionally reduced the reach and started pushing that businesses pay for their advertising. Once you do something like that, you have to be careful too. I closed down my business page a long time ago. It was connected to my regular account, so that I could go back and forth. My regular page kept getting hacked. It was someone who was opening my business page again and using it to try and charge advertising for their products. I had to make my facebook super secure. You have to have a verification code to even get into it because of the issue. I tried reporting it to facebook over and over, and it kept happening until I made my account extra secure. I tried to get them to waive the fees that were charged to my account by the hacker, but I still get a message that comes up saying I owe money, and facebook will not even message me back about any of it to try and straighten it out.
Facebook has become something totally different than what it started out as. It's not even useful to keep in touch with friends and family anymore... WAY to many ads, and they;re all from pages I didn't even like. Meanwhile, Facebook knows what I like, I told them by liking hundreds of pages and joining groups, but do I see any of that content? Almost never...
Really, I can look on Amazon and next time I sign back onto Facebook there are ads of exactly what I was looking up on Amazon. You are right though, lots of ads. And I hate any article posted on Facebook, if you try to read it and get into it, next minute it takes you to a page you can't get out of saying you "won a phone" or "you have a virus." I have to clear my whole internet browser.
wow! the case is getting better and better.
good luck with your projects in the new year sarah. let us set up some lawnchairs and watch fb go down ;)
Yeah I gave up my business a couple years ago. I started a clothing business because I thought it would help to run an online business while I worked on my Master's degree. It never took off like I wanted and I had to start interning which took a lot of time, so I let it go. I'm finished with my Master's and in my career now, so I don't see myself doing anymore projects like that again lol.
Cool, glad to hear you decided on a path and it works out for ya.
Incidentally, I sometimes make shirt designs. It seems obvious we should all build our networks on here and make them grow to collect people with all skillsets needed for everyone involved to succeed.
followed ;)
Absolutely! There is nothing wrong with having extra ways to make money. Mine just didn't pan out like I wanted unfortunately. I wish you the best in your endeavors. Thanks for following me. I will follow you too.
fuck you facefuck
But overall Facebook is dead:
Facebook's SSD findings: Failure, fatigue and the data center
http://www.zdnet.com/article/facebooks-ssd-experience/
Their storage architecture is founded on incompetence as is their software platform.