There are a few reasons why someone would like to remove any influence of facebook from their lives. With the growing sentiment against Facebook and its subsidiaries, Instagram and Whatsapp, Id like to talk through the why we should think about avoiding these services.
Psychologically, outside of simply being specifically designed to be addictive, these social networks promote a sense of achievement in the validation of strangers, and anxiety from the Fear of Missing Out(FOMO). It also promotes comparing our lives with others, which is psychologically unhealthy. Though I think people who are truly happy should feel no need to post their life on the net. Instagram is generally believed to be the worst of these services at this current time.
On a privacy level, Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram all use algorithms to sift through your data/behaviour to target relevant ads to you. This means that one corporation has access to: Your personal data and images, your behaviour, your location history, ability for chats between your loved ones as well as your business communications. This can cause a multitude of negative effects going forward.
There is also a lesser thought of sociological effect of these social networks where user patterns are becoming so predictable that certain nudges to specific user groups can manipulate their emotions, opinions and behaviour. This can be seen in the controversial scandal involving Cambridge Analytica in the 2016 US Presidential elections.
So for the ability to connect to each other, we are giving away a part of our mental stability, our personal privacy and an inherent part of our free will. If this doesn't seem like a good deal to you, its probably because it isn't.
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