I haven't used it in... maybe a decade. I don't even remember the last time. I never used Instagram. I never used Facebook Messenger.
People are scared about what might happen if they stop, but nothing bad ever happened. I simply stopped seeing a constant stream of depressing bullshit.
Facebook has made it pretty easy to quit by refusing to show you any of your friend's content, and instead showing you a million different groups that you didn't follow and don't like.
I remember when the algorithms started sorting by engagement rather than chronologically. I quickly came up with a workaround to keep my feed the way it was, but, eventually that workaround was removed. I still checked the website occasionally but noticed the overall tone becoming less vane, over sharing, people using it like journals and selfie bombing to more angry, rage filled, posting news articles, boomer cartoons and jpeg fuzzy memes. It took a major turn after 2016 elections in US. Instagram was my go to after that but in about a year or so the same sequence of bs started happening. Haven’t really engaged with either service since 2020 save for occasional things to check a couple times a month.
It was bad enough when there was social pressure to always post happy things, so the feed was nothing but friends and friends of friends talking about their perfect lives (even if you knew the people involved were having typical life struggles). But, then Facebook went to algorithmic engagement-based order, and the angriest content was the content prioritized.
For a while it was a good way to get back in touch with people you'd lost contact with years ago. After that, it was still a good way to organize get-togethers. But yeah, the feed has been a shit-show pretty much since the beginning.
I dont use Facebook proper, but now I'm back to using Facebook because my girlfriend's family uses it for the family chat. So desktop mode on my phone online it is because that app will NEVER be installed on my phone
I haven't had Facebook in a few years but I'll admit there's still a few subreddits I'll check every now and then for news about things I follow because there just isn't enough activity in the communities here, and I'll absolutely suffer through Reddit's atrocious mobile site before I install the app.
Honestly, on mobile, the new design is somewhat more easy to navigate. Regardless, neither is good on mobile, though. But on desktop, I absolutely use old.reddit for the niche subreddits I still visit every now and again.
I thought this up until a few years ago. When I text these friends, they text back.
Also you can browse FB marketplace without an account. I have my roommate do the deed if I really need something, like a car this year, but most of the time I don't bother.