Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

I felt the same - I was alarmed when I realised how much time I spent scrolling through a feed of inane posts, and how Cmd-T, f, down, enter had become almost a reflex.

Most of my "real" friends seemed to have stopped posting on there, yet I was still addicted to scrolling through the feed while waiting for code to compile or whatever (clever design on their part, I guess!).

However, also like you, the privacy side doesn't worry me too much (although as time goes by I do start to think about it more), and I still get some value from communicating with certain people on FB Messenger and being able to access photos from events etc., so instead of quitting, I unfollowed everyone (using a bit of Javascript - I'll try and dig it out).

My feed is now totally blank, so I now only visit maybe twice a day for a few seconds to check for messages (I refuse to install their app - mbasic.facebook.com all the way!). I did think I could refollow people if I felt I was missing out, but surprise surprise, I don't at all.

Of course, I've now replaced reading Facebook with reading Twitter while stuff compiles but at least that's relevant to my work ;)

I'd highly recommend this approach if you feel uncomfortable with your use of Facebook but also value your network of friends on there.



I think I wrote my own Javascript in the console to do this, thinking about it, but the basic idea is https://gist.github.com/renestalder/c5b77635bfbec8f94d28 (I've not run this so do check it before doing so)




Consider applying for YC's Fall 2026 batch! Applications are open till July 27.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: