Unplugging from Facebook

I'm significantly changing how I use Facebook and other corporate social media

9th July 2020

Hi friends,

I'm significantly changing how I use Facebook and other corporate social media. I'm not going to feed it, and I'm not going to let it feed me any longer.

  • I'm not going to post on my Facebook profile or page. I may occasionally post in groups.
  • I've set it up so I can't see my Facebook newsfeed on desktop or mobile (more on this below)

Essentially I'm just going to use Facebook as an address book/events discovery/search tool from now on.

I will also not be posting on Twitter, Instagram or YouTube. I already don't use the newsfeeds on Twitter or Instagram. I will continue to follow a handful of channels on YouTube that aren't available on Spotify. (Edit, Feb 2021: I have started using Twitter again to keep up with developments in the crypto space, though I rarely post there myself.)

Where I will be posting

  • ~daily: articles I read to my homepage (web, RSS)
  • ~monthly: blog posts to my blog (web, RSS), written with Typora
  • ~monthly: newsletters to my Substack, which will feature a summary of content I've created since the previous newsletter
  • ~occasionally: episodes to my podcast

How I read/listen

I discover articles via Feedly, including following a few Twitter accounts/Facebook pages converted with FetchRSS.

I listen to podcasts via Spotify and (reluctantly) YouTube.

Hiding your Facebook newsfeed on desktop

Install Stylus (Chrome, Firefox) or Stylish (Chrome, Firefox), then install this tiny script I wrote.

Hiding your Facebook newsfeed on mobile

There's no way of hiding the newsfeed in the mobile app, so uninstall it and train yourself to only access Facebook through Firefox. Install Stylish and this tiny script I wrote.

Further reading/listening