How I use Facebook

I’ve been using facebook (the product) for over 12 years. It’s been my rolodex, my event planner, my post office, my blog, and even my diary.

In the past, Facebook was wonderful. So many of my friends were there. I *lived* there. Then all the ads, the pages spam, etc overwhelmed it. Seemed like I was awash in a flood of crap. News articles, ads, posts in groups I didn’t care about, etc.

So I put a stop to all of it. Now, Facebook feels a lot like the close community of friends that it once was. Here’s how I did it:

1. Once, I spent the evening on a search and destroy mission. Every time I saw an ad, I clicked (…), then “I don’t like this ad”. It took maybe 200 instances, but in the end, the Facebook feed algorithm realized that there was extremely low predicted benefit to showing me an ad, and a (projected) higher expected harm of me using Facebook less if I saw one. So now I don’t see ads.
2. Un-like every page you follow. Every single one.
3. Unfollow all but the most important groups to you. Maybe keep 2-4 that you actively want to participate in.
4. Sometimes, usually once a month, ads will come back. Hiding the first 2-5 of them you see will keep them away for another month.
5. Follow (don’t like!) a few pages that you absolutely want to follow. For me, it’s some webcomics, a friend of mine running for Congress, and a magazine.
6. Any time you see a post from a group that is awful, snooze it.
7. If you snooze a group 3 times, unfollow them.
8. When it is someone’s birthday, I try to send them a messenger message (or better yet, text or email). I absolutely won’t post on their wall. Posts are batched together in one big blob. I want my birthday wishes to stand out.

Lastly — don’t log into FB on your laptop while you’re working. Physically log out. If you’re gonna use it, use it on a phone or iPad to make it physically obvious to your brain that you’re not doing work.