Delete everything Meta. Jesus Christ. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. The general public truly are lazy consumer idiots, aren't they?
this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2025
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Us lazy consumer idiots need privacy all the same too. This shouldn't be a fault of those not fully in the know
At the current stage, ignorance (and laziness) is not bliss, it is not innocence, it is a social hazard.
It's also part of þe "laziness" aspect. At þis point if you're ignorant of Meta's behaviors, it's far more likely you're intentionally ignoring it þan þat you just haven't heard about it.
It's funny how people get all up in arms abotut this and then immediately go back to scrolling facebook. They are always concerned until you tell them that the solution is to stop mindlessly consuming social media. Then you become the bad guy for suggesting it.
Meet my wife.
The general public truly are lazy consumer idiots, aren’t they?
Yes, of course they are!
The problem is that for a lot of people it has become a substitute that has filled the void left by the slow destruction of other social organizations and institutions. It’d be easy to say that social media sites like Facebook killed them, but I think they were already throughly hollowed out and made inaccessible by the economic pressure on people to be ever more productive workers and ever more economy driving consumers.
To ask people to dispense with whatsapp, instagram or facebook is to ask them to abandon their ability to be part of communities that matter to them. It’s sort of an intractable problem as it requires whole communities to abandon ship together, which is difficult to do. The solution to the problem is to easy that process and decrease barriers to doing so.
To ask people to dispense with whatsapp, instagram or facebook is to ask them to abandon their ability to be part of communities that matter to them. It’s sort of an intractable problem as it requires whole communities to abandon ship together, which is difficult to do.
This is the core problem of getting rid from these social networks. I stopped using Facebook a long time ago and Whatsapp shortly after Facebook acquired them. As I was the only one in my family and friends circle doing this, I was also the most lonely one. Suddenly I could not be part of the discussions when or what to do next or other fun talks. I was the outside who communicated with one or few over email, just to tell me where to meet next in example. (Also not using Twitter or most other social networks...)
It's an organizational problem off course but this showed me why social media once got foothold in the mass, is hard to abandon individually. For a person like me, its not a big deal. But getting rid of Facebook and Whatsapp at the same time, without everyone switching to an alternative is a big deal for most.
Back in, I want to say, 2006, my fiancee and I lived in an apartment complex with nine units around a courtyard. We'd wheel the grill out, and after a couple of times, neighbours asked if they could throw something on. It was an absurdly large grill for two people (and I'm the sort to buy the the entire summer's charcoal when a spring sale takes two-thirds off the price), so it turned into a thing where almost every night, half of the residents were out in folding chairs, drinking beer and sharing food when it was done.
As a group, the only thing we had in common was our address. My fiancee and I were to the left of the Overton window, while another couple was that classic redneck "I don't like dem gays, but if they ain't hurtin' me, I got no issue" sort. We ended up forming a bowling team that fall.
Seriously. The time when everything didn't have to be about politics was less than 20 years ago. Hmm ... wonder what changed.
And yes. I need to keep WhatsApp for this very purpose.
Block everything Meta too. Just because you don’t have an account doesn’t mean they’re not tracking you across various third party properties whether they’re apps or websites.
They make all their profit from consuming data about people so whether or not you have an account and visit their apps or websites is meaningless.
In fact while this article doesn’t have any assets from Meta it has 38 third-party trackers and 48 third-party cookies on it according to Blacklight including from big companies like Alphabet (Google), Amazon, LinkedIn, etc.
They have their assets included in apps and websites all over and everyone acts like it’s a mystery that Amazon will show you ads for pet products immediately after reading an article about dog shampoo. Alphabet even has tracking scripts on IRS websites with full access to the DOM — it doesn’t matter if you stopped using Google or Google products.
It's worth remembering that critical thinking in education was gutted starting in the '80s. I'm 46, and by high school, interpreting literature was reduced to regurgitating that specific teacher's analysis of a work. We were already being indoctrinated to accept what an authority figure said without question.
Resulting in all sorts of bullshit that brings us to today. I'll be the first to admit that Facebook was useful for reconnecting with old friends when it first launched (I was out of college but retained a .edu email -- my fiancee was in college, so I found out it existed through her), but that was a novelty with a short fuse.
If an individual did what Meta does on a daily basis across its platforms to another individual just once, you'd have and open-and-shut stalking case on your hands.
On my last phone, Facebook was installed by default and could only be deactivated. It was super dumb
Don't install their spyware apps in the first place.
Don't install system apps that come installed by default? And can't be removed without rooting your phone. I mean I disabled it but most people don't know to do that even if they don't use it.
Alternate OS is the best choice, then you pick and choose apps
Yeah most people can't do that
For anyone wanting the easy way. You get a pixel phone, you go to the GrapheneOS website, and you plug your phone into your PC and click the buttons in order, and it flashes your phone for you. If you can follow steps of pushing a web button in order, you can have an alternate OS installed in half hour.
Already on Android, but this will be me once Google starts shitting on its users and enforcing that new policy.
What, Manifest v3 wasn't enough of a sign?
Well my choices were this or Apple, and F-Droid was only available on one of the two.
Actually most people can do that; they just don't know it. Well to be fair, most people probably don't know how to do that either, so let's say "most people could do that in theory".
Everyone can do it
The vast majority just won't.
And this is why a reasonable person doesn't intentionally install malware on their phones.
A well informed, technicality litterate, reasonable person wouldn't.
Many reasonable people start/keep using those products. All of this is somewhat obvious for tech hobbyist. Others may not be fully aware or the risk, or don't consider they're particularily at risk. The norm is to use those services and apps. There is strong peer pressure to use those service to stay connected with people and organisations.
There's a need for more or at least better education around being safe online, and protecting personal data. An education that's free of big tech influence/sponsoring.
This is why when an app pops up that permission dialog, you always say no. The number of permissions Meta apps ask immediately upon startup is a red flag on its own.
Can't collect and upload what it doesn't have.
The last meta app I used was instagram to keep track of restaurants. It was pretty much worthless.