[Chernobog]

I communicate with a lot of people on Facebook, but I hated that I ended up scrolling my feed. So I unfollowed everything and now I have an empty feed and nothing to scroll.

I realize many have reasons to get rid of Facebook entirely, but for me this was a reasonable compromise.

[philjohn]

Same - and this is really the crux of the matter. You are in control of how toxic your social media experience is. Find that a group or particular person is making your world a worse place? Unfollow/Unfriend.

People bemoan the Facebook of old where it was updates from friends old and new, and family - but that's still the core of the product, groups are optional.

[elliene]

These companies hire psychologists in droves to make their products more addictive. There are certainly ways to combat their manipulation techniques, but let's not pretend this is some neutral product and try to pin the blame on the users. Cigarette companies used the same tactic and it hasn't gotten any less repellant.

[scottdupoy]

I did exactly the same thing a few years ago - now it feels like a pull service that I'm in control of, instead of a push service with an algorithm controlling the content I view.

[derwiki]

I’ve been using Beeper to use Facebook messages without using Facebook directly.

[deergomoo]

It’s also worth noting that you can continue to use Messenger with a de-activated Facebook profile.

[astura]

Messenger is a different app, you can install it without having the Facebook app installed.

[dicknuckle]

I've been using Disa.im but every few years FB breaks the API it uses for a few days or weeks at a time.

[nicbou]

I've done this for Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. It's really effective.