I’m not sure if this a valuable tool to convince anyone but keep it in your favourites:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Facebook

(It gets worse the more you read)

Ultimately there are two options:

• you only control your own consumption
• you can talk to others to convince them.

The argument for others is the strongest if you do it in this order (even if that hurts/may isolate you).

I got my close family and partner to use Signal but thats about it in terms of pushing.

Recently my bouldering group also moved to Signal, which was a nice surprise. But we are most likely all a little autistic in some way.

In terms of events: there are still many places that have websites. Admittedly I don’t go out too much, but i find concerts and events just fine when i want to. It’s an active thing though and not just appearing in my feed.

Well there’s a careful balance needed. With close friends who are likeminded you can share your idea and maybe it’ll land, but once you’re addressing a larger group of people with an idea that goes against the stream …

You can, however, slowly change the discourse around you. Don’t partake, if the conversation goes towards fb or they send you a link respond with “oh, I dunno I’m not using Facebook anymore”. (Or alternatively “oh gee man, this link won’t load on my phone.”)

I’ve found that being hard out of the gate (“because fuck Zuckerberg!!”) doesn’t really work on people who are in there. What does work is presenting an alternative they can relate to “man I stopped scrolling fb because it’s such a waste of time, went for a walk today”. That’s neutral and wholesome and they can’t really object to that.

It’s not direct but subtle, now you’ve planted the idea that there’s people outside of the fb hive mind. People who might be enjoying fulfilling lives outside of fb.

Best of luck, you’re not alone in this fight.

I’m the only one in my band that doesn’t use Facebook and arranging a “play-date” can be a challenge, people often forget that I don’t see everything they post, and I’m often the last one to get notified about changes to our schedule or set.

I’ve given up on trying to convert them, but try to lead by example.
Everything that can be done on Facebook, can be done elsewhere, and I refuse to be bullied into supporting a horrible company like Facebook.

The reality is it’s incredibly difficult to cut ties with the Meta tech, as we got so used to it since the Facebook early days, then WhatsApp, then Instagram, etc.

There are alternatives but to convince half world to change is a huge task. Human Beings resist change by default and stick to something that works.

It’s also convenient because you can create an event and your friend are right there to be invited, so it’s an effortless task.

If you want an alternative you need to have something convenient, effortless and very easy to use.

Something like an app that lists events in your area, you select one event and then share it with your contacts. Or an app that shares integration with Facebook but does create invites outside Facebook.

There are plenty alternatives and ideas.

Welcome to discovering how completely inept every single person you know is at anything “technological”.

I’m seriously just thinking of never talking about technology around real life humans again. It’s so depressingly pathetic.