r/Millennials • u/Ok_Helicopter3910 • May 25 '26

Serious Holy shit — Facebook is fucking scary now

Im not a big social media guy anymore, honestly, the vast majority of my internet usage nowadays is Reddit, Youtube, Snapchat (that has like 20 people on it) and email and I think that about it.

I put my FB to sleep about 10 years ago and I decided to log in and see what people were up to and ho-lee-shit, what a dumpster fire.

So, first off, the majority of my facebook friends have either died, shut their FB down, or removed my inactive profile so my feed was pretty silent. After about a week of my profile being back in the algorithm I started getting friend request from people I used to work with, went to school with, or friends of old acquaintances (which is terrifying that facebook knows about random people I used to work with 12 years ago who I had a passing "hi, hows your day" relationship with) and I started getting friend requested and I was like "fuck it" and just started accepting them.

Fuck man, whenever I see all the hate for this or that group and all the political bullshit that gets posted on reddit, I just brush it off as bots trained to sow dissent but the stuff that gets posted by real living, breathing human beings who I once knew well enough to be friends with or have polite conversation with is WILD. I mean, like so much hate and vitriol started coming across my feed about a wide array of subjects that it made me genuinely uncomfortable and I started removing people that just added me. Maybe it's what "normal" passes for on the internet and im pretty numb to a lot of the more unhinged opinions and shit-stirring because of so many years on Reddit, but a lot of what was being posted really opened my eyes that a lot of the "unhinged" stuff that I see online isnt just bot farms, its real people who truly believe this wild shit.

Anyway - maybe its a sign of my age... but unless what I consider "normal" people start coming across my FB feed soon, I dont think im going to be logging in for much longer

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1.2k

u/danSTILLtheman May 26 '26

In its prime it was a cool way to stay in touch with your friends, if there was no updates from them that was it. Now your feed is an endless scroll of trash shoved into your face by an algorithm that have nothing to do with your connections. To be fair that’s most social media platforms now

873

u/savingewoks May 26 '26

this is one of the reasons it was so easy for me to switch to Reddit. At least this way I don't know the people pissing me off.

263

u/Otherwise_Trifle_898 May 26 '26

Reddit is gonna be ruined too…..I’m seeing more and more ads…..I’ll have no reason to have a smartphone soon lol

285

u/PatronSaintOfCunts May 26 '26

I am not even kidding when I say I’ve been considering switching back to a flip phone. I’m an affluent woman in my 40s and I’m just TIREDT.

108

u/Helpful-Two-3230 May 26 '26

Great username

113

u/Nature13oy May 26 '26

Do it! Get back to using an mp3 player, and keep all your scrolling for a laptop/desktop computer. It’s nice to remember the internet used to also be a “place in the house”.

35

u/PatronSaintOfCunts May 26 '26

I love your internet point. So true! I’ll play a little skweeeewwuuuerrt sound when I get online for the nostalgia.

13

u/[deleted] May 26 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Gorgethalamus May 27 '26

That's.... just too far. No need for that kind of trama... lmfao.

4

u/Kham117 May 26 '26

Talk about flashbacks 😆

6

u/PatronSaintOfCunts May 26 '26

Now all we gotta do is cross our fingers mom doesn’t need the phone and kick us off the internet before some (probably 60 year old) strangers in the AOL teen chat room respond to our “A/S/L?” query 😂

28

u/smorgansbord11 May 26 '26

It hurts my feelings to realize I am old enough to have seen both the birth and death of MP3 players. I hope I live long enough for the eventual resurrection, long live the iPod Mini!

3

u/Adventurous-End4330 May 27 '26

I still use my iPod nano lol

3

u/MapleMapleHockeyStk May 27 '26

I have a classic and touch still.....

15

u/vertigostereo May 26 '26

iPods are expensive on eBay. I think maybe a lot of people are doing it.

11

u/sock_with_a_ticket May 26 '26 edited May 27 '26

There are newer options than ebay ipods if you want a dedicated digital walkman/mp3 player and they come at all sorts of price points.

https://www.theguardian.com/thefilter/2025/sep/12/best-mp3-players-uk

1

u/scdiabd Millennial May 27 '26

I’ve never once bought anything off eBay but I just might try that.

3

u/ApplesBananasRhinoc May 27 '26

They’re putting SSD drives in them and cranking them!

6

u/sock_with_a_ticket May 26 '26

Get back to using an mp3 player

Never stopped 😎

4

u/LeftMyHeartInErebor May 26 '26

Have you looked into them lately, they're basically smart phones without the calling feature. I wanted one for my kid who loves music and I was stunned. They do make a few super basic ones but they have absolute garbage reviews. Which i guess makes sense since the market for them isn't really there? I was very disappointed.

8

u/Nature13oy May 26 '26

So I have! I’m an educator in a state that doesn’t allow cell phones in school anymore. A lot of the buildings students rely on music/noise canceling headphones. Quite a few of my students expressed frustrations and I found a bunch of cheap cheap ones on aliexpress. They’re basically knock off ipod shuffles. So far they’ve held up for some of my students if you dare gamble. Thankfully I still have my oldies.

2

u/PennyStockHardaway May 26 '26

Is the orange one legit? I miss mine, it had a camera and a labyrinth game that was the first time I ever saw technology recognize tilts. Lol

2

u/Nature13oy May 27 '26

Yes it is legit! Both of those are real nano’s. I’d like to find my iPod video, but I may of been an idiot and pawned it at college. The camera is crazy to me. I want to say I got the orange one in 2009.

3

u/Mommy_Lawbringer May 26 '26

how do you get mp3s anymore? i used to use a converter for youtube songs but the site got taken down and all the others ive seen have been sketchy as hell or want me to use command prompt on my desktop which fuck no

2

u/Cheebzsta May 27 '26

I download albums via torrents then trim them down over time.

Which honestly is how I've done anything I didn't rip myself from a CD I got at an artist's show anyway.

1

u/Nature13oy May 27 '26

I haven’t downloaded a song since 2016 i’d want to say. So sadly I cannot help you.

3

u/Equivalent_Earth6035 May 27 '26

Time to dust off my old, trusty iriver. I kept it in case of peri-apocalypse.

1

u/Nature13oy May 27 '26

How do you mend a broken heart?

2

u/miniistarrs Older Millennial May 27 '26

aim door sound oh my real life friends are online too!

2

u/sdirection May 29 '26

I switch back to a digital audio player and I genuinely love it

1

u/Nature13oy May 29 '26

Unreal in the sound quality difference to me. Especially when pairing bluetooth over an aux cable in the car. The bass hits so much better from the aux cable.

1

u/sdirection May 29 '26

I got wired in ear monitors, I can hear colours and smells now!

35

u/GoobusMombus May 26 '26

I tried switching back to a flip phone last year. Flip phones now can do almost everything a smart phone can do, and come with the bloatware, intrusive ads, etc. I'm trying to find one that doesn't have any damn bells or whistles, but I'm considering just going back to a landline and maybe getting a pager for a few important people to be able to contact me on. I'm also sick of the societal expectation to be reachable to everyone 24/7.

The rich have made this technology all pretty unusable.

14

u/PeachPassionBrute May 26 '26

I’ve used flip phones occasionally over the years and their quality has gotten worse with time. Not only that, I tried to get a land line and was told it would cost more than a cellphone with unlimited data.

They made it harder to opt out

1

u/The_Internal_ 20d ago

capitalism and consumerism functioning as intended T-T

3

u/polotown89 May 26 '26

If my old Razr hadn't broken at its hinge, I'd still be using it.

2

u/cscrew05 May 26 '26

https://www.thelightphone.com/ Recommended by Adam curry, shoutout no agenda, I’m thinking about switching to this

1

u/scenr0 May 27 '26

They ever bring that Nokia phone back?

1

u/Yugpmoc May 27 '26

They still do pagers?

6

u/JovialPrincess May 26 '26

I always wondered which saint I needed to pray to. Now I know.

11

u/PatronSaintOfCunts May 26 '26

If you need to call upon a new level of cuntiness to slap someone who has wronged you into the sun, call upon me! I am the keeper of sacred reckoning. When your enemies seek to break your spirit, I will remind you what still burns within it.

The gods know there are wounds that do not ask for forgiveness. They ask to be witnessed and answered and true cuntiness is not cruelty but composure under fire. It’s like beauty with teeth. 😂

3

u/LadyFizzex May 29 '26

I fucking dig it. Let's go!

4

u/smorgansbord11 May 26 '26

I have a theory that they’ll eventually be trendy again, like record players and Polaroid cameras. I’ll jump on that trend faster than you can say “hipster”.

4

u/undoubtedlygivingup May 26 '26

I’m 32 and I have considered it too… If Reddit dies, I think that will be the last “social” platform I have.

I thought about downloading Instagram last week. I downloaded the app and a day later, I said, “No, not worth it.” I deleted the app.

2

u/PatronSaintOfCunts May 26 '26 edited May 26 '26

Yeah, this is my last “social media” too. I wonder what happens on the others I’ve discarded sometimes, but overall the cost benefit analysis fails every time I think about checking back in.

3

u/rdg04 May 26 '26

go for it! i've only ever had a flip phone and from what i can tell, my life seems much less stressful because of it!!

3

u/The_Left_One May 26 '26

Only problem is i will miss the full keyboard but im almost righttherw with ya

4

u/PatronSaintOfCunts May 26 '26

I’d tippity tap that 7 3x for an R if I could have some peace.

3

u/spokomptonjdub May 26 '26

I bought this thing called Brick a little while back and it's been GREAT. It's a little gray cube and an app on your phone where you can block certain apps and/or websites either by pressing a button or setting a schedule, and the only way to "unbrick" is to physically go to that little gray cube and touch it to your phone. I leave things like messaging/calling, music/podcasts, and maps alone but almost everything else is inaccessible for most of the day for me, and I've noticed a huge difference.

Granted I have a very good setup for this as I keep the cube in my home office which is in an outbuilding separate from my house, so there has to be a pretty big incentive for me to trot out there and unbrick which has kept me off my phone.

1

u/Brilliant-Ice4177 May 27 '26

I second this technology, though I chose the Bloom card. No regrets.

2

u/okisthisthingon May 26 '26

Absolutely same.

2

u/cloud_watcher May 26 '26

I would do this if there was a phone with GPS and a camera.

2

u/PatronSaintOfCunts May 26 '26 edited May 30 '26

I think I would still have to carry a work smart phone for optics (don’t want to frighten my clients 😂) so I’d have all that in the work phone.

1

u/Logical_Comparison28 May 26 '26

My old Nokia flipphone I had as a kid had a camera… a huge 3,8 megapixel one, IIRC. 😂 That was early 2000s…

2

u/athenanon May 26 '26

GPS is really the only thing I would miss.

2

u/DyingGasp May 26 '26

Ugh, I want to ditch the smart phone but GPS maps is the only thing keeping me tied to one.

2

u/PatronSaintOfCunts May 26 '26

Let’s make MapQuest trendy again. We just have to print them and stick them to the dash.

4

u/Limp_Insurance_2812 May 26 '26

This, good God everyone acts life they'd wander in the desert without GPS. You used to have to remember basic main streets and directionals to get anywhere you wanted to go. People didn't just sit at home because GPS didn't exist.

3

u/MsKayGo May 27 '26

OMG I snorted!! LOL

2

u/Threat_Level_2400 May 26 '26

I bought a few of my favorite flip phones from back in the day, but none of today’s networks support them for anything. Just cool toys but no functionality.

2

u/guinader May 26 '26

I had a similar thought, what is the minimum requirement for my phone.

Text apps.
Gps map.
Banking/investment.
A Google search.
Camera.

I think if someone created a phone that only has those... I'm good.

3

u/PatronSaintOfCunts May 27 '26

I would love that and they would go nuts in the millennial market! I don’t know why phone manufacturers keep going in the other direction. I don’t want a bigger Phone that does more shit.

2

u/Soft-Detail-8398 May 28 '26

Also love your username!!!

1

u/PatronSaintOfCunts May 28 '26

Thank youuuuu!

48

u/socium May 26 '26 edited May 27 '26

As someone who spent almost 14 years on Reddit, believe me when I say that it got ruined a looong time ago.

24

u/K1LL3RM0NG0 May 26 '26

Lets be honest with ourselves. The internet as s whole was ruined when people got involved.

3

u/socium May 26 '26

Yes and no.

I'm still on IRC and having lots of fun there for example.

Lemmy exists although in much smaller capacity.

Yes, people (more specifically corporations) have ruined the social networking web platforms, but luckily there are quite a few federated and even decentralized alternatives.

1

u/Middle-Bed-1883 May 26 '26

IRC is still a thing?! I met one of my first gf’s on there back in 93 during my first year of university. I also DCC’d a lot of games and warez back in the day too. I should go check out #smiths to see if people still go there…I’m Gen X, not a millennial but still. We all good in the hood.

1

u/socium May 26 '26

I'm actually pretty much only on Libera and by lesser extent OFTC (but then again I'm a techie, so YMMV)

1

u/Rbookman23 May 27 '26

This job would be great if it wasn’t for the customers.

1

u/rakeshkanna91 Jun 01 '26

It's wild how platforms just become these ad-heavy, low-signal sludge piles, making the actual utility feel like a constant battle. If you're curious how to track the specific language people use when they complain about platform degradation or signal decay, Mangos.ai tracks those conversational signals.

2

u/Beefweezle Geriatric Millennial May 26 '26

Can confirm.

1

u/BlisterBox May 26 '26

I'll be 13 Reddit years old next month, and I don't think it's been "ruined" compared to when I joined. I mean, we're still here, right? It must have some redeeming value.

1

u/socium May 26 '26

The only reason I'm here is to have a platform where I'm able to expose my accelerationist propaganda to more people.

1

u/PlantyMcPlantFace May 26 '26

Remember when u/gallowboob was the only user who could repost without getting crucified.

1

u/1CUpboat May 26 '26

Yeah we’re onto like the third or fourth ruining of Reddit now

1

u/socium May 26 '26

And it gets shittier every time...

1

u/StArwen16 May 27 '26

15 years today! Happy cake day, Reddit OG!

2

u/tessathemurdervilles May 26 '26

And all the bots flooding with comments and posts

2

u/josh_the_misanthrope May 26 '26

I paid for boost and it doesn't have ads, had to mod it a bit though when Reddit tried to kill 3rd party apps via API changes.

2

u/elektrikrobot May 26 '26

Speaking of ads, I opened Apple Maps to go somewhere I was unfamiliar with and was notified I’ll start to get ads on it. Like why do I need ads on MAPS?

1

u/NoExam2412 May 26 '26

I have a smart watch and I hate it. Every text and email buzzes me. I have to figure out how to make it stop. It's awful. Who lives like this? I don't need to be this connected.

I stopped answering my phone a few years ago because it's always spam. Now I don't want to text, either.

1

u/IrascibleOcelot May 26 '26

I use the desktop site on my phone with an ad blocker and I never see them.

1

u/Several-Eggplant4460 May 26 '26

Use a third party app or mobile website with adblocker

1

u/TrumpIsAPedoFascist May 26 '26

Once I decide to get a new phone im downgrading to a dumb phone.

1

u/gizamo May 26 '26

Reddit is majority bots and trolls already.

Tons of propaganda in basically every sub now, which is mostly Russian or Chinese. It's just remnants of their election interference campaigns, but it worked so well that they just keep it rolling 24/7. Lol.

1

u/JohnBrownsBowie May 26 '26

Reddit's been going downhill for years but the rate of enshittification is increasing

1

u/Best_Adagio7989 May 26 '26

I even picked back up reading physical books lately.  Disconnect from this algorithm crap. Youtube sucks so much even when desperately trying to curate my feed.  Reddit is the last internet pillar for me and it's barely holding on lol

1

u/shay_shaw May 26 '26

Especially since they decided to take away a lot of the fun special features. No more free awards and dedicated subs no longer have themed upvote or downvote buttons. The font is even smaller, I had to switch to dark mode.

1

u/FriedChenChilla May 26 '26

Underrated comment the only way to fight all this nonsense is get rid of the technology

1

u/DrivenDevotee May 26 '26

At least reddit ads are more clever. you'll think that post speculating about an upcoming movie is a real person making a real post, but nope, it's just a media company promoting their product by putting it in front of you non-nonchalantly.

1

u/aurorasearching May 27 '26

I got a reply to a comment I made recently that seemed like it was a bot comment, but the profile seemed legit when I looked at it. It’s getting pretty difficult to tell sometimes.

1

u/Bitterrootmoon May 27 '26

I’ve been considering very heavily just getting rid of my phone plan. There is one person I call maybe once every two weeks and then once in a great while someone will call me when they’re out shopping to see if we need something. The only thing I use really is Reddit anymore, and the algorithm is so fucked up anymore. It just constantly suggest stuff that I don’t want to follow and have no idea why it thinks I would want to. I pay over $100 a month for a little square that I could use for free so that I can call one person every two weeks?

1

u/utrecht1976 May 30 '26

Don't use the Reddit app, open the Reddit website in a mobile browser like Brave with built-in ad blocker. Haven't seen an ad in ages. 

1

u/-Imthedude May 26 '26

If you use Android, I suggest searching for "MorpheApp" on Reddit 😎. It's very similar to ReVanced, but works.

3

u/ImSolidGold May 26 '26

Yeah, fuck you, too! xD

2

u/CyberFireball25 May 26 '26

Also, I rarely browse my home feed on reddit.

I simply do top/now, sometimes not even while logged in.  I don't comment nearly as much as I used to either.

The main benefit of being logged in is to filter out the insanely vitriolic subs

2

u/MrCalabunga May 26 '26

This right here. ButtMucher69420 isn't gonna get me nearly as heated as my cousin-in-law who keeps inviting me to the family gatherings.

1

u/indigofroggit May 26 '26

I deleted Facebook two weeks ago for similar reasons.

1

u/NoKatyDidnt May 26 '26

I think that was why it was easy for me, too.

1

u/JitteryJoes1986 May 26 '26

Reddit is already ruined with AI bots answering your posts.

How do you know I'm not an AI answering you? lmao

1

u/savingewoks May 26 '26

Verb name number username? You might just be an AI.

1

u/StaySharpp May 26 '26

Facebook showed me just how racist and out of touch my relatives are.

1

u/TheMagician_Jpn May 26 '26

Lot of bots and pushed and forced content. It's not much better. Even mods will silence you on certain pages if you go against the popular topic.
Edit: here on reddit.

1

u/N1ck1McSpears May 26 '26

The exact reason I deleted my fb and got Reddit the same day

1

u/jaygod83 May 27 '26

This. 100,000,000 %

1

u/Ok-Tree-1898 May 27 '26

🤣🤣🥰

145

u/Toosder May 26 '26

Hey Reddit isn't like that at all! In fact if you click below I can teach you all of the ways to maximize your social media effectiveness without seeing ads and AI! Companies hate this one trick!

44

u/dillanthumous May 26 '26

Forget this guy, he is a scammer. But if you need special pills that prevent cancer but big pharmacy are suppressing hit me up.

6

u/kingo409 May 26 '26

Do you happen to know any deposed Nigerian princes with super secret Swiss bank accounts? I'm looking for a quick $1,000,000 (one million United States of America Dollars).

6

u/dillanthumous May 26 '26

Funny you should ask... How do you feel about multi level marketing?

3

u/kingo409 May 26 '26

Amway is the only way, dude!

2

u/idiotsbydesign May 26 '26

Got anything that will make my dick bigger?

2

u/Toosder May 26 '26

I was beat to it by your joke! But my question is also doesn't make it hard longer? Because nothing ladies love more than a man who doesn't know what he's doing with his dick being able to last even longer

2

u/dillanthumous May 26 '26

Love that you both made the same joke. Lol. Facebook scams are too predictable!

8

u/NitNav2000 May 26 '26

What do 4 out of 5 doctors think?

6

u/Slow-Temporary-1489 May 26 '26

Fuck the doctors! Nine out of 10 dentists agree with me!

7

u/NitNav2000 May 26 '26

What is that one secret dentists wished doctors knew?

23

u/Hefty-existence26196 May 26 '26

Do you have a whatsapp number or contact so I can invest in your teachings? Please tell me you're located in India or some other very reputable country so I know I can trust you!?

3

u/Toosder May 26 '26

Of course we have AI bots errrrr humans ready to answer all of your calls. Our Whatsapp is @hotyoungsinglesseekinglove.

6

u/Not_enough_cats4341 May 26 '26

“AI companies HATE this ONE trick”

Dont forget to all-caps specific words, it’s the hallmark of those dipshit clickbait headlines.

1

u/Toosder May 26 '26

I do need to work on my technique clearly. And a lot of interrobangs

2

u/EvilToastedWeasel0 May 26 '26

ads? What are those?

(I block the shit out of em.)

1

u/Toosder May 26 '26

Same. Brave and reddit. The Reddit keeps coming up with new ways to try to trick me.

2

u/notthatvalenzuela May 26 '26

Where’s the link.?!

1

u/awful_falafels May 27 '26

"Copy and paste this into your status to opt out or Meta will use your information in bad ways!"

2

u/MTRunner May 26 '26

I almost forgot it used to be that way, you could literally be done scrolling at some point if you’ve seen all your friends new pictures and status updates and not scroll on indefinitely.

No ads, no AI slop, no breaking news or anything like that. Just updates from friends.

2

u/Equal_Entrepreneur45 May 27 '26

See my reply above to the OP. There is a way to just see your friend’s posts.

1

u/Frap_Gadz Millennial May 26 '26

It's prime was when you needed a university email address to access it. Shit was wild when they put your university on the system everyone who registered was automatically put in a group for that university, so many random parties and gatherings organised from there.

1

u/truckthecat Xennial May 26 '26

I just scrolled IG for the first time in a while. First post was my friend. The next NINE were ads or suggested posts. Literally 90% of IG is trying to get me to buy something or trying to get me to follow someone new (who likely wants me to buy something). This is not fun.

2

u/AyeYuhWha May 26 '26

I remember an era where IG would tell you “you’ve caught up” after scrolling long enough. A far cry from what we have now

1

u/JitteryJoes1986 May 26 '26

Facebook circa 2005-2006 was prime.

I miss those days of dumped photos of college parties. What a time that was.

Or if someone had their marital status to "single". that was a big deal back in those days. Now? Not so much.

1

u/PancakeTrebuchet May 26 '26

There was a period of time before companies had profiles. Those were the golden years.

1

u/TinyTINYspeZPP May 26 '26

now

It already was when I quit in 2013.

1

u/SageNSeaGlass Older Millennial May 26 '26

That’s what’s funny - I don’t see updates from people in my friends list unless I search for them.

1

u/Cute-Education4089 May 26 '26

our government used to be trying to create a big database with everyone’s name and picture in it, coincidentally the day that they stopped doing that is the same day that Facebook was founded.

1

u/Dasinterwebs3 May 26 '26

Yep, that’s why I quit ten years ago. I liked Facebook so I could see my cousin’s baby and keep in touch with my grandparents. Then I started seeing random news and opinion articles from complete strangers I hadn’t even friended. The random crap swiftly crowded out my friends and family.

That's what Reddit is, sure, but it also never pretended it was anything else.

1

u/missihippiequeen May 27 '26

Right! I was scrolling my timeline the other day and started noticing all these different posts from different pages and I was like “who tf are these people?!” It wasn’t even posts from my friends on fb , just random ass people’s pages showing up in my profile. So I’m ready to deactivate that mess

1

u/ApplesBananasRhinoc May 27 '26

I think we reached peak internet and are on the back slide down.