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The holiday season is stressful enough. If you feel like the last thing in the world you need is an app that creates even more anxiety in your life, the solution is simple: delete.
Not sure where to start? Oleg Deneka, founder of TechPriceCrunch, spoke to SHEFinds.com about the one app you should delete off your phone before the holidays. Get ready to gain back time — and calmness — in your life.
If you ask 100 tech experts which app you should delete from your phone, there’s a good chance the majority will, at the very least, mention this one: the Facebook app. Maybe you’ve noticed your blood pressure rising a bit when you read inflammatory posts or come across one negative news article or meme after another. You’re not alone. But there are other reasons why this app deserves your skepticism.
For starters, Facebook has proven time and again that it can not be trusted when it comes to securing users’ privacy. “If you really want to protect your privacy, then you should stop using Facebook, and by extension, Instagram, altogether,” Deneka says. “The dangers of Facebook extend from its mobile app. It’s tracking your phone’s messages, camera, location, and more.”
Facebook collects a great deal of data, Deneka says, and uses it to target ads and marketing communications that are right up your alley. But the lure of Facebook is difficult to fend off. “It’s hard to get off Facebook given the size of the network there, but there are so many other apps that can fulfill the messaging and socialization needs you have,” Deneka says.
To get a similar experience to Facebook without compromising your privacy, similar social media sites that reportedly won’t sell your data include WT Social, EyeEm, Yubo, and MeWe. It may take awhile for competitors to gain traction, but as more people become frustrated with the Facebook experience, it’s quite possible one of these sites will take over in the future. At any rate, finding an alternative to Facebook might just do wonders for your pre-holiday stress.
