I deleted my Facebook account about a month ago, which means that about now all my data has gone away. That's the theory. Paula at Light Motifs did this and wrote about it, which inspired me at the time but I was only able to build up the nerve lately to perform my own FBectomy. What finally pushed me over the edge was when I attempted to remove my deceased wife's account from Facebook. I couldn't remember her password, so I was instructed to produce a death certificate before they would remove the account.
This is, of course, the height of arrogance on their part and a tremendous invasion of privacy. Perhaps it's all our faults, but Facebook has gotten the impression that it is important. We may assign importance to it, or not, but the reality is that it's just a web page, and I refuse to give them the information on a death certificate.
Maybe I overreacted. At any rate, I pulled my own account and I suppose my wife's account will just sit there. It's not all bad. Some of her Facebook friends remember her by posting comments occasionally, and birthday messages, which is harmless and probably even beneficial.
Maybe there is such a thing as Internet Feng Shui. I do not miss Facebook at all, and the Internet seems just a little brighter and airier now. I think that every now and then it's good to consider what kind of garbage and negative crap we are letting into our brains, and try to minimize it. I'm pretty sure humans were not designed to deal with this much outrage and angst and engineered stupidity.
It's all been said before.
They are disgusting!
ReplyDeleteGood for you to delete. I was surprised at a few things. One, I didn’t miss it at all, despite spending so much time there. It was a relief not to have to check the stupid thing. Two, how dependent most others are on it and how they try to cajole me back (even now). “We miss you.” I’m right here! Email me! Text me! Comment on my blog! I’m online every day! FB really has warped people’s minds to the extent that they believe they can’t sustain a friendship without it.
My apartment manager recently tried to get us all to join a community FB page to stay in touch with updates and be “closer.” I don’t want to be friends with these annoying neighbors. I don’t want the manager to have even more info about me. I told her I didn’t use FB and to please email me important things. She said sure. I wonder how many will join the page like sheep?
Good for you. I didn't notice you were gone. I most just repost news there and animal rights stories so most of my "friends" ignore me completely and my sister hates me for it. I guess this means you might be writing more here and also have more time to work on your book. All good, I say.
ReplyDeleteIt's true the more I write in other places, the less I feel like working on my book! Makes me wonder what my motivations are.
ReplyDeleteWhatever works, right? I seem to need to write other things first before I work on my poetry. It helps me blow off the foam though there are plenty of days I'm all foam.
ReplyDeleteGood job getting out of there. I'm still entangled. I'm beginning to see that the blessing of not being wired for addiction to alcohol, cocaine, gambling, or even sex might have been compensated for by my difficulty getting away from social media. I'm not sure what it is but the design is brilliant in terms of keeping me engaged. I never buy anything so I'm not sure what they get out of it, but eh. I get a lot out of it in terms of information I'd otherwise find hard to get, especially in the local historical pages. I'm all over the history pages for California, Sacramento, San Francisco, various railroads, all that. I've learned a lot and shared neat stuff but I'm not sure it makes up for the energy lost dealing with political horrors I don't really need to know about and all these pictures from people coming back from Burning Man (again, I did not go). So I'm (again) contemplating some sort of non-dramatic exit or other. Hmm.
ReplyDeleteDon, I knew it took thirty days before all my FB data would finally be permanently deleted (right) so my plan was to post a brief explanation of my desire to leave Facebook. I did so, and then deleted my account, not knowing that everything was taken off-line immediately so no one read my post. Just as well--I suppose it was just a little maudlin and/or melodramatic. We love to stomp off the playground.
ReplyDeleteIt's been I don't know how long now, and I do believe one might say life is better without Facebook, in many ways. Not a single one of my "friends" who most likely know my email address contacted me, which tells a tale.