I deactivated, not deleted from FB. The questions they asked as I left were manipulative enough that I almost switched to full delete.
I wasted too much time there, providing entertainment but not receiving much. I will miss the C S Lewis group, though that could be a pain sometimes as well. I was already worried about privacy and use of my information, and the recent revelations didn't help. But it was Zuckerberg's misdirected apology, so terribly sorry he had let Trump do the bad things he had helped Obama do in 2012, that convinced me to pull the trigger. I grant there were some differences in that, but not enough to change the overall actions.
So I knew I couldn't trust them to do the right thing when the chips were down. Final straw. I lived without it for 60 years, I imagine I will muddle along somehow now, eh?
What are the symptoms of Facebook withdrawal?
ReplyDeleteMaybe impatience with kittens who just sleep instead of battling huskies?
....
10 WARNING SIGNS OF INNER PEACE
1.) Being present in the moment: acting spontaneously rather than from fears based on past experiences
2.) Chronic optimism; a tendency to reframe all events and situations in a positive light
3.) A complete loss of interest in conflict.
4.) Persistent sense of humor
...
I agree that all your reasons for deactivating are good ones. I suspect that, like me, you didn't play the games or fall for all the apps that were suggested so possibly not as vulnerable as some of my unsuspecting and naive relatives.
ReplyDeleteBut I keep asking myself what difference does it make that somebody is scraping data everywhere off everything... unless it's my bank. That I'd like to be secure. But so much other really personal data is and always has been publicly available. Voter registration lists, addresses, deeds, probate/death records, etc.
Sometimes I think that the data available renders itself practically useless by its sheer volume. I also think that the analyzers of the data can't really learn anything or actually influence a significant number of "opinions" by placing an ad on Facebook or by faking tweets and retweets.
I am not discounting the influence of mass media in general, but I do question the specific influence of advertising based on data scraping.
Some family members communicate via Facebook. If I want to stay in the loop, I have to log in. It is discouraging to stop and read posts, so I skim as fast as I can past the slogan shares and politics and posturing, and drill down on health and travel and posts about their kids. Luckily I don't have many "friends," and I'm going to prune out some of them. When I muster the energy to log in again, that is.
ReplyDeleteI have read that Facebook can track you even if you aren't a member.
ReplyDeleteI never joined Facebook. I have gotten e-mails of text or photos originally posted on Facebook. Some old classmates wanting to get in touch with me have contacted my brother via Facebook, who has forwarded e-mail info to me. One of those contacts resulted in an eleven hour conversation back in my hometown. Yes,the conversation was that long.
One time at my brother's place I looked at the Facebook page for oldies from our hometown. It was fun to read, catching up on newer gossip and old scandals- especially when I had more inside information on an old scandal than some posters did.I thought of posting something, but then remembered what Abraham Lincoln once said about fools.
I have read numerous times that Facebook political discussions can get rather nasty.There were very few posts on politics at the hometown oldies Facebook page. About the only mention of politics came from an old classmate who, like me, moved to Texas- though decades after me. Guess he wanted to show that he hadn't been contaminated by those dumb rednecks.
Which reminds me of the most recent visit to my NE hometown. In a discussion about old classmates, a friend mentioned a classmate now in the mountain states who was a Tea Party person. I replied that Tea Party was close to my political affiliation. "That's because you live in Texas." My rejoinder was that my political changes could be traced to experiences in my hometown. (And to working in Latin America.)(For example, well before I left New England I had come to the conclusion that the South had no monopoly on prejudice or racism.)