Deleted my facebook

[afuna]

I kinda got tired of having to worry about what bits of personal information Facebook is going to expose next (while being misleading about how to opt out). I don't use Facebook; I'd rather not have to spend any of my time constantly adjusting my settings and opt-outs on it!

If i were using it in any capacity, things might have been harder, but I don't, so now everyone/everything is gone. So, there. One less thing that needs to take up mental energy.

PS. I'm not sure what the difference between deactivate (accessible from editing your settings and delete (accessible via the helpful google-fu of my friends), but on the principle that the second is more hidden than the first, plus that deletion seems more permanent than deactivation, I did delete rather than deactivate.

PPS. I wish that facebook did not use the terminology of "friends". I removed people there because I got a bit twitchy about what can be datamined from network connections, but seriously, if you were my friends before facebook, then you are still my friends after facebook :-)

Comments

[vlion]

FB is the only contact mechanism I have for a set of friends. Really annoying.

I think I'll strip out my personal info tho.

[majoline]

That is my problem: certain groups of people I know refused to even email me. *sigh*

Re: Via network

[afuna]

*g*

Yeah, it's harder if you're actually using FB. I'm lucky in that the friends from FB that I'm actually still in contact with, I'm in contact with through other mediums. (The others are old schoolmates, old officemates... I must say though I didn't expect how much better it would make me feel to be able to cut contact with that one old schoolmate who used to make fun of me in high school and who I had to add back when they added me, because it was the polite thing to do.

OMG high school drama and social pressure! *laughs*

Now I am FREEEEEEE and on Dreamwidth and I only need to add people because they are AWESOME not because we know each others' names or something. WHOOOHOOO)

[thorfinn]

I don't mind Facebook, but that's because everything I have on there I consider public information, as in I expect to be found on Google, content can be reposted and archived anywhere on the Internet, posted up large on the front page of any newspaper, and things of that ilk. I operate under the assumption that social networking services are public space, regardless of any privacy "controls" they say they have.

The primary useful purposes of facebook are for acquaintance gossip and semi-public events management... if you don't need those features in your life, then it's not worth the time.

As for "friends"... yeah, the vast majority of "social" services say "friend", when what they should say is "acquaintance".

[afuna]

Oh yeah, I don't really mind having what I say in public reposted. I am much warier about having my identifying details and contact information handed out in a fashion I have no control over.

That is, how I represent myself is totally my responsibility; what people think they know about me based on what I am, rather than who I am is something I can't control so I'd rather not make it possible for anyone to have that kind of ammunition in the first place.

I used to not care so much, but I've read one too many threads in slashdot that make me feel safer not revealing my gender or third-world-country origins ;-) Plus sometimes outside the tech world, there are occasional weird issues, like being accused of being a gold-digging mail order bride type I'm a female from a third-world country and I have a foreign boyfriend.

I can handle those situations, but it's easier to not have to! What I think: the less information there is about me out there, the less context people have to make assumptions, and that makes me feel safe.

...and I'm going on about something that's only tangential to your comment now.


About Facebook, I'll miss the events management a lot. That was one of the few features I used. I'm probably out of touch with current culture, because I can't get into the friend feed aspect at all (Facebook is too people-centered; I'm happier with a combination of people-centered and idea-centered conversation, probably why it wasn't a good fit for me)

[majoline]

People are really like that? *hugs you!*

I must be completely out of touch with reality from only really hanging out on DW anymore; I just can't believe how nasty people can get.

[afuna]

Not often that bad! Those were examples of the worst of the cases. Usually it's much smaller and subtler, and especially here on DW a lot of the time I run into no issues at all.

But I appreciate the hugs ♥

Via network

[angelikitten]

I had no idea about the delete option - I deactivated my account months ago (i.e. sometime before Christmas, which I only remember because my cousin decided to tell me over the holidays that I was wrong to do so, because he thinks Facebook is awesome, etc.), and was slightly worried because I could still find my details if I googled my name.

In other words, thanks for the link!

Re: Via network

[afuna]

You're welcome! I hope that it helps get your details off of Google faster (and good luck).

[highlander_ii]

\o/ on the deleting of facebook... I ditched mine with one of their 'privacy updates' some months back. I never used it and had no real reason to keep it. And I *still* get e-mails asking me to join.... *headdesk*

[starshadow_rivaulx]

Gah. I had an account, deactived it, revived it for the sake of a friend I hardly see online now; added relatives and certain pages I wanted to be a fan of - and now I wish I could just dump the whole thing.

Ramon is using it too, but I don't know how much. Guess I'll just have to check what sort of info I put on it that I'd rather not share any more - though I think it's pretty public stuff now. *sigh*

[oona]

I have a FB because my friend and I used to play that Farmville, but now I just use it as an alternate site to keep track of my other online friends from melodramatic since I deleted most everyone off twitter. I actually have my Facebook set to so much privacy that I have trouble telling people how to get to me to add me. :-p

I'm not worried about FB as much as I see Google's intrusiveness at reposting references to me and what I say to others on every site I visit. It gets annoying. I do not mind people seeing that I am here and there, but google follows my comments around, so I have to think twice at how much and what I say to people on the net. That's annoying.