Leaving Facebook
I've recently deleted my
Facebook account; it was no easy feat. If you don't
know what Facebook is, essentially it's a way to be
nosey with a plethora of people you know, half know,
once knew, but mostly don't know. It plays on our
natural curiosity & no doubt, boredom.
Firstly, I didn't have a
bad Facebook experience, I deleted it because I became
uncomfortable that Facebook is very self-serving, as a
user you're there just to be moneterized in any way
possible, or as I say, you're Facebook's money-bitch.
Someone sends you a message, Facebook will email you to
tell you, but oh no, won't show you it, you must log-in
to see it, can't be missing those ads! There's a nice
quote from Information Week which puts it
well: "Facebook has all
the social graces of a nose-picking, hyperactive
six-year-old, standing at the threshold of your
attention and chanting, "I know something, I know
something, I know something, won't tell you what it
is!"
There's been quite a few scandals recently involving
Facebook. First putting your information on
Google. More recently they've
been forced to change their Beacon advertising to be opt-in rather than
opt-out. Did you really want all your purchases at
say, eBay displayed to all your supposed friends?
"Stuart bought Big Girls Go Wild 4". Sounded like a
good way to ruin a lot of Christmas & birthday
surprises.
Update: Facebook's Beacon system appears to continue to
track you even if you've turned it off. See
here and here.
Then there's those terms &
conditions, if you've ever
bothered to read them:
By posting User Content
to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and
you represent and warrant that you have the right to
grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual,
non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide
license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy,
publicly perform, publicly display, reformat,
translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute
such User Content for any purpose, commercial,
advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the
Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative
works of, or incorporate into other works, such User
Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the
foregoing.
You don't mind having anything, your photos etc. used
in that way right?
Yet, we all happily give
them just what they want, listing everything you like,
it's an advertisers dream! Would you seriously put all
that information on if it was a government agency?
Thinking about it, there's something deeply childish
about the whole thing, or what seems to make people act
like children; writing lists of favourite things, their
best friends, who's their bestest friend, you match
so-and-so 98% I like beer you like beer too quiz, every
part of your life's ephemera.
I also didn't like the idea of Microsoft
taking a stake in the company,
after-all, Microsoft aren't exactly above reproach
with shady deals. It's not like they've been in
the European Court or
anything.
Then, maybe you'd not mind having your
identity stolen, or screw up
your future employment
perhaps?
Information on your own website blog of course would be
available for all, but then, at least you might think
about what you put on it and not just imagine it's all
safe in la la Facebook land, because you feel you have
some false notion of control.
So, I left, as
I didn't really have much a use for it, or use it much
(other than doing a quiz when bored), the people on
there (which wasn't many) I can just as well talk to in
other ways, the internet being one social network, plus
there's the phone/texts email, messengers; oh even a
letter or a postcard, now there's a thing (not likely I
know). Maybe we should make more an effort, instead of
pretending that just because you can see someone's
Facebook status, it constitutes a friendship and if
you'd not talk to them without Facebook, what does that
say? Just a thought.
Daily Californian - My friend Ryan
Hallahan loves merkins. How do I know this? Because
I've seen the collection. How would I know this if
he hadn't locked me in his trunk that one time?
Because he says so on the Facebook. It's funny how
you learn more about your friends via semipublic
virtual forum than you do via face to face
communication. Wait, did I say "funny"? I meant
"soul-crushingly sad."
Enough pontificating, and I'll get to the point: The
leaving isn't as easy as you think. Facebook give you
the option of disabling
your account,
but that's not deleting it, all your data will still be
there. To have your account deleted, you must first
delete everything you've ever done on Facebook, all
those posts, messages, photos, everything. It's not so
easy with say the wall, having to delete each one by
one. After that you can disable your account and then
email Facebook at info@facebook.com and ask them to
delete it fully, if you happen to have left even one
message, they'll email and say you still have user data
and they can't help you until you've removed it. I had
this problem several times. Ironically the reason they
won't just delete your account for you is, they say, to
protect the privacy of users. Really? I thought it was
to make the whole idea of deleting your account as
difficult as possible, which made me think they were
even more dodgy than before.
Am I overreacting? Probably a smidge. I'm not the only
one of course, here's my list to reinforce my world
view (you know; when you Google
"so and so is crap" to make yourself feel that you were
right all along):
Steven Mansour - 2504 steps to closing your facebook
account & Privacy Round-up including the amusing
quote (don't take it too seriously):
"People
- including some of the smartest people I know -
have stopped asking questions, not so much because
they don't care, but because they don't want to have
to reflect upon their perfect little friend-poking,
facebook-app-adding, group-joining little sterile
world."
The Independent - Facebook backlash over
sale of personal data.
DannyMadScientist
Video
Facebook is the end of
humanity
Move-on to Facebook: We caught you
red-handed.
and the more disturbing Album of the Day
Update: Facebook founder has had to make an
apology.