Every month, Facebook seems to have a negative article in the news about something they have done wrong. In the last two years, they really haven’t missed a month with bad news. Yet, in spite of them giving away our information to people they partner with, keeping passwords in unsecured documents, testing emotional manipulation of their users, and constantly changing their layout, and going back on promises of their News Feed, we continue to stay active.
Why can’t we log out and stay logged out? Why can’t we delete our account?
I’m there. I still have an account.
Vox has an interesting video on what they see as an issue they released a year ago.
After you watch the video, share with us in the comments what you think it would take for you to delete your Facebook account.
Jonathan says
I “soft” quit Facebook in 2016. I unfollowed every person I was friends with and every page I had liked and only used it to manage Facebook pages and for Messenger. So I still used the network effect of Facebook but just killed the News Feed. That was much more pleasant than getting stuck scrolling content that would effect my mood (sometimes I would laugh, then I would get upset at someone I knew and what they posted, then I would get angry about something the outrage machine was trying to get me to get angry about).
Then I actually deleted my account earlier this year, along with an instagram account I never used, a twitter account, etc.
I definitely have the situations they were talking about in the video where I’ve made it harder on myself and others because I’m not on the platform, but really just because I’m not aware of things going on in people’s lives. In my small group, one of the members is pregnant and I had no idea. She just glossed over a “when the baby comes” statement and I was like, “hold on, back up the train…”. Everyone else in the room said, “Oh, you didn’t know? Oh right, they announced it on Facebook….”
So there are those kinds of situations, but overall, I’m so glad to be off the platform.
Jeremy Smith says
Nice. And presumably, you work a job that allows you to be not on social media?
Jonathan says
I work at a church. I do have a “secret” Facebook account that allows me to manage some pages that I oversee, but thankfully I do not have an expectation placed on me about my social media presence.
Blessing Mpofu says
I like that there isn’t an expectation placed on you for your own social media presence. I salute you Jonathan