Just deleted Facebook

[Icehaven]

I'm waiting for people to comment 'Aw are you off Facebook'. Yes, it's just a cunting website no different to any other.

Yeah about 2 years ago for reasons completely unrelated to Facebook itself I temporarily deactivated my account (I was just upset about something and didn't trust myself not to drunkenly post about it) and my Mum (who I didn't think spent much time on it anyway) was on the phone within hours anxiously asking why I seemed to have 'vanished' from Facebook and was everything alright? 
At the time I presumed there'd be some process involved in reactivating, that I'd have to either start again, or at least re-enter some info, and some stuff like photos etc. might be gone. Had I known reactivation was as simple as logging back in I wouldn't have bothered deactivating at all tbh. 

[Ferris]

Do it man, get yourself free.

Might start a new one with an assumed name and post the square root of fuck all just so I can follow bands. But pictures of me pissed up in Moscow circa 2008? Nah man, they need to stay offline.

[Hobo With A Shit Pun]

I just started reading Jarrett Kobek's hilarious "I hate The Internet". It was recommended to me by a friend taking a picture of a page - where the author explains that he'll put "[JIM'LL FIX IT]"* wherever material has been removed due to libel laws - and putting it on FaceBook, tagging me.

I think that's some sort of metaphor. Or irony. Or just hypocrisy and laziness. 

* And, in explaining to readers the Saville backstory, comments that he infiltrated and befriended the upper echelons of British society: "Margaret Thatcher, Prince Charles, Peter Sutcliffe". I can see why she took a photie for me.

[Icehaven]

Do it man, get yourself free.

But as I said above, I quite like it! And I'm 'free' anyway, I don't overuse it, don't feel any need to keep up with anyone on it, don't generally notice and certainly don't care how many likes etc. I do or don't get, I just use it at my own convenience for my own ends.
I think this is the irony really, some of Facebook's biggest critics are/were also it's biggest users, as they felt it was eating up their life and damaging their psyche so they go cold turkey and end up with something akin to an ex-smoker mentality about it, while we light to moderate users with much less invested in it just carry on as it's actually mildly enhancing our lives and simply isn't that important to us. Same reason heavy users are the ones shouting loudest when there's changes they don't like or privacy issues come to light, because they've got so much more invested in it.

[Ferris]

Haha I was kidding, I'm not that arsed. As I said, it's been deactivated for years and I never twigged the difference between deactivating and deleting, I reactivated the other day I scrolled through for a couple of minutes and thought "this doesn't bring me joy" so I binned it.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Haha I was kidding, I'm not that arsed. As I said, it's been deactivated for years and I never twigged the difference between deactivating and deleting, I reactivated the other day I scrolled through for a couple of minutes and thought "this doesn't bring me joy" so I binned it.

But how do you stalk your ex-girlfriends (or ex-boyfriends) without it?

[Ham Bap]

But how do you stalk your ex-girlfriends (or ex-boyfriends) without it?

Some of us prefer to do good old fashioned hiding in the bushes Rory McGrath stalking.

[daf]

Never had it

All the stuff I might have put on Facebook, I stick on here - you lucky, lucky people!

[imitationleather]

But how do you stalk your ex-girlfriends (or ex-boyfriends) without it?

Blocked by them all.

[asids]

Some of us prefer to do good old fashioned hiding in the bushes Rory McGrath stalking.

Is your face as red as his while you're doing it though?

[mothman]

Deactivated mine last year, was quite happy without it for six months until just before Christmas when I tried to remember my password and logging in reactivated my account instantly without asking. I left it a month or two then requested my download then deleted it. So, WAY before deleting Facebook was cool. Get me.

I'm in the process of closing my wife's account. Just need to request her download first.

[hermitical]

you folks saying you've requested a download before deleting - may I ask why?

[mothman]

Well, for posterity for one, I guess; I may never look at it seriously but at one point there was info that was useful to me. And now since the latest scandal, I gather all sort of stuff we were largely unaware of is stored there, stuff that Facebook had no real business accessing, from your phone and whatnot.

[Ferris]

you folks saying you've requested a download before deleting - may I ask why?

Load of old photos. I don't have the various cell phones/laptops etc any more so facebook was the only copy of them.

[non capisco]

It's been throwing ancient status updates up as "Your Memories" for you to repost if you're so inclined

The main reason I've been thinking of binning it is that daily demonstration of how crushingly unfunny I apparently was on a daily basis throughout 2008.

[Buelligan]

Never had FB, never twittered, no mobile, never let anyone take my photo, don't do Christmas or any of the other dull events, avoid humans whenever possible.  Live my life and fucking love it, bit of bird song, a few frogs at night down by the river at the mo, otherwise, silent.  Pretty nice.

[bgmnts]

Live my life and fucking love it, bit of bird song, a few frogs at night down by the river at the mo, otherwise, silent.  Pretty nice.

No music? Nothing? Just a ribbit and a chirp and thats it.

[Buelligan]

Loads of music, mountains of the stuff, what I really meant was how lovely and tranquil it feels not to be connected.

[PaulTMA]

Worst thing about deleting Facebook is you can't go on Facebook to boast about deleting it

[Vodka Margarine]

'Facebooker' since 2007 here. Stopped regularly updating about seven years ago and now just keep it running for the sake of bolstering some vague semblance of a social life, plus all the brilliant echo chamber stuff I get to 'Like' and comment on. I'm lucky enough not to have had FB regurgitate wholly unwelcome episodes of my massively punchable We Are Scientists liking late 00s self of late, so whatever I did or didn't click on at some point, I've done ok.

[idunnosomename]

I don't have a computer

[Head Gardener]

[SpiderChrist]

^^^ Can I nick that? ^^^

[Head Gardener]

I would

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Never had FB, never twittered, no mobile, never let anyone take my photo, don't do Christmas or any of the other dull events, avoid humans whenever possible.  Live my life and fucking love it, bit of bird song, a few frogs at night down by the river at the mo, otherwise, silent.  Pretty nice.

And arguing on CaB apparently, that aspect is non-negotiable.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I enjoy using Facebook for keeping in touch with friends I would otherwise hardly ever see, and getting to know them better. The content they share amuses and interests me, as does those of the Facebook groups I follow.

[Zero Gravitas]

What's the point in deleting it? They've already got your position in their social graph logged, dropped cookies on and fingerprinted every device you own, cross-correlated with n ad platforms.

The only thing that changes is that you're no no longer a drain on their loss leader.

[Buelligan]

And arguing on CaB apparently, that aspect is non-negotiable.

Everything's negotiable, CaB is my last connection with the outside, I don't come here to argue but to talk and take some ideas away to think about but maybe I should stop that too though my reasons for not being on FB etc are because I value my privacy.

[alan nagsworth]

Deactivated mine as I need a break from it and people. It gets very fucking tiresome. A few on mine do that thing where they don't like anything that you put up unless you give them a like for the latest in the series of a photo of their child's fat sweaty face. Like-tennis.
I stopped hitting like on things as I just wanted to. I can also 'like' something in life without hitting like on Facebook. Then I think people in real life started getting arsey and a bit distant because I wasn't giving little Johnny's picture a like. It's just a website ffs.

I believe this is at least in part down to Facebook trying to curate the friend experience for you, whereby if you like something of someone else's, content they might not otherwise see from you (due to the algorithms of their own feed showing them the content they're more tailored to liking) will pop up to encourage mutual interaction.

Certain groups like Simpsons Shitposting have ended up taking over 80% of my feed at one point because I was liking so much of the posts (hey, the group goes through peaks and troughs, I can't help myself). I unfollow them and then revisit them after a couple of months to keep things loose.

Anyway, what's the difference in your significant other knowing everything about you, and some big fuck off database? It's all relative, take everything from me, dominate my existence. I don't give a fuck.

[Schnapple]

I've had Facebook Feed Blocker installed for years now. I just use it as a messaging service, and a way to find out about events. I can have a gander at people's profiles, if I so wish. I think it's the best way forward without deleting it entirely.