I’ll be joining the #DeleteFacebook movement and you should join me. You finally have an excuse to reduce your digital footprint, stray from the surveillance system that is Facebook and get back to the real world where your private life is just that, private.
If you want to learn how to make sushi or watch a dash-cam video from 2004, by all means, sign in to Facebook. It’s a really good website if you want to waste your time and get nothing done.
What once was a way to keep in touch with family and see what your friends are up to is now a Reddit graveyard, where memes are consumed Sisyphus-style. And now, not only are millions of people wasting their time, their information has been improperly shared with political consultants Cambridge Analytica, which has been linked to manipulation of the 2016 U.S. election among others in the past.
The misuse of our private information shouldn’t be taken lightly. Zuckerberg’s untimely response shouldn’t either. The CEO has come forward, apologizing for neglecting procedure to maintain the privacy of information.
“We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility and that was a big mistake,” said Zuckerberg in his testimony. His website can’t be trusted any longer. And $36 billion worth of users can prove it.
Past studies have shown that users have become clinically addicted to Facebook. The fact that you can analogize it as a drug should be concerning in itself. No website should be relied upon to such a scale, let alone a website that allows third parties to access your information illegally.
Facebook has turned into much less than an all-in-one social site: it’s a data bank for corporations looking to exploit the neglect of Zuckerberg.
It could be a difficult decision to delete Facebook, which is understood. Many years of memories lie within your profile page, but you don’t have to worry. There is a feature that allows you to download a file of all your Facebook activity since its creation. To fill the void it will leave behind, there is a balanced lineup of alternatives. Twitter, Snapchat, YouTube and Reddit are all safe sites to share your thoughts and consume media. Most importantly though, they won’t be neglecting the safety of your personal information.
To delete your account, achieve better headspace and maintain the privacy of your personal information, click on the arrow at the top right of Facebook home, click settings, general, manage account and deactivate your account.
So, gone are the days of being notified of that one estranged friend being interested in an event next month. Delete your account and get back to work.