I just deleted my Facebook account

[kestrell]

I just deleted my Facebook account. Facebook has never been as accessible as I thought it should be, and it's always been a pain in the ass to use. In addition, this recent deal to sell advertising to Oculis so it appears on people XR headsets is really creepy: seriously, sighted people, advertisers are not going to be happy until they can feed advertising to you in your sleep.

I signed up for many of these social media accounts when I was in the media studies program at MIT, when social media seemed all shiny and new and full of promise, but the accessibility hasn't improved all that much since then, while the privacy and security risks have increased exponentially, especially over the past year. It's past time to sign off.

My next step is to delete my Twitter account.

So don't panic: I'm not dead, I'm just not on Facebook or Twitter anymore.

Comments

☺

[foreverdawning]

Kudos to you. Once I deleted my Facebook and abandoned my Twitter, I felt much better. I still technically have a Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for websites that require one of them to log in but I never use them. It feels like a giant weight was lifted off me once I let them go.

Re: ☺

[kestrell]

Yes, this morning I deleted the Twitter account, and it feels pretty good. It's like eliminating junk food from one's diet.

[dewline]

Understood.

I am probably going to stick with both for a while yet.

As you know, Bob, I totally approve of this!

[jesse_the_k]

FB is a (probably intentional) UX nightmare: they channel everything into their walled garden.

I've been visiting Twitter for 29 minutes/day and I'll admit that my mood has only been worsened. It's full of hot takes on how Everything Is Going to Hell Right Now and that may indeed be the case but worrying about it doesn't accomplish anything.

Mastodon is Twitter-esque with robust privacy and moderation controls -- have you ever tried it? I have a couple accounts but have never spent much time on it.

Is there any social medium that's comfortably accessible for you? Reddit? Email lists?

Re: As you know, Bob, I totally approve of this!

[kestrell]

Mailing lists, things that get delivered to my inbox are pretty easily accessible.

I just looked at the Defcon online forum pages and, at least at the very introductory level, those look pretty accessible. Traditionally, ubergeek formats are very accessible, since they have much of the same concerns accessibility and usability do: it's really just crap social media that fails to respect the UX basics that everyone has known about for the past twenty years.

I don't think much has changed since the original edition of _Don't Make Me Thin_.

I've spent the past week taking a cybersecurity course on EdX, and it's also really raised a lot of questions for me concerning social media's blase attitude toward UX and privacy.

I spent this morning attempting to delete a lot of my person info from Google and Gmail, and it is almost impossible: the entire interface is so complex, you basically have to be a software developer to understand it, and it just goes on and on for pages and pages. Have you read about Google's use of "cohorts" and the rest of their new system for tracking users? Really insidious.

Re: As you know, Bob, I totally approve of this!

[jesse_the_k]

I'm afraid to find out re: "cohorts" but will track it down.

I had two gmail accounts for a decade -- and I gave myself an entire year to wean away from them. They're still alive as "Inactive Accounts," as explained fourteen levels deep in support.

https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3036546

This was facilitated by having a password manager -- I searched for gmail and recreated 5 new accounts every week.

I've set my gmail to auto reply: Subj: Account closed; body: This account no longer connects with a human.

Keeping them inactive means I can glance at them every three months to notice anyone who I want to communicate with.

YES IT TOOK A YEAR to back away from the Google octopus. And I still have one tentacle in: I'm signed in on YouTube (on my Roku TV streamer and in one browser) so I can have subscriptions and a history.

Re: As you know, Bob, I totally approve of this!

[kestrell]

I swear, I tried to reread and proof that entry, and still ended up with "_Don't Make Me Thin_" instead of _Don't Make Me Thin_. Sigh.

Re: Google levels of policy and documentation: yes, I went down about five or six levels just to try to delete my personal info that was associated with their own "Privacy Check," which is supposed to make deleting one's personal info *easier*. Good luck with that if you don't have a college degree. And it goes on for so many pages, because they divide every little section up on a separate page, so I'm pretty certain the idea is that you will get tired of fiddling with combo boxes and check boxes, and give up after an hour or two, which is what I spent on it, and only got about halfway through the exercise, and I didn't even get on to some of the other sections.

Re: As you know, Bob, I totally approve of this!

[kestrell]

Ultimately, I don't spend that much tiem on social media: I usually spend my mornings on communicating with people, setting up meetings or consulting on accessibility projects or health care equity, Zoom meetings, or research or online courses.

Afternoons I try to socialize or do something offline, like hang out in the back yard. Evenings I read. That's pretty much my day.

Re: As you know, Bob, I totally approve of this!

[jesse_the_k]

It feels like my life is totally online, but actually I've been backing away some.

In the winter, though ....

Re: As you know, Bob, I totally approve of this!

[kestrell]

In the winter, I spend a lot more time in my reading chair, wrapped like a burrito in a fuzzy blanket, reading mysteries. Then I go to bed around 4:30 or 5 and read some more.