Leaving Facebook

So, uh, this Cambridge Analytica thing, right?

I mean, I think we all knew Facebook was being pretty shitty with our data. That data collection in general is used for a lot more than just selling us vacuums and whatnot. It’s almost nice, in a way, to have such a big incident I can point to to justify my decision. But the truth is I’ve been thinking about deleting my Facebook for a while. I don’t like how much data is harvested about us for the sole purpose of selling it to advertisers, and Facebook is one of the worst offenders.

Now, this totally screws me over in a couple ways. A few of my friends plan events almost exclusively through Facebook. There’s some people who I don’t have contact info for besides through Facebook. And some content requires a Facebook account to view.

But I’m going to do my best to just deal with it. I’m not going to jump just yet, though. Instead, I’m putting together a little checklist of stuff I need to do before I jet off to other social networks.

• Get contact info for friends and acquaintances who I don’t have an e-mail or phone number for.
• Download all of my info
• Give people ample warning that I’m outta here (guess what this sorta is?)
• Post up contact info for how to get in touch with me otherwise. Mostly an e-mail address and this very blog.

It’s not a long list, but some of it’s a good bit of work. Still, I trust I can get it done, and I’m aiming for the end of the month. I’m also going to start with just deactivating my account, in case I really fuck something up and need to pop back in for a moment.

How about you? What are you planning on doing with your Facebook account? Staying? Leaving? Stepping away for a bit?

While you’re thinking about it, here’s a couple of articles I ran across today that could be good food for thought no matter what you decide:
* Facebook: Is It Time We All Deleted Our Accounts? | The Guardian
* #DeleteFacebook: Perspective From a Platform That Doesn’t Put Democracy in Peril
* Walking Away by Lilith Saintcrow