Got this email yesterday:
Account Scheduled for Deletion
Hi Mike,
We have received a request to permanently delete your account. Your account has been deactivated from the site and will be permanently deleted within 14 days.
If you did not request to permanently delete your account, please login to Facebook to cancel this request:
https://www.facebook.com/login.php
Thanks,
The Facebook Team
I had deactivated my Facebook account several times over the course of the last few days but kept getting signed in, mostly by forums which use the Facebook comment module, but I had also signed in (and reactivated it) to let a few of my friends know about my decision, those who didn't have my email address. I didn't want to make some grand announcement, just like those who proclaim "I'm leaving this group!".
There are multiple reasons, the main one being that of privacy and how Facebook tracks you across the Internet, namely with the aforementioned comment module. Also, I found that Facebook had closed several groups and pages I followed and the only reason they had done so was because they were pro-conservative or anti-liberal/progressive. Their site, their rules, their reasons, but I don't have to put up with that and refuse to do so. Privacy is rare on the 'net but I won't surrender any more than I need to.
Another important reason was an annoyance; why would people send you a friendship request and then ignore you? They wouldn't even like a post of mine much less leave a comment under them. Now, I don't desperately need the attention, but I would comment or like a post on their pages because I wanted them to know I was reading them and I KNOW they had time to at least click the "Like" button because some of them posted multiple times during the day.
And, speaking of posting, right before I decided to get off Facebook, one woman I know posted 27 different links in the course of fifteen minutes. That was a record but it was nothing to see a dozen or more posts in a day from her and thanks to Facebook's strange algorithm, they filled up my feed and I didn't see anything from anyone else. I use an AdBlock extension plus a nifty Greasemonkey script from FB Purity that let me customize my feed, but Facebook was always changing some script to defeat the way I wanted to view their website. It just got to be a hassle.
Anyway, it was astounding how often some folks would post; an old classmate would post dozens of photos of a grandson's baseball game and while I understand her excitement, I'm not sure why she expected ME to have the same enthusiasm. I also didn't want to see endless photos of another woman's puppy - sure, it was cute, but not any cuter after 50 photos of the same damn dog. I also didn't care about someone posting they were eating at a particular restaurant, esp. if they didn't do a review of the food or post a photo of it.
While Facebook is a good way to keep up with old friends and kinfolk, what's wrong with an email now 'n then? I know nobody is going to write a letter and they'd rather text than actually talk to someone but Facebook is akin to trying to be a sniper using a 12 gauge shotgun...you're going to scatter your shots so far apart you'll be lucky to hit anyone.
So, adios, Facebook. I didn't waste a LOT of time using it, but I wish I had that time back. Oh well, live and learn.
