Quit Facebook Day is (almost) over… but there is still time if you really, really want to quit Facebook.
May 31st was declared Quit Facebook Day, a day when you deleted your Facebook account in order to regain your privacy and rights/ownership of your personal details, as well as an opportunity to stick your middle finger up at Facebook. Some news reports, however, have stated that this movement would only be actioned by 0.005% of ~500 million Facebook users, giving the news media an excuse to call it a “flop”. Despite being seen a failure, there’s still some passionate views about it and why you should do it.
Personally, the thought of deleting your Facebook account is pretty dramatic. It mainly depends on your use of it. My main uses for it is for event management and birthdays, both which I admit can be updated manually with iCal/Google Calendar as an alternative, but it’s just “easier” in a way since everything seems to be focused on one site. I’ve never had any issues with privacy on the site as I’ve always gone through my privacy settings with a fine tooth comb every privacy policy update. If privacy and personal data is your biggest concern, don’t put it up there in the first place. That’s how sites like Lamebook make a killing with an unlimited supply of mistakes people make on the social networking site.
Anyway, if you really want to delete your Facebook account entirely, you can follow the many steps that are out there on the net, or just commit (Web 2.0) suicide.
Enter the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine. I heard about this web site from @JoshSharp months ago and, although at first I dismissed it as a great last resort but mainly a joke, it hasn’t become any more useful/relevant until now. Check out the video:
Would love to see it in action for real, but I don’t know anyone that wants to delete their account and the site keeps saying it’s overwhelmed with requests at the moment. But what about you, do you plan to or have you deleted your Facebook account already? Why or why not?
Yeah I deleted mine. All it was, for me, was a strange form of time-wasting voyeurism. I grew sick of so many people seeing interactions between me and my friends. From Twitter I’ve learned about new blogs, restaurants which serve gluten free food, met new people. Facebook provided none of those.
Thanks for replying.
I’m sorry that Facebook didn’t go so well for you. I still use it, but only for family and close friends. Actually, a majority are friends that I’ve made off Twitter.