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Internet spring cleaning: How to delete Instagram, Facebook and other accounts

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Re: Internet spring cleaning: How to delete Instagram, Facebook and other accounts

#91

Post by incongruity »

johannes1234321 wrote: post #87
thenerdhead wrote: post #75

I've found myself between deleting, deactivating, and moderating my use of these apps for many years of my life. I never found deleting or deactivating to be very helpful. At some time or another you're going to need said account for something. While deleting is a bit extreme, some of these services will respect the actual deletion and others will not. I suppose the question at the end of the day is...why bother? I'v…

What really helped me was getting rid of the app and distracting my muscle memory. It was weird to realize how often I was looking at the screen in search for the icon when I was otherwise idle. Once the habit to fill empty time with those was broken life was better. (less "stupid" posts on my mind, more enjoying the outside by looking up instead of the screen etc.) And once in a while I unfortunately "need" Facebook…

> What really helped me was getting rid of the app and distracting my muscle memory. It was weird to realize how often I was looking at the screen in search for the icon when I was otherwise idle.

This, 100%. I went dry for January and included social media in that. Deleted apps on 1/1 and still find myself occasionally instinctively going to where they were - much less often now, but it was startling at first.

Re: Internet spring cleaning: How to delete Instagram, Facebook and other accounts

#93

Post by 3np »

baby wrote: post #37
jll29 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please use email instead, which is a standardized open protocol that does give people some choices. You can always exchange email addresses before closing down accounts to stay in touch.

My generation doesn’t use emails basically. I changed emails quite a lot through my younger years as did my friends so it wouldn’t have been useful. We used to ask for people’s facebook shortly after meeting them. It’s the best tool to create and maintain your social graph. I understand that not everybody use it this way, and that’s fine, but if you do please think about that. It’s really heart breaking how I lost co…

Now is the time to do something about that then.

Perhaps hand out an e-mail address and/or something else that does not require people to agree to some corporate ToS/privacy policy where people can reach you to the ones you do care about staying in touch with, preemptively for when they or you stops using Facebook, be it by choice or force.

It is not acceptable that a single or a handful of corps should own the digital social room. If you rely only on them, then it is you who close people out, not the ones who choose to leave or get kicked out.

I get that it's a sad situation but you can not put the blame on the ones who left. Learn from that and you won't have to experience it again.

I guess I am part of your generation as well because I recognize your description.

Re: Internet spring cleaning: How to delete Instagram, Facebook and other accounts

#95

Post by agency »

VLM wrote: post #84

Most people don't need to delete their accounts. I have a tasty bottle of rather expensive whiskey on the bar in my basement right now. Luxury consumables are a good gift, I guess. I don't want to drink it right now because I have things to do requiring sobriety, its a bit early in the day for that sort of thing, etc. I got my reasons, none of them terribly interesting. If I don't want to drink it for various reasons…

What a bizarre take. You should continue to volunteer your personal information to an ad-tech behemoth… in order to prove you’re not an addict?

Re: Internet spring cleaning: How to delete Instagram, Facebook and other accounts

#96

Post by micronova »

Mikeb85 wrote: post #73
ahmedfromtunis wrote: post #46

To protect my mental wellbeing, I find that carefully selecting who to follow on some of these services improves considerably my experience. For Instagram and Twitter, my rule of thumb is to prefer topical accounts to entity ones. That is, accounts that are dedicated to a single topic, no matter how narrow or large the scope, over those of people and/or companies. Personal and business accounts, no matter how focused…

> To protect my mental wellbeing, I find that carefully selecting who to follow on some of these services improves considerably my experience. For Instagram and Twitter, my rule of thumb This. These services aren't toxic if you don't follow toxic accounts. Also, I didn't think much about it in the past but now that I split my time between 3 countries and 2 continents, having FB (messenger) is the best way to keep in…

> This. These services aren't toxic if you don't follow toxic accounts.

This is so wrong, on so many levels. They will capture your clicks, your usage patterns, your interests, and the internet will present to you in a non-neutral way, in a way which will not be in your interest, but in the interest of whoever is paying for the results of your data analysis. A way which will influence your perception of reality in microscopic and permanent ways, because they will know you more intimately than you know yourself.

Do not interact with surveillance capitalists. You will lose.

One should instead protect its behavioural breadcrumbs and try to use non surveillance ways of communication.

Re: Internet spring cleaning: How to delete Instagram, Facebook and other accounts

#97

Post by justapassenger »

yummypaint wrote: post #50
baby wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My generation doesn’t use emails basically. I changed emails quite a lot through my younger years as did my friends so it wouldn’t have been useful. We used to ask for people’s facebook shortly after meeting them. It’s the best tool to create and maintain your social graph. I understand that not everybody use it this way, and that’s fine, but if you do please think about that. It’s really heart breaking how I lost co…

Locating and contacting old friends is entirely within your means in 2022. What is most striking to me as someone in my early thirties is how much learned helplessness is associated with these communication technologies that supposedly enhance our capabilities. Facebook makes it easy to curate the appearance of friendship, but meaningful relationships take time and effort in the real world to maintain. People have tr…

This enabled me reach out to an ”apparent” friend (someone I had very casual relationship with and didn’t talk to for 10 years) in 30 second. And that person helped my “true” friends evacuate from Ukraine and avoid being killed.

Extended social networks are integral part of humanity and communities. Being isolated and interacting only with handful of true friends is more modern invention.

Re: Internet spring cleaning: How to delete Instagram, Facebook and other accounts

#98

Post by phphphphp »

VLM wrote: post #84

Most people don't need to delete their accounts. I have a tasty bottle of rather expensive whiskey on the bar in my basement right now. Luxury consumables are a good gift, I guess. I don't want to drink it right now because I have things to do requiring sobriety, its a bit early in the day for that sort of thing, etc. I got my reasons, none of them terribly interesting. If I don't want to drink it for various reasons…

People are different. I, personally, find ownership of digital and physical things to “weigh” on me and so deleting something digital or giving something away physical is meaningful to me — it keeps my life simple in this moment, whether I acquire the thing again in future is not relevant. Not everybody is the same :)

Re: Internet spring cleaning: How to delete Instagram, Facebook and other accounts

#99

Post by hunter2_ »

agency wrote: post #95
VLM wrote: post #84

Most people don't need to delete their accounts. I have a tasty bottle of rather expensive whiskey on the bar in my basement right now. Luxury consumables are a good gift, I guess. I don't want to drink it right now because I have things to do requiring sobriety, its a bit early in the day for that sort of thing, etc. I got my reasons, none of them terribly interesting. If I don't want to drink it for various reasons…

What a bizarre take. You should continue to volunteer your personal information to an ad-tech behemoth… in order to prove you’re not an addict?

The one little nugget I'm gleaning is that for people who are able, not even volunteering that you're incapable of simply ignoring the account is also worth considering. Like setting up an email filter instead of clicking unsubscribe on a mailing list, since doing so is yet another piece of information.

Re: Internet spring cleaning: How to delete Instagram, Facebook and other accounts

#100

Post by sdevonoes »

endisneigh wrote: post #27

Personally I think it’s a bad idea to delete any of your accounts. It becomes a huge hassle to claim anything if there’s a situation in which you need an account that can show that you have ownership. In particular if you see a photo of you or yours somewhere and want it modified or removed. Not to mention there’s really no value in deletion. Log out, stop using all of the clients. The end.

> Not to mention there’s really no value in deletion. Log out, stop using all of the clients. The end.

I see value in deleting information about me on the Internet. Not to hide it from companies like Facebook (because they probably hold you data even if you delete them), but from other people. You never know who can use your pictures/profile for. Obviously, the first step would be to not publish sensitive information about yourself, but if that ship has already sailed, well, the least you can do is to remove it before you "log out and stop using all the clients".

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