Walking Away from Facebook

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For the past couple of years, ever since the Cambridge Analytica scandal, I've been shrinking my presence on Facebook. Primarily, I used that app to keep in touch with family and very close friends, and for many years I found it a great way to see how everyone was doing.

But as the years went on, I found that there was more junk in my timeline than I cared to see, and the security issues started to weigh on me, and I decided that I wanted to shrink my presence.

Over the years, I culled people who weren't active on Facebook, but I then started cutting connections with people that I either saw on a regular basis (pre-pandemic) or to whom I was connected through other media—Twitter and LinkedIn, or Instagram.

I started deleting photos from my Facebook account and eventually began removing old posts. Then, last November, I removed the Facebook app from my smartphone and stopped posting. I'd check in on my remaining friends and family members, which numbered at about a dozen, but would rarely comment on their posts. I figured that these remaining people would stay in my list or it would be they who severed our connection because of my inactivity.

I only look at Facebook, at most, about once a month. And, when I'm there, I delete posts that show up in my Memories page and other older posts on my main page. With the exception of a couple of posts—DD17 performing live with JW Jones, my video of Korea, and some historic photos around Ottawa—I've deleted posts as far back as January, 2017.

When I spend time on Facebook, these days, it's to erase my history on the app. Eventually, I'll stop following everybody in my connections. I still have Facebook's instant-messenger service, which I use to contact 'old' friends on Facebook, and I imagine that will be the tool that I use exclusively to reach these people.

If I'm really curious to find out what these folks are up to, I can simply ask DW: she's connected with practically all of my family and close friends, anyway.

What about you? Have you cut the cord with Facebook? Share your experiences in the Comments section.


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