Social media: it's not me, it's you.

Feb 1, 2018 · 2 minute read
Words: 277

Or, why do I want to use Facebook and Twitter anyway?

If you've arrived here from Twitter or Facebook and I've unfollowed or unfriended you, it's not you, it's the social media platforms. You know how to find me if you want to!

One year ago, on the 1st January 2017, I stopped using Facebook. I disabled my account, deleted the Facebook apps off my phone and tablet, and deleted the bookmark off my browser's toolbar. I've not missed it. My Facebook feed mirrored my obsessive need for every fragment of Brexit news, and it was massively depressing. So I ended it. And last year was great; no Facebook, no Facebook tracking (lots of add-ons and blocks at OS level to stop Facebook getting any information about me), and a more free time ... for Twitter.

And that's my new problem: Twitter.

I'm, therefore, going to do roughly the same thing with Twitter as I did with Facebook: I'm going to simplify the feed, and that means unfollowing lots and lots of people, particularly those whose only focus is Trump and Brexit. Sorry, but I've had enough.

I'm going to reset my Facebook account. This means unfriending everybody, deleting all of my posts and photos, and generally emptying the account of all personal data - to the extent that that is possible. And then just leaving my Facebook account for a year.

Hopefully, this will reset my social graph in Facebook, and I can then delete the account in 2019. It's possible - maybe even probably - that Facebook will still keep an archive of everything I deleted a year on. They probably keep stuff forever.

So now you know; it wasn't you, it was Facebook. And Twitter.

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