A movement to encourage people to stop using Facebook, #DeleteFacebook, has been making the news lately.
It sprung up after it was discovered that Cambridge Analytica inappropriately acquired the personal information of over 50 million Facebook users while working on Trump’s presidential campaign (For those tempted to turn it into a political issue, our Liberal government led by Justin Trudeau in Canada hired the same firm to do work for them too, so it goes across the political spectrum).
Here’s my two cents on it:
Anyone who’s expressing shock and outrage that Facebook or its partners have been collecting data on them is naive. Facebook is a business, and it’s going to try to make money.
We get to use Facebook for free, but we give up things for that usage.
I find it funny (and nauseating) to see celebrities now jumping on the #DeleteFacebook bandwagon, while in the next breath encouraging their fans to follow them on another social media platform that is likely also collecting data.
I do a lot of business on Facebook, and so do my clients, so I won’t be #deleting it.
Besides, even if you quit Facebook today it’s impossible to fully escape its reach – unless you want to become a hermit and live in the woods, which I’d rather not do.
If you decide to leave, don’t turn it into a big dramatic event. You see these people posting about “possibly” leaving to hear the comments from people like “noooo, please don’t go!”, “we love you!”, “don’t leave!!!”.
My friend Ryan left Facebook the right way about five years ago. He didn’t publicly muse about leaving, or ask his FB friends what they thought he should do … he just deleted it. Honestly, I expected him to be back within a week but he’s never come back to it since.
So instead of crying about the evils of Facebook, or using the threats of leaving to garner attention from others, learn how to use it to do more business and help a lot of people (that will do more good than you just deleting it and running over to Twitter or someplace else).
Anyways, rant over …
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