It’s probably time for me to bail out of Facebook. I just finished “reading” (I listen on Audible) a book that really opened my eyes on what information is collected by Facebook, and how they use it to manipulate our buying habits.
It goes without saying that they have manipulated American elections going back to 2008 when the Obama campaign successfully used social media to activate the usually apathetic younger voter demographic.
Facebook is also subject to being used by third party bad actors to manipulate us.
Here is the book: “Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now” by: Jaron Lanier. Here is what the publisher has to say about this book:
Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now is a timely call-to-arms from a Silicon Valley pioneer.
You might have trouble imagining life without your social media accounts, but virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier insists that we’re better off without them. In his important new audiobook, Lanier, who participates in no social media, offers powerful and personal reasons for all of us to leave these dangerous online platforms behind before it’s too late.
Lanier’s reasons for freeing ourselves from social media’s poisonous grip include its tendency to bring out the worst in us, to make politics terrifying, to trick us with illusions of popularity and success, to twist our relationship with the truth, to disconnect us from other people even as we are more “connected” than ever, to rob us of our free will with relentless targeted ads. How can we remain autonomous in a world where we are under continual surveillance and are constantly being prodded by algorithms run by some of the richest corporations in history that have no way of making money other than being paid to manipulate our behavior? How could the “benefits” of social media possibly outweigh the catastrophic losses to our personal dignity, happiness, and freedom?
Lanier remains a tech optimist, so while demonstrating the evil that rules social media business models today, he also envisions a humanistic setting for social networking that can direct us towards richer and fuller way of living and connecting with our world.
©2018 Jaron Lanier
This was a relatively quick read with lots of eye opening information. However, it was marred by the Berkeley resident’s obvious anti Trump bias, but I was able to get past that so I could consume the info.
As I finished the book, it became obvious to me that what the author was hoping for was that we would not condemn the nerds in Silicon Valley for having created this monster and that we would also give them a chance to correct their mistakes.
Be that as it may be, bailing out of Facebook (at least) has some caveats to follow and I’ve done some research to help you get there, should you choose to leave.
First, you would be wise to download all of your data. Facebook makes it relatively easy to do that and has instructions for you at:
https://www.facebook.com/help/212802592074644
Time Magazine has an easier to follow set of instructions here:
https://time.com/5633726/how-to-delete-facebook-data/
Yet another set of instructions is here:
https://www.imore.com/how-delete-your-facebook-data
Once the data is downloaded, you can feel secure in leaving the site, but if you have used Facebook to manage your logins to other websites you will need to recreate those other logins before deleting your Facebook account or you will lose access to them.
Password manager site Dashlane has more info on this problem: https://blog.dashlane.com/delete-facebook-secure-logins/
If you are on the fence, I suggest that you read the book I mentioned. Then if your decision is to bail out, check out the articles I found and you should be good to go.
I’m setting up over on MeWe and you can find me here: http://www.mewe.com/i/jerrykidd7
MeWe is free, has no ads and is not engaged in the practice of censorship.
So we shall see. I seem to recall that Facebook started out innocently too!
