Category: Anti-Facebook

#DeleteFacebook is becoming a movement: A Quick Guide to Deleting

Posted on | by Robert | Leave a Comment on #DeleteFacebook is becoming a movement: A Quick Guide to Deleting

Happy to see #DeleteFacebook is becoming a trend.

Deleting Facebook however isn’t easy. There are a few steps to it. Facebook so tangled with the web you have to cut strings as well.

Here is a #DeleteFacebook quick guide:

  1. Identify why you signed up for Facebook in the first place. If it is to keep in touch with family and friends, make sure you develop a new platform, like a blog. Creating this up front will help you quickly get passed any withdrawal symptoms you might have.
  2. Create a dummy email account and use that for all Facebook products (Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp). Disroot.org allows you to create email accounts without connecting to you in any way. This is great for secondary accounts.
  3. Identify any apps that use your Facebook log in to log on, and change to your email address.
  4. Unlink apps to Facebook you have connected to Facebook.
  5. Backup and delete your photos from the site
  6. Remove your name from any photos you are tagged in
  7. Unlike any pages you liked
  8. Delete account
  9. Stop Facebook from tracking you – erase cookies and identify any browser plug-ins you could use

The deletion process takes two weeks once you hit the delete button. Make sure you don’t go back into your account after deleting or visit Facebook. If so, they will stop the deletion process.

This Reddit thread provides a step by step as well. This is what I used to help me.

Life after Facebook is rather rewarding. Don’t be afraid. Do it.

Using Big Data as a Weapon

Posted on | by Robert | Leave a Comment on Using Big Data as a Weapon

We’ve blindly accepted Facebook terms and conditions for a long time. We are conditioned to just accept them at this point. We want to like things, they want our data. Ever wonder what happens to the data you provide as you continue to use the service?

Click on the vid below for a snapshot into how one company has used personal data that’s been harvested to manipulate the way we think.

Reddit and parameters of “Free Speech”

Posted on | by Robert | Leave a Comment on Reddit and parameters of “Free Speech”

Reddit gets it.  They do not ask for your private information upon signing up, nor do their cookies follow you around the internet when you are looking for a recipe. Reddit is organized by topic, so you’re not going to see political posts when all you want to see are cute cats. And truthfully – it’s a happy place to visit and their alien is cute.

They have a feature in the New Yorker this week. The article highlights how the company is putting forth a real effort in cleaning up the conversation that takes place on the platform. Unlike other social-internet companies, the company isn’t claiming to be a bastion of “free speech.” They have rules and aren’t afraid to ban communities that violate those rules. On their approach to free speech:

“Does free speech mean literally anyone can say anything at any time?” … “Or is it actually more conducive to the free exchange of ideas if we create a platform where women and people of color can say what they want without thousands of people screaming, ‘Fuck you, light yourself on fire, I know where you live’? If your entire answer to that very difficult question is ‘Free speech,’ then, I’m sorry, that tells me that you’re not really paying attention.”

Maybe, just maybe they are on to something. Using the “Free Speech” shield doesn’t give the internet soldier the freedom to be a jerk or a perv. As we (the collective we – internet companies included) continue to work towards a healthier internet, maybe we should take out a page here and re-evaluate the concept of internet “free speech.” It’s surely not free in real life, maybe we should also acknowledge its parameters on the interwebs as well.

Facebook: Deleted

Posted on | by Robert | Leave a Comment on Facebook: Deleted

It’s official, as of yesterday around 11PM, my Facebook account has been deleted. Deleting wasn’t easy from either an emotional or technical perspective.

There is a lot of investment in having a semi-active account. The time one takes to read, post, comment, like–it all adds up and becomes part of a routine.

And what makes the decision to delete even more difficult is the thought of loosing access to some of your contacts forever.

But we have to separate the platform from the purpose. As a contact book it was adequate – but there are certainly better ones available. As a communication platform though it lost its way and its utility has run its course. There are much healthier ways to communicate without getting caught up in the noise.

Ultimately, the time I had invested in Facebook is greater than the return I felt I was receiving–and I don’t see that balance shifting now or in the foreseeable future. I’ve made the decision to move on. My good friends will support me and I’ll support them. I’m OK with cutting the chord with people I barely know. Who knows, maybe we’ll meet again down the line and we and we can start over.

The deletion process:

The thing with Facebook– if you delete and aren’t careful, your footprints will remain. I did my best in covering up those up, but I know that there are a few crumbs for it to feast off of.

Before I hit the delete button, I made sure to unlike everything, delete all of my photos, and remove the tag on every photo I was tagged in. I also ran a script to undo my entire history – this part took a while, and I don’t think I covered it all because I became a bit impatient. After all that, I then visited the delete my account page.

Done.

No longer do I have to worry about algorithm changes or any of the negativity involved just by participating on the platform.

As for the crumbs I left behind last night for the monster to eat, I hope it chokes on them. I would never wish death upon anybody, but a corporation isn’t a person, and with that perspective, saying good-bye is so much easier.

Facebook needs people to survive–people don’t need Facebook.

Facebook Changes Algorithm

Posted on | by Robert | Leave a Comment on Facebook Changes Algorithm

It seems that Facebook read my comments about how it is getting too big for it’s own good and it’s not the social network people signed up for (that was a joke). Since Thursday, the company has put into effect changes to their algorithm to feature popular posts from friends and families, and less from news agencies and content mills. Still, they will bury posts with little reaction, and this is only an experiment. From a business perspective, this approach is probably not in their best interests because they can’t really monetize on your cousin’s post about her pet salamander. Expect this to change once again after the heat dies a bit, or adjust after they figure out how to profit anew from its users interests and content mills. Nonetheless, I have to give them some credit for paying attention. Hopefully they can create a more positive user experience for those active on the network. They aren’t winning me back though. I’ve been much happier since I’ve been off of it.

Blog Update: 2017-12-19

Posted on | by Robert | Leave a Comment on Blog Update: 2017-12-19

Made a few changes recently to the blog. The biggest one being that I will now use Disqus for comments, and I’ve activated ad space above the comments. I wasn’t crazy about the native WordPress comment section so this is an improvement. I’ve used Disqus previously and it’s a good fit I think for this site.

The other update is that I’m going to begin migrating the content from the BlackBeansandBikes.com food blog here. The first was the chili recipe (which is an award winning recipe btw). Recipes will have their own category.

 

That’s it for now.

Peace.

Should the Attention Economy be Regulated?

Posted on | by Robert | Leave a Comment on Should the Attention Economy be Regulated?

The red notification indicator on our favorite apps, the “like” button, the downward refresh-feed sweep, all of these things are the backbone of what is now being referred to as, the “attention economy.” This new economy drives our national discourse, which is very reactionary, and has partly-created the dreaded feedback loop that drives social media interaction. At best, these queues let us know when grandma likes our most recent brain fart, but on the other hand, it has enabled an attention-seeking reality TV star to become a president. The Guardian has a nice article on the impact of the attention economy here, which is well worth reading. It discusses the dangers of this new economy and how it came to be. It also highlights what some of the well-meaning tech gurus responsible for the habit-forming queues we’ve grown to rely upon are doing to pull away from their own inventions, recognizing that they are dangerous. Ironically enough, like most monsters, it’s creation didn’t come from a place of bad-intention. And maybe it can be reeled in before things get even more out of hand. The question we might need to begin asking is, if drugs, alcohol and tobacco can be legislated and regulated, can code, and the application of it be as well? And if this is asking too much, those that are paying attention might need to deactivate a few things.

Status Report: #AntiFacebook Experiment – 2 Weeks in

Posted on | by Robert | Leave a Comment on Status Report: #AntiFacebook Experiment – 2 Weeks in

It’s been about two weeks. So far so good. Almost ready to “publish” this site. I have noticed that since I started this I’m not reacting to the world as much. I find myself looking for information at my own pace. But the big wins are that ads aren’t following me around, and Google isn’t telling me that I want to read a particular story now (that’s the Google Now service, which I turned off–it comes stock on Android phones). Overall, it’s a much healthier internet experience. I’ve also been texting more with friends and family – checking in with them as opposed to passively monitoring them on the interwebs. The other thing that I need to mention is that it’s nice to have my very own corner on the web where content I post is all mine. It’s very liberating. You should give it a try.

Almost Finished Setting this Up. Anti-Facebook 1.0.

Posted on | by Robert | Leave a Comment on Almost Finished Setting this Up. Anti-Facebook 1.0.

In setting this up, the biggest question I had was how to remain in contact with friends and family without having them check my blog often. I’m sure they never really went out of their way to check on my Facebook feed, so why would I ask them to check out my blog? Well, that’s not a problem anymore. My posts can go straight into their email inboxes, and I can set the schedule as to how often that happens–a monthly summary ought to do it. So let’s see – a public forum, check (the blog); a way to remain in contact with my contacts, check (email subscribe); a place to post my images, check (image page); a forum to interact, check (comments)—this has it all. Almost finished. Next step is to move my images to a gallery and make this “public.

My Version of the Anti-Facebook has Finally Arrived

Posted on | by Robert | Leave a Comment on My Version of the Anti-Facebook has Finally Arrived

This is sort-of my anti-social network. This project is about reclaiming ownership of what I post on the internet without fear of some third party hijacking my content for their own self-interests. My data and my thoughts belong to me, not Facebook, Google +, etc.

I recently published a piece on Medium highlighting how I feel about the impact of social networks on the human. If you’re interested, view it here.

So how am I fighting the powers that be? I opened up a Fastmail account to get away from Google. I wil be deleting my Facebook on my birthday – only because I want to give my contacts there enough time to find me here. And I’m using a carbon neutral web hosting service to house this blog. Here I will provide photos, my happenings, and other things I was never really comfortable enough to post on Facebook.

SO thank you for reading and following. I’ll do my best to keep myself entertained here, and hopefully you’ll find this fun too.