I’ve decided to ditch Facebook. I will only share one of the multiple reasons for this, and that is simply that Facebook REALLY REALLY doesn’t want me to deactivate my account.
If you go click that ominous little ‘deactivate’ button, you are presented with a page showing various pictures that contain both you and people close to you on Facebook. For me, this turned out to be pictures showing me among groups of folks smiling for the camera, from events like family reunions and the like. Lots of hugs, lots of love. The pictures definitely made me feel warm inside. Each picture had a caption saying ‘(Insert name) will miss you!’, along with comments like “If you deactivate your account, your friends won’t be able to keep in touch with you.” This is of course blathering nonsense, to put it politely, as I will be meeting each of these people face-to-face in the next few weeks, the way human beings were made to interact.
The site then asks for you to select your reason for leaving, and provides last-minute advice about how this might not actually be a problem, so you should stay. Then you have to re-enter your password. Then you have to solve a CAPTCHA. Finally, your account is deactivated, although you are quickly reminded that you can re-activate it simply by logging in again, and everything will be as you left it. In other words, from the standpoint of being done with Facebook, deactivation is meaningless. I haven’t checked to see if deactivation means your profile gets taken down, and I have no idea what happens to my “friends” and relationship connections.
But why doesn’t Facebook want me to deactivate my account? Why resort to hoop-jumping and overt emotional manipulations? I would suggest that since Facebook is not a person capable of love and relationship, and that since I do not know anybody who operates Facebook, the only reason said operators want me around is to make money from me. I suppose such attempts at manipulation for profit are finally unavoidable in life, but I still resent them, and I will still avoid them when I can.
Like today. So long, Facebook.
The Gourd Reborn 