I Deleted My Facebook Account

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I deleted my Facebook account on July 4 because Mike Elgan’s declaration of independence from Facebook inspired me. However, even if many others delete their accounts now, Facebook won’t likely notice any fluctuations in the noise of a rounding error.

Why?

Why did I delete my account? I’m not against tech giants. For example, I feel comfortable with Google and use Amazon. But Facebook repeatedly crossed every possible line to such an extent it’s difficult to see any good faith or willingness to change.

It’s easy for me to delete my account because I never used Facebook much. Ahead of deleting the account I downloaded my Facebook data. It turns out I never used it much. Over the 4-5 years I have been active on the platform I generated 4.1 MB worth of data. By comparison I have used Google+ daily since day one for 8 years until it was shut down and I downloaded around 1.7 GB of data.

Deleting their accounts may be more difficult for others who have many contacts and use the platform extensively. As a self-published indie author it’s going to be challenging for me to do without one of the major advertising and promotion platforms authors rely on.

So be it. I’m embracing life without Facebook. Even in business.

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