With all the news about facebook recently I decided to do a “Data Download” of my content from there. People have reported all the terrible and invasive things they’ve found there, but my experience was a little different. There were no surprises other than a couple Likes that I don’t remember doing. Of course, this isn’t the really scary stuff about societal engineering and deep tracking, but it was no more or less than I expected from the process.
One thing I did note was that there wasn’t a lot there. The photos took up a few megs but I was able to review the rest of the text in a few minutes. I don’t post a lot directly to facebook and most of my online presence is in my blog or my tumblr – or, rarely, my twitter of Haiku’s.
With the talk about #deleteFacebook, I gave some thought to what that would mean to me. I’d still write in my blog and twitter and still post my art on tumblr, but I’ve have to do more with my site to get what I create out into the world – depending on how important I find that to be.
I’d miss the connections I have with my friends and family, but I wouldn’t miss the ads and politics. Most of the time I’m on Facebook I feel like I’m reading People magazine – pretty pictures, but not very filling.
So, for now, I’m still going to be inherently cautious about what I post on Facebook – and more cautious believing what I see there.