#DeleteFacebook Diary: The Long Divorce, Part Six

They say that the more time you spend in a relationship with somebody, the harder it is to part ways. In many ways, it's pretty much the same with Facebook.

Had I opened my account last month and wanted to leave, the departure would have been easy for both parties. But after 9 long years of everyday interactions and a state of complementarity (or symbiosis), it's really difficult to just grab your stuff and leave.

First of all, there's the issue of friends: I want to take them out by getting their e-mail addresses and phone numbers before I hit the "Delete Account" button. This is a task which takes a lot of time and energy, and as the December 25th deadline approaches I realize that I don't really have what it takes to make a proper exit.

Secondly, as mentioned in my previous entry of this diary, Facebook has began to backfire. Just like a crazy girlfriend who's attached to you and still needs you in her life, the social network is really trying to keep me. Now I receive daily e-mails about what my friends do (new pictures and comments), and if I open the website I notice that the notifications are all about what the others have done lately.

But there is also the darker and more questionable side of Facebook which involves using algorithms that scrutinize the content I posted and remove everything which infringes their policy: I've had my profile picture taken down because it included mentions of deleting the account (it wasn't explicitly presented as such, I simply received the lengthy terms of service to figure out the reason by myself), and a video which I posted more than 3 years ago had been removed because of the copyrighted background music (a legitimate reason in itself, which came at a surprisingly odd time).

Facebook is even more like a crazy and possessive girlfriend in terms of data. I've requested to download my profile data so I can leave without losing memories of my pictures throughout time or funny status messages, but it's taking very long to receive the files. It's like walking into your own apartment and trying to grab all of your precious possessions, but your ex-lover just won't let you take anything despite clear property claims. Allowing you to have your belongings is an act of capitulation in itself, and the time in between can be used to emotionally blackmail you.

Facebook knows all this, certainly has a long experience with people deleting their accounts, and makes use of every trick in the book to make you reconsider your option.

I've been manipulated, brainwashed, and data mined all these 9 years. In hindsight, I appreciate some of the conveniences I've benefited from, but it's time for me to move on and do something more useful and productive with my life. The plan is to delete Facebook on the 25th of December 2018, and I will try my best to stick to it regardless of the dirty tricks that the network uses to keep me.