Phew, Just in Time

I guess I got lucky when I suspended FB a little over a week ago. (I'm not arrogant enough to say I'm prescient.) Now, it has come out that pretty much everyone has been being heavily mined for personal data, to put it mildly. Privacy is a joke at Facebook.

So, yesterday, my husband and I both DELETED our FB accounts. That's different than suspending it. They try to make you keep the door open, so that, in a moment of remorse, you return to the fold to check and see what's going on, terrified at the prospect of missing anything. (My friendly acquaintance got a new rug! Who cares?") to see if you've missed anything.  FOMO has completely fueled FB. We're so afraid of missing something, but who wants to stare at a screen all day if you can go outside?

Anyway, it's done for good now. I know that I'm saying aloha to my FB friends--but I'm keeping the real ones in person, or via text or phone, so it's not a great loss. The ones I actually have a relationship with know how to find me, and vice-versa.

And there are other ways to drum up business for my work. I have had exactly zero referrals from using FB to promote my business. It's just not the right avenue for what I do.

Fortunately, my husband, who is a total geek, is going to show me how to beef up my privacy on Google, among other things. I've been really naive.

And look, we all know that there is no such thing as privacy on the Web. But we can at least attempt to create some boundaries where we can, right?

I've watched so much "Black Mirror", that I may sound anti-tech at this point. My daughter accused me of this very thing last night. But I'm not anti-tech. I just don't feel like giving my personal data to companies that want to sell me more shit, or influence my political or personal decisions. I'm already susceptible enough to others' opinions anyway; I don't need the whole freaking InterWEB up my ass, tracking every purchase, knowing what lotion I use, where I wear my pants, where I went to school. Yikes.

I feel really liberated, actually. And now, I won't have to explain ad nauseum to others why I am off FB. I can just say, I'm not interested in a company that does shit like that. Full stop.