If Facebook were a person, would you really want to be friends with it?
YouTuber Matthias aka Matthew Frederick plans to permanently delete his Facebook page and thinks we should all join him. Matthias believes that many of Facebook’s recent updates are too personally invasive, such as Facebook’s new audio recognition system and Facebook’s murky history with the NSA.
Click “play” below, then read as our team weighs in on whether or not you should delete your Facebook. Our answers may shock you!
Before starting at FSC, I had taken a 1.5 year break from Facebook. It was the best year and a half of my life. Yes, I was still on Instagram. But I didn’t have all of the high school, hometown and college “friends” constantly knocking on my door and inviting me to learn about their lives, which I did not care to know about. I was, and still am, very selective about who I befriend on Instagram. I don’t personally post anything to Facebook because I feel strongly that the people I’m close with (the people in the need-to-know) are all caught up with what’s happening in my life. I understand and appreciate the value of Facebook for a business. But when a social platform starts infringing on my rights as a citizen I have an issue with that. I will continue to have a presence for the sake of my profession. But I will also continue to keep my posts to the bare minimum because that’s my style and I don’t need Facebook combing my life to find out information about me that they don’t need to know.
Okay, I’m kind of in love with this guy. Being a huge proponent of the fourth amendment, I completely admire Matthew Frederick’s stance. The new audio feature Facebook has enacted does freak me out. It clearly has the capability to track us at all times, but I wouldn’t go so far as to delete my Facebook account. There are times when deactivating seems enticing, but I love having it on the back burner. Facebook hasn’t burned the bridge with me yet, although it has definitely lost its novelty since I created my account in 2006.
Mattias’ video was super intense and incredibly annoying. Frankly, I couldn’t wait for it to be over. What makes it worse is that he raises a really valid point. If my career didn’t depend on people using Facebook, I might consider deleting my account as well. On top of the very sketchy privacy issues that Mattias discusses, Facebook is not my preferred platform when it comes to my personal social media accounts, so I don’t think I’d miss it much. And to Mattias’ point, if I had a friend that behaves like Facebook, I’d drop them like a bad habit.
However, one thing that Mattias is not right about is that Facebook is passé just because our moms are on it. Why is it OK to immediately assume our moms are uncool? I have fun interacting with my mom on Facebook, just like I’ve had fun introducing her to other social media networks. Sorry if your mom isn’t as awesome as mine, Mattias.
I’m honestly jealous of friends who have never created a Facebook account. (They’re rare, but they do exist.) I’ve gone through phases of self-debate over deleting my account, and have done purges of my friends list. I even went so far as deleting the main Facebook app on my phone (but I kept the app to maintain Pages), just because Facebook was becoming a time-suck and an emotional drain.The thing that has stopped me, is that because Facebook IS so ubiquitous, sometimes it’s the best or only way to get in touch with certain people or find out about events that are going on. However, I do not post much personal or private information to Facebook, and keep to a minimum how much I check my personal Facebook timeline. So if Facebook were a person, would I want to be friends with them? Not really, but they’re like that “bar friend” you tolerate, say hi to and are civil with when you run into them, but try to avoid interaction with as much as possible.
As much as I appreciate Matthew’s intentions on trying to preserve our rights as American citizens, deleting your Facebook page is not the answer. In fact deleting the most popular source of open speech seems rather counterproductive. And inconvenient. Where else am I going to find out who won the Miss USA pageant? Or get the latest Buzzfeed quiz? People turn to Facebook as a resource. Asking us to take away our voice in the largest social media platform — where we can take a stand on matters that are important to us, expose those who have wronged us and offer advice to those who need us — is a bit insulting. On another note, the NSA doesn’t need Facebook to read texts or listen to calls. They’ve been doing that long before the social media world took off. Whether it’s right or wrong, well, that’s the price we pay for freedom. And honestly, if the government wants to dig through my ever-so interesting conversations, have at it. They may get bored to death. But what do you have to hide, “Matthias”?