Freedom from Facebook

I did it. I no longer have an account on Facebook. I said I would delete it (see blogpost) and I have.

Originally, I planned to delete Fb some time in January. I would transfer photos and make my farewells over Christmas break. I had no idea how busy I would be so I thought I’d give myself the month of January. I started transferring some photo albums, then realised what a pain it was to transfer 100s of albums. I also spent the entire month transferring contact details from my Fb friends, which meant going through 700+ contacts to weed out the ones who weren’t my friends.

I realised by the last few days of January that I was running out of time. I didn’t want to have people think I was bluffing or to be discouraged from deleting my account. I refused to deactivate because I would only go back to it within a week or a month. I had to leave. It was time for change. So I announced that I would delete everything on Friday, 1 February.

That Friday night, however, as I was trying to download my Fb archive, I realised that it wouldn’t take 1 hour to download 6.5 years (member since 2006) worth of history from Fb. The next morning, I received an email from Fb, only to be told that my download request had been unsuccessful. I sent a million requests that Saturday but it wasn’t until that evening, just before bed, that my request went through. On Sunday, I downloaded my archive (967.7 MB) and requested Fb deletion. My account is currently deactivated but it will be permanently deleted by Sunday, 17 Feb. For your information, Fb gives you 14 days to decide if you’re 100% certain you want to leave. Well, I am certain.

My next task is to upload all my photos. I’m also, quite sadly, 3 years behind on some albums! :S

Last words: FREEDOM!