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I imagine a good number of people are like me and would like to close their Facebook account, but are afraid of losing that circle of friends and family that th

I imagine a good number of people are like me and would like to close their Facebook account, but are afraid of losing that circle of friends and family that they have no other easy way of contacting. A useful feature (albeit one that Facebook would never, ever implement, as it would facilitate people leaving their platform) would be to have closure page with a final statement or forwarding address, e.g.: "I've decided to close my Facebook account. You can still reach me at: myname@emailprovider.com"

SamWhited 7y ago
You still have Facebook now, no? What stops you from sending your email or phone number to anyone who needs it but doesn't already have it and then canceling it?
mathieuh 7y ago
You can continue to use messenger if you deactivate it. I used a Selenium script I found on here a few weeks ago to delete everything I’ve ever added to Facebook and then deactivated my account. I don’t appear if you search for me, and I doubt that deleting your entire account does anything different from deleting everything individually. It’s probably not deleted at all ever, knowing FaceBook.
maximente 7y ago
you could just close and not delete. it's very easy (too easy imo) to re-open a closed facebook account. or do you mean the people with whom you don't regularly contact but might one day? i've found this is sort of an unwillingness to close doors type thing, hanging on to things that cannot be hung on to (especially true of more vagabond types, travelers, movers etc. who have a lot of these connections in areas they don't live). the truly important people you can FB message with contact details, wait until they ack, then proceed.
triceratops 7y ago
There's always email, text, IM, phone, video call, meatspace/IRL conversations. I think the utility of FB is you can passively absorb updates from people without needing to contact them specifically. And send updates in the same way. But if you can't find the time/inclination/energy to keep in active contact with someone, no matter how infrequently, does a real relationship even exist with them?

SamWhited 7y ago

You still have Facebook now, no? What stops you from sending your email or phone number to anyone who needs it but doesn't already have it and then canceling it?

mathieuh 7y ago

You can continue to use messenger if you deactivate it. I used a Selenium script I found on here a few weeks ago to delete everything I’ve ever added to Facebook and then deactivated my account. I don’t appear if you search for me, and I doubt that deleting your entire account does anything different from deleting everything individually. It’s probably not deleted at all ever, knowing FaceBook.

maximente 7y ago

you could just close and not delete. it's very easy (too easy imo) to re-open a closed facebook account. or do you mean the people with whom you don't regularly contact but might one day? i've found this is sort of an unwillingness to close doors type thing, hanging on to things that cannot be hung on to (especially true of more vagabond types, travelers, movers etc. who have a lot of these connections in areas they don't live). the truly important people you can FB message with contact details, wait until they ack, then proceed.

triceratops 7y ago

There's always email, text, IM, phone, video call, meatspace/IRL conversations. I think the utility of FB is you can passively absorb updates from people without needing to contact them specifically. And send updates in the same way. But if you can't find the time/inclination/energy to keep in active contact with someone, no matter how infrequently, does a real relationship even exist with them?