Question of the Week
I feel that Facebook is bad for me and I want to delete my account. How do I do that?
— Facebook addict
Answer
Dear Facebookaholic,
There’s a small but growing trend of people quitting Facebook. Some are worried about their online privacy. Many find that using the social network depresses them. Yet others are worried that they spend way too many hours chatting or playing Candy Crash instead of spending face-to-face time with their family and real friends. Whatever the reason, leaving Facebook is not difficult.
Initially, you may want to deactivate your account. What does deactivation mean? When you deactivate your account, your timeline disappears immediately. Your friends will no longer be able to find your information, photos or old posts. Deactivation is reversible — all your information is still stored on Facebook’s servers. If indeed you want to deactivate your account, click on the account menu at the top right, select Settings, then Security at the left column, then click Deactivate your account. One caveat: if you administer any Facebook groups (or events), your admin status in those groups (or events) will not be automatically restored upon reactivation.
As long as you keep away from Facebook, your account will remain inactive. To reactivate it, simply log back into Facebook. That’s it - you are back in the trap, with all your status updates, photos, and old friends (unless they happen to “unfriend” you).
Deactivation can be a good way to test the waters and see if you can survive without Facebook. If you decide that that’s it - you are 100% sure - you can go the whole hog and permanently delete the account. This can be done by visiting www.facebook.com/help/delete_account. Before you do that, however, you might want to “liberate” your information that is stored on Facebook’s servers, including those unforgettable Pattaya photos, by downloading the entire archive of your account content including photos, wall posts, and more to your computer. To download the archive, click on the account menu at the top right, select Settings, find and click Download a copy of your Facebook data, and follow the instructions.
Many heavy Facebook users admit that even a 30-day “detox” period has tremendous benefits. Perhaps its worth giving it a try.
Afterword
ThimphuTech was the first technology blog in Bhutan. We started writing it in 2009, just as broadband and mobile internet started to take off. (Although internet in Bhutan was launched in 1999, it was either super-slow or super-expensive, and was only used by a selected few).
In the blog, we wrote about technology and food, but also about plenty of other stuff. The blog became popular and influential in Bhutan. A companion bi-weekly column -- Ask Boaz -- was published for many years in the Kuensel, Bhutan's national newspaper. (The complete Kuensel columns are available as an ebook, Blogging with Dragons).
We stopped updating the blog when we left Bhutan in 2014, but the information within the posts can still prove useful, and thus we decided to keep it online.
We thank all our readers.
Tashi Delek,
Boaz & Galit.
In the blog, we wrote about technology and food, but also about plenty of other stuff. The blog became popular and influential in Bhutan. A companion bi-weekly column -- Ask Boaz -- was published for many years in the Kuensel, Bhutan's national newspaper. (The complete Kuensel columns are available as an ebook, Blogging with Dragons).
We stopped updating the blog when we left Bhutan in 2014, but the information within the posts can still prove useful, and thus we decided to keep it online.
We thank all our readers.
Tashi Delek,
Boaz & Galit.
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