Facebook Will Harass You Mercilessly if You Try to Break Up
Facebook Will Harass You Mercilessly if You Try to Break
Up
BY PHIL BAKER JUNE 19, 2018
Breaking up with Facebook is apparently as difficult as
breaking up with a bad boyfriend or girlfriend who won’t accept your decision.
That’s the experience Henry Grabar of Slate had when he stopped signing on. He
stopped logging in on June 6 and stayed off Facebook for ten days. He had been
a member for over ten years and this was the longest period he had remained off
the social network. But Facebook didn’t leave him alone. He received 17 email
messages in a span of nine days urging him to return.
Grabar is not alone in trying to wean himself off
Facebook for various reasons. Some do it because they realize it can be a waste
of time, while others do it because of the company's inability to protect (or
lack of interest in protecting) its members' personal data. The company has
mistakenly released data of nearly 100 million of its members and friends of
members to third parties, and many of them have used the data for illicit
purposes. While Facebook says they are not losing members, some recent
statistics paint a different story. According to a Pew study, only 51 percent
of U.S. teenagers use the service now, down from 71 percent in 2015. This was
the first time the numbers have fallen.
Facebook Is Listening to You
Grabar found that the messages he received actually
reinforced his decision to stay off the platform. On one day he received two
emails telling him a distant friend had posted a new photo. On another day he
received a message telling him that 88 people liked a post in a group he
belonged to. And on another day he received an email telling him there was a
post to his college alumni group.
A few days later he was notified in an email that a few
dozen members of a group he belonged to had commented about a news article. The
email notices followed along these lines and included more messages about
Facebook friends adding new photos or commenting on other posts, and even
emailing him reminders to "see what people are talking about in your
group." Then he received an email in the middle of the night asking, “You
up? How about a little late-night content from a guy on your soccer team who is
the little brother of your colleague’s boyfriend?”
The following day there was an email saying, “5 people
like a post in your group.” And another: “603 people like a photo in your
group.” It continued much like this over the ten days he was off.
Now you’d think this annoyance would cement his decision
to stay off, but, no, the writer decided he was missing too much and signed
back on to Facebook.
"Two people. Like a post. In a group. This was
probably the least inviting email of all, but it also happened to be the last
one," he wrote. "Later that day I was back on my old computer … and
back, with a quick Command-T, F, enter, on Facebook."
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