Becoming Less Transparent On Facebook

Facebook Cleanup Phase 2. 

A few days ago, on my Facebook profile (About page), I deleted about 100 Likes that I didn't recall clicking Like on. I was not opposed to the topics, activities, products, or organizations. I just don't support them, or they post content that I'm no longer interested in, or they don't post anything and may be abandoned FB pages.

Tonight, I deleted 100 more, almost all the rest of my Likes. I've dwindled down my Likes list to just a few entities that I really care about and want to get updates on.

Some people want to reveal who they are by clicking on things they like, abstract ideas like Organic Gardening or Philosophy or Astrophysics.

They also display on their About pages all their family members, past employers, places where they've lived, schools they attended, and the music, movies, TV shows, sports, games, books, and events they like. They apparently want to "be known" and be transparent about their interests.

I see no point to this. The entities that preach to you "be transparent" are themselves not transparent, especially about why they want you to be transparent. Those who most vehemently want you to submit to the "privacy is dead" mantra are stalkers, predators, identity thieves, "Big Data" mongers, advertisers, and surveillance agencies.

I reveal my basic data about myself and share my insights, photos of places around town, links to interesting information, and food I'm eating. That's about it. The rest of my life and interests are basically boring or of no relevance to what I want to accomplish on Facebook -- which is to help, amuse, inspire, and educate people.

I am also blocking people who follow my status updates, but I don't know them personally. I suggest you consider doing the same.

Pin It