Facebook is under fire in light of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which it was revealed that the analytics organisation used data from millions of Facebook profiles to predict and try to influence decisions in the 2016 US election.
In response to allegations of a data breach, the Delete Facebook movement was born 鈥� and has since been gathering momentum, both online and off. Countless articles have been published offering instruction on how to do it. The Turner prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller took to the streets of London, handing out thousands of posters urging users to delete away. The movement even secured the support of Whatsapp co-founder Brian Acton, who took to Twitter, announcing 鈥淚t is time. #deletefacebook鈥�, using the hashtag currently returning waves of supportive tweets. A Facebook exodus seems to be afoot.
And yet, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has told The New York Times he has not seen a 鈥� deleting their accounts in the wake of the scandal. Despite what we have discovered about the social networking conglomerate: that it failed to alert users to the data breach; that it allowed data to be gathered via something so seemingly benign as an online personality test 鈥� we still seem unwilling to finally click delete. Why?
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Facebook currently has 2.13 billion active users. In 2016, the company reported that on average, its users spend on Facebook and its Instagram and Messenger apps. That is nearly one-third of the global population, spending around a 16th of their waking hours engaging with Facebook and its apps. What鈥檚 more, the company is doing everything in its power to capture more of our time and attention, to make Facebook as addictive as possible. Therein lies Delete Facebook鈥檚 biggest problem.
Compulsive connection
Facebook鈥檚 founding-president Sean Parker has previously made is all but written in the network鈥檚 DNA. 鈥淭he thought process鈥� was all about 鈥楬ow do we consume as much of your time and attention as possible?鈥�,鈥� Parker told news site Axios. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a social-validation feedback loop鈥� you鈥檙e exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology.鈥�
Much has also been made of the gamification of Facebook, taking principles and elements from game-playing, in order to get us to compulsively, and even addictively, engage with the platform. Experimental psychologist Andrew Przybylski recognised the concept of FoMo (or fear of missing out) 鈥� an anxiety that something interesting or exciting is happening elsewhere 鈥� , writing about the 鈥渄esire to stay continually connected with what others are doing鈥�.
Beyond this, plenty has been said about the simple logistics of permanently deleting your account, which requires labyrinthian navigation. The option is not located in the 鈥渟ettings鈥� menu, rather it is accessed through a separate link. A habit is tougher to kick if the exit route is hard to find.
Facebook has become instrumental to our lives in countless ways: it鈥檚 where we organise our birthday celebrations, how we solicit recommendations for a reliable plumber. It鈥檚 hard to imagine what life might be like without it. As and others have also pointed out, this is an act many of us cannot afford 鈥� those with small businesses, for example.
If we cannot bring ourselves to make the leap to go ahead and delete Facebook, that is perhaps more troubling than the data scandal itself.
