Cleaning Out Social Media

Sleepy morning and definitely a questionable pic! LOL 

It is with great irony that the morning I write this blog post, I opened up my Facebook page to see Facebook congratulating me on being a member for 10 years. WOW. I remember I joined mainly to try and facilitate my 20th class reunion back in Fall 2008. Now 10 years later, my 30th reunion is around the corner and I am beginning to promote that reunion as well. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Social media is definitely a double edged sword. I use Facebook at this point as a tool to promote my blog. I would not have as many readers if I didn't have it. My blog is personal, but I choose and select what I write about. But I find myself being more selective on what I post on my social media sites. I have begun limiting my personal info out there.


And now, we have the latest scandal of Facebook where Facebook allowed the company Cambridge Analytica to illegally obtain the data of 50 million users without their knowledge, I think it's especially and essentially prudent to begin limiting our personal data out in the public domain. With all of the passwords on Earth, we may not be able to avoid data breaches but remember, we ARE able to limit the information which we publicly post and share. We have gotten to a point of saturation where we share just a bit too much and I for one have started pulling back.

A friend stated to me that Facebook is "yourself on how you want the world to see you." Partially true I guess. I don't put up the bad days posts that much anymore. I post my best pics. People only want their best look out there. I get it, I do it too.  I don't complain about politics. I don't like putting up negativity in general. If I am having a bad day, I am more likely to deal with it off social media than broadcast it to the world.

If you go through my history, you will see that I generally post on a couple of subjects: the gym, my blog, my family, my cats or Lodge stuff where I bartend. I now go through my Facebook posts weekly and delete what I don't want "out there."

I post about vacations but usually not until after I get home. One should not post vacation pics until they get home unless you have a good safe network of friends online. It's just not safe to let the public know you are away for an extended period of time.

I was reading an online article on how one goes about downloading all your data/history from Facebook to see what you have accumulated or commented on over the years. I have been on Facebook since 2009 so I can only imagine my history. I am still going through editing and deleting stuff. I finally downloaded mine. 10 years of Facebook history took 25  minutes to download. And remember, I actively go back and delete crap!

Here is the link to do so if you are curious:
https://www.thrillist.com/tech/nation/how-to-download-facebook-profile-history

We now, for the first time in our collective histories, have a computerized record of everything we've ever done. Employers use it to see if we are "hire-able."  Credit agencies use it to see if we are "credit-worthy." The media uses it to see if the politicians running for office have made any unethical lapses of judgment in their lives. You and I use it just for memories' sake yet going through my history, there is stuff that I have posted that I now question my past judgment on.

People should start scheduling time in their lives to go through all of this online history, sort of a weekend to clean it all up. Take stock on what your past activities and what you have posted. Are the photos ethical? Is it something you would want a potential employer to see? Is it of questionable content?

Funny, a little embarrassing

Are there photos you are now embarrassed about which you weren't before? Should you be constantly posting pics of your nights out drinking? I mean it's one thing for a 20something to do it, and almost expected as a right of passage. BUT, if you are in your 40s and still posting beer pongs pics, maybe you need to reevaluate what you consider a good pic?

I have started going through my activity on all my social media sites as well. What did I post? Do I still feel the same way? Would those comments from 10 years ago get me in trouble today? We've all seen examples in the media how someone's comments or likes comes back to haunt them years later.

Who are you following? Maybe you thought it was funny to follow that controversial celebrity years ago but now, say that celebrity has become persona non grata in this world. Do you still want to be associated as following him or her?

One must also be cognizant of how your accounts are linked up. I was doing an audit of my Twitter feed and I did not realize that every song which I liked on my Soundcloud music account was being tracked by Twitter! I don't use Twitter that often but out of 1000 posts, about half are songs I liked on Soundcloud which I liked during my gym workouts.

The REAL annoying part is that you have to delete each post individually! That is standard for any social media website. The only way to get around this is to delete the entire account. Keep that in mind with each mindless post.

I've begun removing people I don't speak with anymore. I know who supports my blog and who does not. And if someone causes me stress every time I see them, then why am I "friends" with them on my social media? I see a lot of you do yearly purges of people on your social media accounts and I think this is a good thing. It can also be very cathartic.

However, one must remember that if you are friends with a person on Facebook and you delete them, you still may be friends with them on other forms of social media. I ended up removing someone on Facebook but then remembered I had to remove them from four other social media accounts. SMH. It definitely gets to be a bit ridiculous. Maybe my law enforcement friends have it right after all when they say they don't do social media?

I think it's a good rule of thumb that if you have doubts on posting something, don't do it or wait until the next day to see if you still want to post it. Don't do social media drunk. You will always regret it. Don't do social media while you are emotional. Once it's out there and someone takes a screen-shot of it, consider it permanently saved into the annals of history. Questionable photos are a no-no. Or post a photo and adjust the privacy setting to friends only! Don't feel you have to share everything with the world. The world is not your therapist ... just me, your bartender. 😉