Why and How You Should Filter Your Social Media Presence
I know social media is enjoyable and I’m not going to be the one saying “simply, just delete your accounts”. I don’t want to delete my accounts and I am not afraid to admit that I like the love I receive online, and I like sharing achievements, thoughts and flattering photos (just the flattering ones, of course). But there were several incidents this week that made me re-think my opinions.
Why:
It all started with my colleague who, during a casual lunch conversation, preached to follow him and delete my social media accounts. I won’t say his name, because obviously the man appreciates his privacy ;). We continued discussing the subject, talking about how frightening it could be, having your information in the wrong hands.
So yes, my social media accounts are private(ish) but I still give SO MANY PEOPLE information that they don’t need to be exposed to. When the wrong person targets me, I’d rather make it harder for him to know where I like to drink my coffee or when I usually leave my house.
One day, I got a message on Instagram from a guy I don’t know but I approved his following request because he looked nice and we had friends in common. By the way, our mutual friends could have confirmed the friend request even without knowing the person — which gives rise to a problem too.
A few days ago, I got a DM (direct message) on Instagram. It was a wooing message from this guy — long, detailed and complimenting in a way I wasn’t used to (the complete opposite of a generic “hey, u cute”).
I won’t get into details, I’ll just share that he said he got to my profile through my blog, decided to get to know me, and really liked both what he saw and read. Then he started to count what he liked and how we are alike. I was so flattered — he complimented me on all the things that are important to me, that I desire to be appreciated for. But then it hit me — THIS STRANGER KNOWS SO MUCH ABOUT ME! And not with any impressive hacking abilities, just by the information I voluntarily supplied!
Let me be clear: In this case — we do have friends in common and I’m sure he is a great normal guy. He is not the problem — some will say that his gesture was very brave and romantic. The problem is me — I let people into my life. It could have been someone else. It could have been a sociopath who can easily (too easily) study what I love, and imitate those characteristics. Doesn’t that scare you!?
And now for the last straw: This week I went to a government office and got to the part where I need, for security purposes, to choose two questions from a suggested list and provide my answers. I suddenly realized that there are plenty of people out there who can answer my selected questions. PLENTY! This is the most direct conclusion that social media harm your privacy and security!
Besides security:
I think it is necessary to mention other important reasons to change your social media usage:
- So your past won’t hunt you: You should delete past posts from social media. Why? First of all — because it is embarrassing. Why would you want to leave those pictures with the braces and the acne?! I just finished filtering my Facebook profile, and I ran into some really stupid posts. We think we are so cool at 16…
And from a more serious perspective: Things from the past do not represent the person you are today. A while ago there was this epidemic of crucifying YouTubers who had offensive posts on social media from 10 years ago. Just by revisiting old TV shows it is pretty obvious that things that were acceptable in the past are not welcome today.
On this subject, during an interview, P!nk was asked what she thinks about the backlash Miley Cyrus got for her 2013 VMA performance. I won’t get into it, it is not relevant here, I’m mentioning it because there was one sentence that she said and stuck with me:
“Well, I am fortunate because I got to do most of my screwing up before anyone knew who I was. Had I been on tape when I was 14? Role model? Never.”
- So you will lower the time you spend online: Filtering the data you upload to social media will make you upload less frequently, which makes you spend less time online because you won’t be constantly checking if you got more likes. Lowering the time you spend online has many advantages:
— It gives you more time for things that matter (in contrast to those pointless news feed scrollings).
— It saves your vision because staring at close screens (laptops, phones) for a long period of time harms your eyes.
— It will diminish your loneliness. Research shows that our generation has more ‘friends’ but feels more lonely. Online relationships do not replace real live ones.
How:
For those of you who didn’t know, Facebook and Instagram give you full access to your data.
The first step in our cleaning is to save everything. Separate between the desire to save old memories and the exposure social media gives.
Download all your sweet memories and save them privately. I recommend saving them on the cloud (Google Drive, One drive, ..) and not just locally on your computer.
Now, let’s separate it to Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter:
Instagram:
Before we start, I’ll show you what the zip file contains:
Two things worth mentioning:
- The folder doesn’t contain your picture descriptions. For some of you it may not be a big deal, but for those of you that the picture description is part of the memory you want to keep — I recommend creating a word file that contains your text and a tiny screenshot of the picture it was attached to.
2. Comments in Hebrew (maybe other languages as well) won’t show properly in the JSON files! So find another way to save those manually if they are important to you (screenshots, Word file).
How do I get my Instagram data:
Go to Edit Profile -> Privacy and Security -> on Data Download section click on Request Download. They will ask you to enter your password and then they will send you an email when the file will be ready.
How do I delete my Instagram data:
Unfortunately, you will have to do it manually, one by one. I decided to leave the pictures that I REALLY like, and the ones that are still pretty recent (from the last 12 months). It’s harder to delete the new ones because you are still excited about them.
I also deleted my Instagram highlights. I like posting Instagram stories, and I love rewatching them — But I prefer enjoying them by myself.
The last thing I did was changing the profile description. I decided not to give away my hobbies and interests that easily.
I still need to block non-relevant followers. Social media is a great tool to keep in touch with friends, but there are people following you who are not your friends anymore (and it’s fine, that’s life). It’s like taking the keys back from someone who doesn't need them anymore. There is no advantage in leaving them on the following list.
Facebook:
Maybe it is just me, but on Facebook, there is much more information. I opened my Facebook account in 2008, so a lot of data was collected.
On the other hand — there is a lot of unimportant data that you can (and should) delete without any regret.
How do I get my Facebook data:
Click on the arrow on the top-right of the page -> Settings -> Your Facebook Information -> Download your information.
From this stage it is pretty similar to the Instagram process — you enter your password and then you’ll get an email with a link to download a zip file of your data. The first step is to save it in a safe place — I recommend using personal cloud storage (Google Drive, One Drive,..).
How do I delete my Facebook data:
This part is going to take a while. I recommend dividing it into stages.
We’ll start by editing the profile intro. I used to have my workplace, home city, high school, and university. I agree that this information is not confidential (you can also easily find it on my LinkedIn profile), but our mantra here is to not give people the information they don’t need.
We’ll continue with deleting all past Profile pictures and cover photos. Leave only the last one (Like it is on Instagram) or just the very few you absolutely love. I left 4 profile pictures, I’m human too.
The next stage is deleting old posts. There are two types of posts: the ones you created/are on your profile (and can delete), and the ones that you where tagged on (and you can only hide). Hiding is good enough. Sure, the photos still remain apparent, but are harder to link to you — and that’s a good thing.
There are three ways to delete Facebook posts, I’ll order them by the amount of time they take:
- Social Book Post Manager Chrome extension: You just enter the date and it will delete EVERYTHING for you. It is irreversible, so there is no room for mistakes here. I DO NOT recommend it.
- Posts manager: If you decide to delete posts through “manage posts”, You will be able to delete (or hide) them in chunks of 50. This is the way I recommend. You will see exactly what you delete, and you will see, along the way, all the stupid embarrassing posts you wrote and it will motivate you to keep going ;)
- Activity log: This is where you delete posts one by one. If you have a Facebook account for more then a decade — this could take a while. I do not recommend this method.
What is the method?
A reasonable goal is to leave just the last 2–3 years. I think the best way to do so is to click on “Manage posts”, and then to filter “Posted By: You”, and then go from the earlier year and move forward.
When you finish that step — go again to the first year — but this time look at the posts that were posted by Anyone.
Twitter:
I personally haven’t cleaned this one because I opened my twitter account only a couple of months ago, but here is how you do it:
Click on the delete link below each post to remove it from your timeline. The advanced search option is a surefire way to find and delete old tweets, but you will need to remove them one by one. To bulk delete or remove selected posts, use the apps.
A service like Tweet Delete, which plugs into your Twitter account and goes to town. Tweet Delete is free and easy but incomplete — it will only rid the world of your 3,200 most recent tweets.
For more information, click here.
To Conclude:
I don’t think you should delete your social media accounts. Social media is useful and fun. Furthermore, there is something suspicious about people without social media, mainly because it is so rare.
You should use your social media smartly. You should be aware that sharing online is equal to telling that information to a complete stranger. Think of the pros and cons of every post. I deleted 92% of my Instagram photos, but I keep my Medium publications online. I find the value of my publications much higher than the price of the exposure, but it is not the same with Instagram photos.
You should delete what is not relevant anymore. Separate between wanting to keep memories and online posting. Don’t fall in the trap of the convenience of having a social media profile.
Keep capturing the moments! You don’t have to stop showing off, just control the audience. Have your data on hand for when you want to show something. Show it on your phone, or send it on WhatsApp.
I’ll finish with a nice quote I liked:
The internet is written in pen, not pencil — think before you post.
I hope you enjoyed reading this article and found it useful. I would love to hear your thoughts, here in the comments or in a private message:
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ifat-neumann
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Email: cupofcodebyifat@gmail.com
