Deactivated

I deactivated my facebook account.
It was so easy!
At least, I say it was easy.  I had no doubts that it was the right thing to do.  I'm so tired of electronic communication and I was just getting entirely too distracted by it every time I got a few hours near the internet.  So that part was easy.

The actual process of deactivation?  Not so much.

Have you ever tried to deactivate your account?

Let me explain how it works.  First of all, I should just note that, if you for any reason want to delete your account, you actually have to submit a request to do so and who knows what happens with that.  I just decided to deactivate.  Once I chose that option, it gave me nine different possible reasons that a body might want to deactivate their facebook and I was required to choose one.  So I chose one and clicked the "Deactivate" button.

Then it had a banner across the top of the screen that read "Are you sure you want to deactivate your account?" and showed me five different photos randomly generated from my profile (all of which were low quality and dark) and chose a person at random out of each photo and said "So-and-so will miss you." above each photo.  Ironically, all but one of those were people I see at least once a week anyway and they were all people I keep in touch with via things other than facebook.  So I said yes, I was sure.

Then it had me confirm my password.

Then it had me do one of those little word-verification things.  (By the way, I have this irrational fear of getting those things wrong.  Somehow I feel like the world will fall apart if I ever make one little mistake in them.  I literally am afraid that the FBI or something will come barging through my door and arrest me if I get one wrong.  I know.  I'm weird.)  And I got it right!

Then it took me to the login screen with my username typed in and ready to go just in case I had already changed my mind about this whole foolish deactivating the account idea.  I "x"ed out of the window.

Ridiculous.  Utterly ridiculous.

Dear Facebook,
Although I chose the "This is temporary - I'll come back" option, I may never return to you.  No website should be as utterly dependent and needy as you are.  I am happy to be free.

Okay, so that was a joke, but really?  I did think it was pretty silly.