Purging Social Networks

Being bitten by the “geek” bug has its side effects, one of them being an obsession with registering for every single social networking site, an affliction of mine for nearly six-months. In real life, I don’t like clutter so why would I do the opposite in my virtual life? I don’t know too, which is why I purged myself of the different social networking sites.

Lately, there’s been so much discussion on ownership of personal data, that is your personal information that you input into these social networking sites and not just your name, email and date of birth; but your interactions and choices. Robert Scoble’s data was erased completely from Facebook sparking the “data wars,” have you tried to erase yourself from these sites? You may be surprised to learn that it’s a difficult process, and in my quest to purge myself from certain social networks, it’s just what I found out.

Now, my choices for purging these sites have nothing to do with the sites themselves and this is in no way a user review, rather it’s a personal ridding of clutter and these just so happened to fall into the category of “not for me at this time.”

EASY TO CANCEL

The following sites were relatively easy to cancel or delete my account, meaning there was a link in plain view that read either cancel, delete or deactivate account:

1. 43 Things
2. Bebo
3. Brabblr
4. ClaimID (Registered new account with own name.)
5. Dandelife
6. Digg (Registered new account with own name.)
7. Demonoid (This site was actually shut down for legal purposes. Personal rule, no more torrent sites.)
8. Fairtilizer
9. Friendster (I realized that I wasn’t Filipino!)
10. I Want Sandy (Not anymore.)
11. Live Journal
12. Natuba
13. Plaxo
14. Ryze
15. SocialURL
16. Stixy
17. Tiinker
18. Tribe
19. Vox

INCONVENIENTLY EASY

These sites were easy to remove myself from too, but it required an email which I found to be rather inconvenient *especially since there was no follow-up to confirm removal:

1. MeVu
2. Mixable*
3. Moola*
4. MyVox*
5. Scrybe
6. Virb
7. Widgetbox

INCONVENIENTLY STUCK

This next list required an email to be sent to cancel my account, but even after the required 24-hours, my account is still active which means my data appears to be permanently stuck!

1. Behance
2. Blogrush
3. Bubbletop
4. Buzznet
5. Faves
6. My Life Brand
7. Ditto
8. Wixi
9. Youswop

INCONVENIENTLY PURGED

I then discovered that there were accounts that were either discontinued without my knowledge or the site itself was discontinued without my knowledge. I can only guess it was inconveniently purged.

1. Lijit
2. MeeVee
3. Tha Tracker
4. Tubes
5. Woho

INCONVENIENTLY PERMANENT

These sites do not have an option to cancel your account, I know I felt the same way too, but what can I do? I’m inconveniently a permanent member.

1. ICQ – Instead of canceling your account, delete your information and set it to private.
2. Invite Trader – Requested a forgotten password, still haven’t received an email.
3. Kaneva – Policy is to set account to be viewed by only me.
4. Y! Mash – Close yahoo email account and this will delete all accounts attached.

It took me nearly 12-consecutive hours to go through each account more than I probably spent on these sites to begin with, but I did find value in it all. I am not so worried about my data being stuck or permanent or having the possibility that I’m only perceived to have been deleted because I didn’t input anything that was false. Will I have to worry in the future if these sites will come back and haunt me? Time can only tell.

The entire process has reminded me about my obsessive compulsive behavior and the importance of balance not just in real life but virtually as well. Don’t think that by purging these 44 sites I have curbed my social networking appetite, I will share with you the list of sites that survived the purge at a later time.