Amid all of this controversy about Facebook’s systemic mishandling of user data, it’s worthwhile remembering that things weren’t always this way: back in the day, Mark Zuckerberg personally oversaw each and every user complaint.
And instead of acknowledging genuine concerns to the media, he apparently just wondered why people would want to leave Facebook at all.
David Singerman, an assistant professor of History and American Studies at the University of Virginia, took to Twitter to share a telling anecdote about the Facebook of yore, and his attempt to distance himself from the nascent social media platform.
Explaining that he was part of the site’s initial expansion to American universities in the mid-2000s, Singerman said he quickly realised Facebook would consume too much of his time (what’s changed, really?).
But he says his attempt to extricate himself from Zuckerberg’s brainchild elicited a telling response from the man himself.
Which, in retrospect, is baffling, because there was barely anything to *do* on Facebook in spring 2004. I don’t think there were photos or walls or messages. I think you just kind of messed around with your profile and poked other people. But it was already addictive.
— David Singerman (@singsingsolo) March 22, 2018
And after a week I realized Facebook was going to demolish my academic grades if I kept it up. So I decided to delete my account. I looked around everywhere in Settings and Account and Profile, and couldn’t find a “delete your account” option anywhere.
— David Singerman (@singsingsolo) March 22, 2018
At this point Facebook still said “A Mark Zuckerberg Production” at the bottom of every page. If you clicked, you’d send Mark an email. So that’s what I did. I wrote something like “Hi Mark, I’d like to delete my account, but can’t find the option anywhere. Can you help me out?”
— David Singerman (@singsingsolo) March 22, 2018
And Zuckerberg wrote me back. I wish I had saved, printed, and framed this email. He said, “There’s no option to delete your account. Why would you want to do that? It never crossed my mind that someone would want to.” Words to that effect.
— David Singerman (@singsingsolo) March 22, 2018
Well, I used to think this story was funny. Now it’s mostly sad. The end.
— David Singerman (@singsingsolo) March 22, 2018
Singerman even went as far to say the response indicated he may have been the very first person to attempt a disconnect from the service.
On reflection, Zuckerberg’s response makes me think that I was the first person to ever try to quit Facebook. https://t.co/uKCYuovfub
— David Singerman (@singsingsolo) March 22, 2018
The story speaks to a specific all-conquering culture among Facebook’s top brass, which has been criticised by detractors who want to disconnect from the service in 2018.
Fully extricating oneself from the social media platform remains an arduous process; even then, it is incredibly likely the data extracted from 50 million user accounts will remain in the hands of third parties even if those users choose to close their Facebook accounts.
For now, we can look back at stories like this, and wonder if we could have seen Facebook’s potential for disaster before it occurred.
