After Losing My Facebook Account Used for Twelve Years

Note: This post is translated by AI. If you find any unnatural phrasing or errors, please feel free to contact me via email or other channels. Your feedback is appreciated!

Preface

Every accident allows me to break away from the habitual state, look at the present with a relatively detached state, and realize what aspects of the current state I am unsatisfied or satisfied with. Like losing my phone abroad before, and this time my Facebook being suspended, both made me think a lot.

Meta's Warningless Suspension

On 2024/12/27, my Facebook was logged out, showing this screen:

Just like that, no email sent to my account email, no email sent to my mailbox, and no explanation of which rule was violated. The account I used for more than ten years was suspended just like that.

Facebook's suspension is very tough:

The account completely disappeared, cannot be searched, original friends can no longer find my account and related information
Posted articles and photos all disappeared
Articles and photos tagged will not have my account
The most serious thing is some chat records, even the message text I sent in the chat room will disappear. Friends and people in the group can no longer know what we talked about in the past

I don't know the account ytmichael_enponomarev.83ererls. My IG and FB are not linked either, so I speculate this is a scam account. Don't know why it was linked to my FB account, and caused me to be suspended together.

And Facebook directly started counting down 180 days asking to prove innocence. When this article is published, only 172 days are left.

In the case of unable to log in to that IG account, the official didn't provide me with any means to recover. Have tried emailing appeals@fb.com, but heard it's useless.

Found another method is to send a physical letter to the US, will try later.

What Did I Lose After Losing My Facebook Account?

Facebook has a "Download File" button, but an error occurred, so probably no backup available.

I lost all past posts, photos, chat history, and groups.

My photos from elementary and junior high school were only on Facebook. Senior high school ones were on IG. Only in university did I have the concept of managing albums and backing up photos myself. The earliest in my backup photos is 2016/04, so basically lost photos before that. Can't reminisce photos from elementary and junior high school.

But compared to photos and articles from such a long time ago, the most regrettable is "connection".

There are many "weak ties" on Facebook. Former teachers, old friends and foreign friends all contacted via messenger. Even if re-register an account, it is difficult to find them back one by one. Like I met people from different countries when traveling in Japan. Honestly, I can't really spell their full names. Because having friends can search them. Must won't be able to find them after re-registering account.

Chat history is also quite regrettable. There are many people who slowly lost contact. Occasionally thinking of them would go see chat content from when we were close. Re-experiencing that time and space and us back then through those dialogues and texts. Now these are all gone.

Messages I sent will become like this (the gray background of the text box is not edited):

There is also a silver lining in misfortune that I don't have many services bound to Facebook login.

Comparison with IG Suspension Three Years Ago

Actually, on 2021/05/05, my IG account was also suspended without warning once.

At that time was still in a state of heavy addiction to IG. Unable to use IG had a great impact on me. Friends I mainly interacted with and life records were all on it.

Wrote at that time:

"This incident is a warning, letting me know that I should seek a healthier interaction mode with social media, like why use it etc. And in the situation where the official way of handling things is so not OK, how to let myself master more initiative, unlike this time having such strong sense of powerlessness. Current thought is important memories put on IG should at least have own backup. Not all but some that would be sad if lost can be backed up; friends hoping to keep in touch might also record."

After that, I did slowly master the distance from social media. The sense of powerlessness of account suddenly disappearing is still there, but I am not so panicked this time.

I can confirm that I can still contact important friends this time. And compared to managing a large amount but not profound relationships on social media, I also started to pay more attention to maintaining a few people I really value. This is also my lesson for 2024, to weed out the wicked and keep the pure in relationships.

At the same time, I also recognized more clearly what kind of people I want to get along with. In the fields I like (software development, writing, JPop, other issues...), can also find like-minded people. I feel this is enough at this stage.

It is a pity that I didn't learn a lesson on information backup. I didn't realize FB has so many things to backup. FB being suspended this time still caught me off guard.

I wonder if everyone has seen "Coco"?

This movie was released by Pixar in 2017, set against the background of Mexico's "Day of the Dead", telling a little boy who was not allowed to play music accidentally traveled to the world of the dead during this period, seeking help from musician ancestors in the world of the dead to return to the real world.

I really like this movie's interpretation of death: "The real death is that no one in the world remembers you anymore."

I have a feeling that leaving social media means being forgotten.

There is a group that meets irregularly (that chat room in the screenshot above). I was suspended a few days before a gathering happened. But a friend found why I didn't speak at all, then found I was not in the chat room, and words I said in the past also disappeared. Traces of my existence completely disappeared. He then hurriedly messaged my IG asking if my Facebook account disappeared.

Facebook's suspension method makes people disappear unknowingly, might not even notice in chat rooms.

Some friends use Facebook to organize events. If can't find my account, might miss inviting. If no one thinks of me, I won't receive notification.

This feeling of being disappeared and forgotten scares me.

This is another worry after being suspended.

Although Facebook is no longer the main platform, seeing some Facebook posts want to reply, or finding I can't when looking for someone to talk to on messenger, still have a feeling of being silenced.

Ironically, I can only use Meta's IG to find friends who used to contact via messenger.

Regarding this point, I don't have much thought yet. Maybe we have entered an era where we can't live without social media. If really want to say something, even if account is banned, can only quickly create another account back (or should prepare backup account usually). Efficiency of spreading information on social media with certain traffic is really much more effective than other methods.

Next Step

No longer trust social media to manage my content and account well. After all, have been deleted by Meta without warning twice (IG and Facebook once each).

But Taiwan's mainstream social media are Meta. And Twitter under Elon Musk's operation is not liked either. Hope Bluesky can rise.

Currently thinking of can start doing these:

Ensure Data Autonomy: Backup Text, Photos and Important Contacts

Given distrust of official, all content must be managed by myself, keep own digital footprint. I agree very much with Obsidian author's concept [File Over App] (https://stephango.com/file-over-app) regarding this part.

Past content saved using official backup function first. Found IG and Twitter's backup functions are actually okay. Will get a compressed file. Opening it will see a bunch of files, but there is an HTML entrance. Clicking it will be a list to browse various contents. (IG has start_here.html, Twitter is Your archive.html)

Try to write text in note software first, then extract from note software to post on social media, just like photos will be taken first, then select photos from album. (Current idea is casually record in Heptabase Journal)

Album uses Google Photos and additionally uses external hard drive for backup.

Establish Personal Relationship Management system. This title seems cool, but actually just regularly record who are important people around and want to keep in touch. Did organize once with Notion three years ago. Try Heptabase this time.

Actively Manage Information Sources

Shift from social feeds to RSS feed, newsletter, personal website, official blog, Discord Server and specific groups.

Last year saw Ya-Xuan sharing recommended websites (Personal Website List) and information sources. Want to follow suit to organize!

Mainly used for:

Promotion, publicity
Soliciting opinions, asking things
Finding interest echo chamber (software development, writing, Japan, social issues, life feelings...)
Updating current situation with friends

Avoid:

Subconsciously killing time when bored
Talking past each other with people whose cognition is too different and don't want to understand
Seeking social validation

Focus on Building Small and Close Communities

Now thought of an approach is when have things want to share, not just posting on social media, but focus on finding some groups or communities to share directly with them.

Groups I currently have:

Brandon Sanderson's Discord group
milet's line group
Groups of junior high, university, former colleagues and former dance club best friends
Two writing groups

I want to focus on cultivating these communities, not just a single social media. Every time posting on social media feeling a bit boring when no response. And I increasingly found social media can't help me find too many echo chambers, nor can continue to cultivated certain connections deeply. Occasionally not using algorithm starts pushing randomly or lowering reach. And account might be banned by official (Facebook tragedy). Better find communities love early, communicate, share and support each other directly and closely inside.

Conclusion

Losing a Facebook makes me feel disappeared, making me feel might be too dependent on social media. I no longer want to pursue a lot of weak ties and numbers on social media, but want to maintain and solidify those real and warm connections. Maybe not entirely in real world, because like software development and some topics I am interested in, really don't meet much in real world. And also met quite a few warm netizens (mainly Twitter friends). So later will focus more on newsletter, personal website and some closer friends around. And hope can ensure myself can be contacted by them.

After ensuring these real connections, maybe losing social media won't be afraid of being forgotten, but a kind of purity.

For most people, as long as hidden or blocked in social media, will be forgotten because of other huge information flow. Might be thought of very occasionally. Frequency slowly decreases. Just slowly forgotten like this.

However, maybe being forgotten won't be anything. I was a bit panicked at first, but after writing out to sort out my thoughts like this, felt not so serious. Writing really can help reorganize train of thought.

Time is moving forward. Eventually there will be a large number of things disappeared or forgotten. Maybe important is not being forgotten by "others", but how "self" builds connection, lives profoundly.