#DeleteFacebook Diary: The Long Divorce, Part Two

I must have spent 5 hours straight just scrolling through my friends list and sending private messages. The methodology which I've chosen is the following: I start with the English speakers and send them a standard message whose first line is personal (for example, if I'm addressing an old university mate, I make sure I mention that in a friendly and personal way), and then carry on with the Romanians with a similar approach.

There are two roadblocks that I've encountered: first of all, after about 100 private messages, Facebook has locked my account for spam and I have to complete a Catchpha test every time I'd attempt to send something;
Secondly, I've noticed that less than a quarter have seen my messages in the first 24 hours, and only a small portion of those have responded with a message.

Given the situation, this is going to take a lot longer than I expected. But then again, the goal is not to leave my old life behind, but to take my friends with me. In a sense, it can be a way of telling between close and precious connections, and those who are there just because we exchanged Candy Crush lives.

However, I don't intend to hierarchize or prioritize between my Facebook friends: at the end of this campaign, all of them will have received a private message to get informed about my intention and their ways to contact me. It's not up to me to establish rankings and say who will be able to contact me in the future, as there is no way for me to tell what I mean to some people. In a crowd of nearly 2000 folks from all over the world, you can never know what every individual thinks about you.

I'll keep going and try to get as many friends to Signal (my preferred messaging app) or WhatsApp (I hate it because it's owned by Facebook, but it's so popular that a lot of people aren't willing to give up on it, and that's another battle for yet another campaign. WhatsApp is still better in terms of privacy and encryption than Facebook Messenger).

If anyone decides to also join Steemit, I'd be honored to introduce them to the platform. It's far from ideal, it's not the fairest in terms of rewarding good content, but it's still a good way to socialize. I use it for some of my writing and I'm fairly happy with the features (to me, it's like a more experimental version of Medium).

In the following days, I'll continue my campaign to get rid of Facebook. For 9 long years, I would wake up and check my likes, comments and shares on my phone. It's time for me to take back my autonomy and control over my own life.