Winter Rant

If you read the little I have written about Social Media, you know that I am not a fan of any aspect of this technology/product landscape.

Social Media does not have a clear upside to humanity. If the likes of FB/Twitter/Reddit stopped exiting tomorrow, the internet and the world would be better off.

Having said that, I am not about to delete any of my social media accounts.

Why? The answer is pretty silly.

Have you ever tried to create a username on an internet service, only to find that your preferred name was already taken? Causing you to append a “1” or “the original” to your username(??). I have.

Usernames are prime digital real estate. By deleting my account, I am allowing someone else to come and take up that username (if the social media website in question permits such a thing; and I do not trust these platforms to restrict such things).

Even if my username(s) is not recycled when I delete my social media account(s), how long before someone with a profile similar as mine (same name, display pic, etc.) starts reaching out to my old contacts, family and friends to social engineer their way to their SSNs, bank accounts, private financial information?

Maybe I am paranoid. I think I can drop the “maybe”.

Paranoia aside, finding a username that worked for me was a pain, and deleting my accounts does mean letting that work go to waste. #notforme

— vijay,

#microblogging on Medium