Erica Glasier: Oversocialized! Social media & interactive futurism from sunny Winnipeg

Happy Data Privacy Day! A day to relax with family and friends IRL, ponder your digital fingerprint and maybe grill a few Tofurkey sausages.

I’m celebrating Data Privacy Day by staying offline for 24 hours. By “offline”, I mean “not on Facebook”, lest you think I have magic analogue blogging powers. I’m  temporarily defecting from the Big F, as a conscientious objection to its recent bait and switch privacy shenanigans. 24 hours logged out of the world’s most popular social network. I can totally do that. It’s just one little website.

Bleary this morning without my usual cup of decaf (I’m whitening), my mouse moves automatically toward the little blue and white ‘f’ icon in my bookmarks toolbar. Whoa! I think, barely deflecting the click in time. Let’s visit somewhere else. Twitter, perhaps. Twitter use doesn’t strike me as contrary to the spirit of Privacy Day, because despite the fact that it’s actually more publicly searchable, I use it for business and it contains no pictures of me drinking beer.

In support of my Privacy Day tweet, I google* “Data Privacy Day”. The second search result is a Facebook page. Ubiquitous little bugger, that Facebook. I neatly avoid that particular link and go on about my day.

On the road, I wonder how my husband’s convergent media panel at ALL ACCESS: The Digital Incubator is going. Normally I’d Facebook him and see what was shaking. Unlocking my iPhone and heading for the blue square is almost one smooth motion; again I brake and consider my other communication options. I’m not going to phone him, for Pete’s sake. What’s this “messages” icon? Huh. I suppose I could text him. That would actually be faster. Ok.

Each subsequent time I go to unlock my phone, Facebook push notifications pop up to let me know what I’m missing. Beads of sweat form on my forehead. I’m sure nothing important is going on, nothing that can’t wait til midnight. Only 8 more hours and 43 more minutes. I become distracted, eyes darting, absent-mindedly trying to address the sweaty forehead issue. My wall is getting written on and I’m not there to read it.

So this is what it would be like to care enough about privacy that you wouldn’t participate in the social web. I’m Shia LeBeouff in Disturbia, under mental house arrest and completely cut off from normal society. I must interact with someone. I know (from Facebook) that it’s my mother-in-law’s birthday today. I pre-Happy Birthdayed her wall prior to log off, but…maybe she’d like a visit. Like if I went over to her house. IRL.

Yes, unplugging from Facebook causes me to socialize with an actual person. It makes me crave socializing, in fact, which is healthy. It also makes me see just how integrated the network is with my normal day, and what privacy advocates are up against if a permanent log out was the trade-off for protecting our personal info.

Just a few more hours til log in time. I do a quiz on the Oatmeal to determine how addicted to Facebook I am (73%). I’ve got the shakes.

* I can’t help but notice Google, oh celebrators of such arcane holidays as “Porridge Day“, did not trouble their graphic designer to immortalize Data Privacy Day.