To just disappear

[DesertRose]

Have you ever wanted to delete yourself from the entire internet? Delete every post you've ever made, all facebook, twitter, all of it, like you never existed?

I have, several times, and actually deleted Facebook, and tried to delete everything else.

I've been dx with a major depressive disorder, anxiety as well as dysthymia (mild chronic depression disorder). That may be why I feel that way, but maybe not.

Have you ever wanted to scrub the net of your identity? Is it even possible?

 

[I love roses]

It is possible I guess. There are business on line who claim to do that for a fee. Never tried it though. Don’t know what they do about tags.
Don’t use monikers you used on other sites anymore. Be creative with unrecognizable ones. But that won’t work for social media because it demands disclosure as the real you. Do as little as possible to reveal identities. As for social media. I avoid those for the reasons you mention. You might like forums instead. I want to scrub things I did not do that people and corporations put up on meabout me. Bleh!

 

[Suzanne]

No actually; completely the opposite. I feel totally at ease on line than off line. However, I am choosy who I am in contact with and have know a few for years.

 

[Mary Anne]

Have you ever wanted to delete yourself from the entire internet? Delete every post you've ever made, all facebook, twitter, all of it, like you never existed?

I have, several times, and actually deleted Facebook, and tried to delete everything else.

I've been dx with a major depressive disorder, anxiety as well as dysthymia (mild chronic depression disorder). That may be why I feel that way, but maybe not.

Have you ever wanted to scrub the net of your identity? Is it even possible?

I completely agree with you and not for any reason having to do with depression. I find online overwhelming, and it’s collective use from the mid 1990s is just driving me crazy. My friend, has been deleting himself offline gradually for the last 2 years. No Facebook. No more personal email account. Very strict limited times of personal cell phone use. And this guy runs a successful small business. I envy him.

 

[Judge]

It never hurts to attempt to limit or at least be aware of the amount of "breadcrumbs" you leave from the Internet. Just be sure to temper this with the reality that it's unreasonable to believe you can erase your online footprint in its entirety. You can't given how much insignificant data is routinely archived without your knowledge or authorization.

 

[Mr Allen]

Loads of times.

I'm just better than giving the Daily Fail reading trolls, Sony zealots, Nintendoids, etc the pleasure of being rid of me.

 

[Progster]

No, I haven't felt that I want to erase every trace of me from the internet, and I know that it's not possible to do this anyway. I have sometimes wanted to delete accounts from some sites such as Facebook, or posts with personal information. I don't ever give personal details unless it is strictly necessary.

 

[I love roses]

However, I am choosy who I am in contact with and have know a few for years.[/ I had to ditch Fb because it glitched so much and exposed my private business.

 

[clg114]

No, I do not want to erase any trace of me from the internet. This forum is the closest that I get to any kind of social media. But I really do like all of that information at my finger tips. Gone are all those encyclopedia sets that had to be updated all of the time. The internet is a information junkies dream.

 

[WildCat]

If the internet consists solely of social media (it doesn't, thank goodness), yeah, I've already disappeared in a way. There's always traces of my identity if one is motivated and willing to dig deep enough though. In that sense, I'm not exactly off the grid yet.

I'd ask David Copperfield to lend me a hand for the real thing, but last I heard he's still reeling over a lawsuit. Some things just aren't meant to be.

 

[Sloth]

Have you ever wanted to delete yourself from the entire internet? Delete every post you've ever made, all facebook, twitter, all of it, like you never existed?

I have, several times, and actually deleted Facebook, and tried to delete everything else.

Yeah, I went ahead and did the same thing by going and deleting all mentions of myself on the internet that I could. It was part of my period of completely isolating myself that is just now coming to an end. It's important to realize that, of course, the internet being the internet, you can't completely erase yourself.

I also have disthymia depression. The reason I did it was because I didn't want anyone to see me when I was such a state that I was embarrassed about. It's a silly delusion I tend to have since no one can actually see me, no one is actually judging me, but I can't stop myself from feeling they are judging me anyways . I don't know if anyone else has felt that before. I am trying to change myself back now, and thinking of restarting facebook, although it's kinda intimidating to start with 0 friends .

 

[DesertRose]

Yeah, I went ahead and did the same thing by going and deleting all mentions of myself on the internet that I could. It was part of my period of completely isolating myself that is just now coming to an end. It's important to realize that, of course, the internet being the internet, you can't completely erase yourself.

I also have disthymia depression. The reason I did it was because I didn't want anyone to see me when I was such a state that I was embarrassed about. It's a silly delusion I tend to have since no one can actually see me, no one is actually judging me, but I can't stop myself from feeling they are judging me anyways . I don't know if anyone else has felt that before. I am trying to change myself back now, and thinking of restarting facebook, although it's kinda intimidating to start with 0 friends .

Yes, I struggle with that, just don't want anyone to see me sometimes, and especially some dumb things I've said makes it worse.

 

[Peter Morrison]

I've been off FB for more than a year and a half, solely because I got tired of all the political bashing at that time. Erasing my existence from the Internet doesn't interest me. I simply choose not to hang out if I get bored. FB is a public forum and all the stories about marketers using the information available should be of no surprise to anyone.

 

[Judge]

I've been off FB for more than a year and a half, solely because I got tired of all the political bashing at that time. Erasing my existence from the Internet doesn't interest me. I simply choose not to hang out if I get bored. FB is a public forum and all the stories about marketers using the information available should be of no surprise to anyone.

Yep. I suspect one can read far more about me in Russian than in English.

Though I've never been a member of Facebook and never will be. Go figure.

 

[Sloth]

Yep. I suspect one can read far more about me in Russian than in English.

Though I've never been a member of Facebook and never will be. Go figure.

I'm curious as to why that is Judge? I'm Russian myself. As you're probably aware, Russians in some degrees segregate themselves on the internet and have an alternate program to Facebook (Vkontakte).

 

[Judge]

I'm curious as to why that is Judge?

LOL I bet! I could say it's a "private joke" but then I'd be lying.

Unfortunately the concept of "secure and confidential data" is something from a different- and bygone era.

 

[SusanLR]

I would prefer to isolate myself from those I know in RL.
This is coming from depression I'm sure since the want to just disappear to a place where people don't know me and live in quite solitude has become so desireable in just the past 6 yrs. since I have no real friends
or family left. Starting over in a new community I would have no history to answer to.
Just the new person in town. No one to know how I looked, how my life has been, how I've been or how I've changed.
As far as disappearing from the net, no.
Why should I ? There's nothing I really fear from being hacked outside the frustration that could come from
a virus killing my computer. That's expensive and aggravating.
I can be more myself on the net as no one really knows me except for one relative and a couple of RL friends.
It gives me a connection to the world and all the information I'm always seeking.
As far as cookies and adverts, well they come through to the junk mail anyway. Just empty it.

 

[OlLiE]

i've never really felt the need to have an internet or social presence, this site is the only one i actually invest any time in, so i would have very little to delete

 

[oregano]

Hopefully I'll be doing just what Susan talked about, move to a thinly populated area where there are so many hermits in the backcountry that nobody cares if a new hermit pops up every so often. As for the internet, everybody has all their data on it now, you can buy a dossier of anybody's data for a few bucks from a dozen aggregator companies. The internet has gone from the cool peer-to-peer cyberpunkish free zone of the early days in the mid 90s (and yes I experienced it firsthand) to a top-down totalitarian data mine dominated by a handful of giant corporations who know more about you than you yourself do, and who sell your info to anybody with enough money. The scary thing is that there doesn't seem to be any rebellion/pushback against it among the young, like the cyberpunk novels of the 80s and 90s imagined. All kids want is to surf social media and play video games, the net as an electronic opiate, and everybody's hooked, and they don't question it. The few kids interested in hacking are quickly scooped up by US Cyber Command and put to work undermining Russian and Chinese networks.

 

[Bolletje]

I do t feel like disappearing online. At times I do feel like disappearing from the world though. I periodically isolate myself for a few days and just stop responding to messages or phone calls. It’s a sign to me that I need to start taking care of my mental health, cause it’s one of my early warning signs of depression.