Why I Stay On Social Media Despite Any Privacy Issues

Photo by Tim Bennett on Unsplash

I’ve been writing about privacy for two years now and I’ve often spoken negatively about social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. While I’ve been critical of these platforms, I still find massive value in using them.

Most privacy “experts” or “advocates” will tell you to stay off of social media platforms completely if you want to maintain some semblance of privacy.

But I’m not going to delete my Facebook account…

Communication Is Important

Social media is simply how I communicate with many of the people that I care about. There are obvious privacy issues with social media, and while I do my best to address these I still use social every day.

I don’t want my personal information to be exploited so that a company can make money. However, the value I get from Facebook and Instagram make the tradeoff worth it.

Privacy Can Lead to Isolation

I see the value of privacy and I respect anyone who takes that very seriously. However, I don’t want a desire for privacy to leave me left on social sites for people on the fringe who have been kicked off of Facebook for their behavior. I want to stay in the conversations people are having on the internet, even if it means…