#deletesocialmedia

I just finished the monumental task of deleting all of my accounts. On purpose.

Why should you care about this? No idea. But for me, it is refreshing and liberating. I admit it was rewarding to receive online praise for my photographic work. To see it used on websites, magazines and books is very rewarding. For every day photos, the accolades came and went. Gone are the days when most will leave constructive criticism only to be supplanted by a simple “heart” icon indicating that they liked it. I’m over this.

The rest of social media was updating anyone and everyone about what I was doing. Look at me! I’m witty. I take decent photos. Here’s what I ate and where.

I used to be a charter member of every major social media platform as a beta tester. It was a new frontier to be explored with friends. But no more. Too much superficial. Too divisive. Not fun. Anti-social. No privacy and hacks.

Enough.

I’ve enjoyed meeting people from various social media outlets when we were offline. I am also enjoying meeting and cultivating friendships IRL. We’ll go old school and share a conversation, not a tweet thread. Share experiences as opposed to posts. This is what matters.

I am no longer a member of

  • Google
  • Google+
  • Youtube
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Gone. It’s over. Done. I officially killed my social media accounts and severed a lot of relationships and a ton of “friends” in all the places I have lived and worldwide. Well, not them, just the online versions of ourselves.

Now I can and will focus on what matters:

Working on my social skills.

Want to connect? Click the link

#deletegoogle

I first mentioned I was migrating off of Google way back in April. Well, it has taken me just that long to do it. Every photo, video and document I shared with them has been downloaded finally.

I deleted my 10 year old Google account this morning after liberating all my stuff. That stuff is mostly sitting on an external hard drive to be sorted and archived but that is for a much later day.

Until then, I will work to close out my other Google account that I created last November. Shouldn’t be so bad. One year’s worth shouldn’t take nearly as long as ten.

Anyway, up yours, Google. I will not willingly volunteer my data to you for you to spy on anymore.

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iPhone XR

This is a great blend of both budget and premium features. A $1200 phone for a $750 price. This has almost everything I want into an iPhone like a big, end-to-end screen, the A12 Bionic chip, dual sim card capability, augmented reality, great camera, long battery life, Face ID and of course, Animoji as seen below.

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The XR has a 12mp camera with f/1.8 aperature and smart HDR tech. Video is 4k quality. Portrait mode has advanced bokeh and depth control that can be edited after the snap. The front facing camera is 7mp quality with f/2.2 aperature, portait mode and portrait lighting effects.

The best part? I upgraded and ended up paying less for more.

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Transition

I am decommissioning my Misadventures.me website and coming back here to ChrisDenbow.com. It was an attempt at a fresh start but then I realized I didn’t want to go that direction. The web domain expires soon and I am not renewing it. It is for sale if you want it.

The transition is smooth so far but included challenges like transferring my two domain names away from Google as well as my email hosting. Now I have to change my account settings to everyone I do business with as well as friends/family. “Hey, I moved!” Want to connect? Send me email to hello@chrisdenbow.website

Goodbye Google

Previously I mentioned I was in the process of dropping all products made by Google but it was half-hearted. The amount of data they have on me for the past thirteen is overwhelming. I recently requested my data delivered to me via their own data freedom tool called Google Takeout.

It took all day to archive and send me my request and I saw why. 124GB worth of data compressed into 56 downloads of 2GB each(!!). And this was for my main account. I haven’t even started on my backup account I created just this past year yet.

The reason behind all this effort to liberate myself? Security and privacy. Also, they are showing signs of controlling/manipulating data and interfering with users. Google’s motto used to be “Don’t be evil.” That motto disappeared sometime this past month. Hmm.

Ever since I made my decision to migrate I have been adapting myself to new software tools. Alternatives to the Google ecosystem that has been so pervasive.

iPhone > Android

Windows > Chromebook

Duck Duck Go > Google Search

Firefox browser > Google Chrome

Outlook, own domain email > Gmail

Youtube > Vimeo

MS Office > Google Docs

OneDrive, iCloud > Google Drive

Apple Notes, Bear > Google Keep

iOS Photos > Google Photos

iOS Maps > Google Maps

Namecheap domains > Google Domains

Adobe > Snapseed

Ever notice how ubiquitous Google is until you saw these examples? Truth be told, I LOVE most of Google’s products and it hurts to leave them behind.

I am still looking for alternatives to a few of their software offerings like Google Earth, Voice, Translate, Book Archives and more. If anyone has suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

The migration process is still just that. I am slowly setting up new spaces for old content. Once completed I will be pressing that oh so sweet “DELETE” button.

Today

“I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today, I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it.”

– Groucho Marx