Ever heard of “Super-logoff” or “whitewalling”? They are ways to designate what some teens have been doing in order to have total control over who posts what (and when) on their Facebook page.
Imagine deactivating your account every time you log out of Facebook, and activating it again when you want to go on it. Or how about meticulously erasing each and every post, status update, link, or comment after you are “done” sharing it? If you take the Super-logoff route, then other people can’t post anything on your wall when you’re not there to filter it quickly. They won’t even be able to look you up. Whitewalling, on the other hand, keeps your Facebook content invariably current, of the moment.
At first, like social media researcher danah boyd (like that, all lowercase) points out, these Facebook habits might seem a bit over-the-top and perhaps unnecessary. And yet, they can make sense in certain high-pressure contexts. High school or ultra-sneaky work environments might be the kind of places where your Facebook activity can cost you a lot of peace of mind. Take high-schooler Mikalah’s reasoning for deactivating her profile every time she’s not online:
Mikalah uses Facebook but when she goes to log out, she deactivates her Facebook account. She knows that this doesn’t delete the account – that’s the point. She knows that when she logs back in, she’ll be able to reactivate the account and have all of her friend connections back. But when she’s not logged in, no one can post messages on her wall or send her messages privately or browse her content.
Notice that, while you or I might think that spending five minutes setting your privacy settings correctly might solve the hassle of having to deactivate your account when you log out, in reality these are two actions that accomplish different things. Mikalah and others like her want their friends to post stuff on their wall or tag them in a photo, but they don’t want them doing it when they’re not there to make sure it’s okay. Most importantly, someone like Mikalah doesn’t want any friends of friends digging up her profile when she’s not “around.” Deactivating her page literally erases her from Facebook. She becomes untraceable.
(I admit that for the purpose of this post I tried Super-loggingoff, and Super Failed. As the above picture shows, when I got to the final step, two things held me back: 1) as irrational as it may sound, the idea of actually “confirming” the deactivation did give me the sensation that I was about to lose my stuff 2) the thought of having to do these two steps every time I log in or out of FB was simply too laborious. For me, of course.)
As for whitewalling, it could come in handy if you’re one to run your mouth or get into heated discussions frequently. It might not be the equivalent of deactivating your account, but you make sure that everything stays “in the moment” and that the past doesn’t come back to haunt you. Like boyd puts it, whitewalling is basically giving the middle finger to Facebook “as a data retention agent.”
Is reducing the risk of people posting unwanted content on your profile worth using these techniques? What stuff do you regularly do to keep your Facebook “clean”?
You can read danah boyd’s entire blog post here.
I am quite sure that even though you delete all your posts in a so-called whitewalling, you still haven't erased it from facebooks servers. So in that respect you aren't "giving the middle finger to Facebook “as a data retention agent.” … you are on the other hand making it un-googlable (probably)
Comment by Clint — November 10, 2010 @ 12:12 pm
Why using it at all, then? LOL.
Comment by Ryo — November 11, 2010 @ 1:46 am
@Clint
You're missing the point of doing this, it isn't to prevent Facebook from getting your info, it's to prevent other people (your teachers, parents, principals etc) from checking what you posted. The idea is by the time the unwanted people get there, then your stuff is already gone.
Comment by Ank — November 11, 2010 @ 1:25 pm
>>as irrational as it may sound, the idea of actually “confirming” the deactivation did give me the sensation that I was about to lose my stuff
notice how successful they are in keeping you "in", you feel that you will lose sth leaving Facebook
Comment by jakubmal — November 11, 2010 @ 2:08 pm
Can't you just uncheck the "Friends can post on my Wall" setting when before you log off?
Comment by sonnyz — November 11, 2010 @ 3:32 pm
I whitewall all the time.. it's a very stream of consciousness sort of deal for me. No one cares what I posted even a month ago.
Comment by tims — November 11, 2010 @ 9:53 pm
…or just have a job where you are on facebook 40 hours a week with a blackberry in hand at all other times monitoring who is posting on your page
Comment by Blake — November 12, 2010 @ 11:42 am
It seems to me that this is a demand that all of the social exchanges be one-way. The person that Super-logsoff insists on having the Facebook account to read up on her friends and to garner social data about her network of relationships, but wants none of the risks. No information output, not even by other people leaving notes on your account.
I wonder how this person explains this regular action to her friends and what the response is. Is it viewed as selfish? Was there an event that is known in her circle that makes this acceptable for her? Are some of her friends also doing this?
Facebook would lose a lot of traction if this became widespread. Not much reason to use FB if my Newsfeed is empty when I log on and reactivate.
Comment by @portaplaya — November 12, 2010 @ 7:29 pm
This is just another ineffective way to give users the impression that they can control their content on facebook when they actually cant. Facebook is insecure and deactivating your account temporarily is not going to help. What will help is quitting facebook. If you still want to use the social media then wait for a safer site like MyCube or Diaspora
Comment by andrew blignaut — November 13, 2010 @ 3:55 am
YES – I like the idea of MyCube which promises to ensure complete privacy, control and OWNERSHIP of your digital content. Facebook is making $$$ off content that YOU generate. Own your own data!
Comment by Steve — November 13, 2010 @ 4:14 pm
Worked for me. In yellow box at the top it says. Your Facebook account has been deactivated.
To reactivate your account, log in using your old login email and password. You will be able to use the site like you used to.
We hope you come back soon.
Comment by fred — November 14, 2010 @ 10:54 pm
The good thinng about Facebook when it was first created was that people can contact you even when you're not there, such as writing on someone's wall, but deactivating your account each time deletes the purpose.
Comment by juleziiee — November 18, 2010 @ 7:26 pm
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I super logg off and its not selfish. .
I mean I use facebook just to check up on updates by my favorites artists , to get their new music and to see events. Especially if you are very involved in an underground artistic community facebook becomes your only means to know where the secret gigs (usually in warehouses) are. I mean myspace is obviously dead now no one uses it anymore. So i commonly super log off and i see nothing wrong with that.
Comment by Tara — June 6, 2011 @ 6:30 pm