Life without The Social Network: A Data Tale

Meta, Facebook’s parent company, is a vast conglomerate—and they’re showing no signs of slowing down any time soon. The company has even acquired multiple businesses and branched out to other services to take the lead in social media technology.

But what if, for some crazy reason, Facebook ceases to exist? What would happen to all your personal data stored both on your public profile and in the company’s servers? Let’s take a look at what happened to Myspace and see if Facebook will suffer the same fate.

What Happened to Your Myspace Data?

For anyone old enough to use a computer between 2005 and 2008, you’ve probably heard of Myspace. Although that social media platform was short-lived, it was all the rage until Facebook surpassed it as everyone’s preferred platform.

If you were lucky enough to experience the glory of Myspace, you probably remember its personalized music players for your page, the struggle between your buddies to earn a spot in your top friends, and a ton of other customizable options that made your page unique. You could also post photos, videos, music, and status updates to look back on.

While Myspace never soared nearly as high as Facebook in terms of users, it was still a hugely popular site in its time with over 100 million unique users. But what happened to their personal information when the site’s popularity dropped?

Even though fewer were accessing their Myspace accounts, the data they uploaded was ultimately still there. All their photos, status updates, uploaded songs, and other unique bits on their profile page still existed in some way.

That is, until a server migration in 2019 caused a massive data loss, wiping audio files, photos, videos, and more that users uploaded between 2003 and 2015. Unfortunately, there’s no way to recover this lost data.

Since Myspace isn’t the large company that it was before Facebook overtook it in 2008, they might not have thought it was worth spending the resources to ensure the integrity of their files.

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What Facebook Would Probably Do

When considering what might happen to your Facebook data if the platform didn’t exist anymore, it’s important to think about what happens to your data right now if you deactivate or delete your account.

If you deactivate your account, it’s essentially like taking a social media break with extra steps. Facebook will save all your settings, photos, and information while hiding it from the public. However, even though your friends and family can’t see what you’re up to, the company still collects data about you and your online activities.

The company does this (or so it says) to ensure that your feed and the ads you see are still personalized to you in case you decide to return to the platform.

The only way that Facebook completely removes all of your data is if you permanently delete your account. This removes any and all personal data that you’ve ever posted to your account, including photos, videos, status updates, and more.

Nevertheless, some of your data may still exist on the platform by way of an old comment on someone’s post or a picture of you that another friend posted.

If you ever decide to delete your Facebook account, it’s also important to think about any other websites you might have used your Facebook login to access or sign up for, like Spotify or Instagram. Any websites you previously used your Facebook login to access will require a different method of signing in—sometimes requiring a new account entirely.

But if Facebook ever ceases to exist completely, your data will still likely be on the platform (whether on a public website or saved in a private database) until you request to remove it. But really, what’s the likelihood that Facebook will ever go away?

Facebook Is Here to Stay

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Facebook is way larger than Myspace ever was and, because the company has done so much to stay relevant, it’s probably here to stay. When it launched in 2004, Facebook was just a sort of private online directory for Harvard College.

However, in the years since then, the company has expanded into a global social media platform. It has also since acquired several other services like Instagram, WhatsApp, and Giphy. They then eventually rebranded themselves as Meta, a massive media conglomerate with a focus on expanding themetaverse .

The company has grown so large that they’re unlikely to fail anytime soon. And even if Facebook eventually declines in popularity, Meta as a whole has so much money and resources that they could afford to host your data on some server while the company went on to do bigger and better things.

And although Facebook (along with several other tech companies) are under government scrutiny, wherein legislation or an anti-trust case could force a break up of the company, the social media platform is so ingrained in our lives that it will probably survive.

Or if it was forced to shut down, you would likely have plenty of warning to back up your info elsewhere before you lose access.

Social media platforms come and go, as we saw with Myspace. But the likelihood that Facebook will be one of those soon forgotten social media phenomenons is miniscule. That’s because Facebook has gone beyond personal and leisure use. In fact, there are entire industries relying on it.

For example, you can find major businesses on the platform, interacting with their customers through it. You can also find marketplace and eCommerce solutions on both Facebook and Instagram—platforms that are both under the Meta umbrella.

Your Data Keeps It Going

If, by some chance, Facebook ever ceased to exist, maybe 10 or 20 years in the future, you’d probably have enough warning to log back into your account and save as many any precious memories as you want.

But with the company staying relevant by consistently updating the social media platform and adding new branches under the Meta tree, your data seems to be safe and sound for quite a while longer.

After all, Facebook wants to hold onto your data for as long as it can. Because even though the company is evolving beyond social media, it’ll likely keep your data as it fuels its growth.