Leaving Facebook Announcement
I’ve been wanting to quit Facebook for a long time.
In the beginning, Facebook was a nice change of pace from the leading social networking site of the day, MySpace. People typically hacked their MySpace profiles’ design. Some people did it really well, but many people did it so poorly, their profiles looks garish and obnoxious. It was still the early days of social networking. Nobody gave much thought to what they should or should not share on the Web. So they shared just about everything. As a society, we were all learning. A lot of bands created MySpace profiles, so they could connect with their fans. For the first time, small independent bands has access to the same tools as the more popular artists.
When Facebook came along, their simple clean design felt refreshing, in contrast to MySpace. Over the next few years, people migrated to Facebook. As Facebook’s audience grew beyond the college student audience, they migrated away from MySpace. This happened for multiple reasons which I won’t go into here. Suffice to say, that it seemed for a time that MySpace seemed like it would be the only social networking site we would need. But on the Web, things changed. They can change again. Like on MySpace, we didn’t learn our lesson, and continued to shared everything.
As Facebook’s user base grew larger over the years, they’ve grown more powerful. The principle With great power, comes great responsibility
, is something that Facebook never took to heart. It’s common for web-based companies who are built on venture capital to offer a free service to people. Their business model is to display ads, and sell their users data to companies who want it. Facebook isn’t the only company to use this business model, it’s one of the largest. They have a responsibility to maintain your data, and keep it secure. They have failed. They’ve had several major security incidents. They’ve also tend to act like a bully – so much so that governments have gotten involved. Over the years, I’ve used Facebook less and less. I didn’t want to give them anymore of my data. So I’m closing my facebook account. I encourage you to delete your facebook account too. While Facebook may feel mandatory, things change. Things can change again.
So today, I posted the following to my Facebook account.
Hey Everyone,
I’m gonna delete my Facebook account on May 19 (next Sunday). I don’t really use it, nor do I have any desire to invest any time into it. Also, I dislike Facebook as a company. Facebook doesn’t act responsibly as a company. They’ve had multiple major security problems. Also, I hate their business model. Put it all together, and all I can say is “Fuck it! I’m done with it”.
I almost deleted my account last Sunday, but figured I should give people a heads up first. I’m telling you this so nobody worries. Things are fine — good even. I’m just leaving Facebook. Some of you already have my other contact info like email, mobile number, twitter, and website. Sweet! So we’ll keep in touch. Others may not have it, so I’ll message it to you. I’ll be using my website andrewwoods.net more, so you can find me there.
If you’d like to keep in touch, feel free to message your info to me and include the following:
- mobile number
- website
- current city
So while it’s tempting sign off with
goodbye, good luck, and thanks for all the fish, this is not really goodbye. This is TTYL, C U Soon, and look forward to hearing from you.Be excellent to each other
I can guess what you’re thinking What about everything I’ve posted on Facebook? All my posts, photos, videos, my comments on friends posts?
Export everything you can. You’ll have to dig through your account settings, but it’s in there — unless the bastards removed it. More than likely though, you won’t be able to get everything. That’ll suck, but use this as a learning experience.
Set up your own website, with your own domain name. It’s a lot easier nowadays to set up your own website, than when Facebook first appeared. Publish content on your own site. If you put your content on a website that you control, nobody can take it from you. It should be up to you when and how it gets publihsed. Encourage your friends to set up their own sites. Follow your friends website. Remember: Your content is valuable. If it wasn’t — Facebook and other VC backed companies wouldn’t be able to sell it for profit.
I look forward to seeing what kind of website you create.