Why I am leaving Facebook for good

I am leaving Facebook for good. The reasons are not complicated. I find the timeline feature annoying. Then there are Facebook apps, self-promotions and award games that are plastering my newsfeed like a bad case of pop-up infestation by an malware. Along with people that have turned into narcissist, as that is what Facebook allows them to do. I also find Facebook lack of respect for privacy of people disturbing.

There is also an illusion of connectivity on Facebook when it comes to people. Sure. There are people on my Facebook list that I do keep in contact with. I even call them regularly. But how many people are that. A bit less in then 10 people in my case. The rest I had contact with. But I do not today. The Facebook would allow me to keep in contact with them. If they where them self interested in doing so. In most cases, that is not the case. It is also an issue on Facebook that today there are no friends list. As once where on Facebook. But with that it allowed you to group people in accordance to how well you knew them. Today it is just one friend list. I am going to loose contact with some people. Sure. But I am not sure that I was in any serious contact with them to start with. But those who want to keep in contact with me can do so without any problems at all. I have sent directions to them with Facebook. As Facebook is not the only way to keep in contact with people. There is email. But there is also Google+ and Twitter for instance that can be used to keep in contact with people. There is also email to keep in contact with people.

So there it is. Why I am leaving Facebook for the above reasons. But I am not leaving social media as such. I am just leaving Facebook. I am going to remain active on Google+ and Twitter. As I like the approach the Google+ and Twitter gives people how want to watch see what I am writing. Without actually having to be my friend as is the case on Facebook (the subscribe option fixed that a bit on Facebook. But it is and always is going to be limited solution to this issue).

I also left MySpace for similar reasons at the time. I did test once or twice to restart an account there. But I did delete them soon again. There was no point and MySpace had not change into anything useful for to communicate to people. I am however not expecting Google+ or Twitter to be such a place. I regard that an place that I can share my writing with anyone how has interest in reading what I have to say. I have been Facebook users since the early days. But I did create my Facebook account in the year 2007, on 26 of March that year (Facebook did not forget this). Many people find it „wrong“ that I am leaving Facebook. Since it is used to keep in contact with other people. It also seems to be the clues that Facebook is making us more lonely (The Atlantic: Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?). But being alone is something that I have a lot of experience in and I do not recommend it.

My Google+ account can be found here. My Twitter account can be found here.