Not to be too dramatic about it, but I decided to deactivate my facebook account today. It feels a bit like I’m going against the tide as Facebook is growing at an insane (129% growth in September, 07) level. I “get” Facebook and what it’s all about (unlike a certain pastor 
), I’ve had a Facebook account for over a year now since before they opened it up to allow anyone to join. I’ve witnessed the masses come and join up as for the longest time I had one friend. Then all of a sudden it just exploded and everyone and their dog was on facebook. I have grown tired of the people who claimed to “not get” facebook, like it was some technology that you had to “get” in order to use. I heard the same claims from people when blogging first started to take off. This isn’t rocket surgery here folks. Sign up, tell people how you feel, upload a picture and then watch what everyone else is doing for 8 hours a day. It’s blogging made easy where everyone else’s picture/text/video/etc comes to you instead of you having to go out and find it.
And that’s one of three reasons as to why I dropped my account. As goofy as it sounds, I miss the good ‘ole days of proper blogging and having to actually put some thought into what you were spewing on to the internet. Not that a lot of blogs are all that much better, but at least you have to do more than just update your status (“I’m so tired today.” “I’m tired again” “Still tired” “Work is hard”) and form a bit of a thought as to what you may write on your blog.
The second reason is that I don’t really like where facebook is right now nor where it’s headed. They’re basically a walled-garden where you can go in and look but can’t take anything out. You upload your picture/video/etc into facebook but then can’t get it out to use on a different site. Whereas flickr.com, last.fm, youtube.com, twitter.com, and many others allow you to upload your picture/video/etc and then use it on other websites, including and perhaps especially facebook, anything uploaded to facebook is stuck on facebook. It’s great from facebook’s standpoint because then everyone has to come there to look at any picture/video/etc rather than going out to all those other sites. It keeps the eyeballs on their advertising.
Which brings me to the third reason I dropped my facebook account. It’s an advertising dream. You tell facebook your name, age, sex, marital status, let them know of any other relationships you have with other facebook users (i.e. sisters, brothers, parents, extended family, etc) and then start updating your status and uploading pictures/video, and making sure to properly tag any pictures with a description and whoever else might be in the pictures. Facebook can now sell very specific and directed advertising right to you. Say I’m someone who sells a widget that I know only married women who have at least 1 brother, have been on a trip to Mexico, list Martha Stewart and Green Day as part their favorites, and are between the ages of 25 and 40 – Facebook can sell me that kind of targeted advertising. Brilliant on facebook’s part. I just don’t want to keep contributing to the machine.
Facebook is great at what it does. It very well is/could be the next great thing and is the evolutionary step (phone – email – blogging – facebook?), but like some people I know decided to get off the train at blogging, I think I’m getting off here and at least for now, letting this one pass me by.
Phew. That went longer than I thought. Any comments/questions/concerns? I’d like to hear what you think of facebook and why you have or haven’t joined.
21 Comments
Atta boy Chris – I’m really getting ready to leave but haven’t made the jump yet. I think that my blog gets about 10X the exposure from being on facebook though because no one knows about rss feeds…
I applaud you. I dropped FBook a while back, and I feel better for it. I also blogged my feeling on this matter recently.
P.S. why do you require my email addy when I want to comment. Are you selling my info!?
It’s so that I can spam you later when I setup my new website – http://www.chrisbook.com.
hello i would like my account on face book deleted
thanks
Hi Zosia (if you are a real person). This wouldn’t be the place to deactivate your facebook account. You’ll have to go under your account settings on facebook.com
Hahahahaha… are you serious about your comment of not being able to get your photos back out of facebook? Are you kidding…
first off…to get it into facebook in the first place, you must have had the files saved to your computer or memory stick..
Secondly you can right click and “save as”, choose a location on your computer and save the pic…. no idea what you are talking about when you say you can’t get your images back out… quite simple..I just did it this morning.
Also, I think you are mistake about the Good old days of Blogging..facebook is not a block, its a social network…of course people will change their status to “I’m tired” or “work is hard” … simply because the entire universe is not looking to write significant blogs. The majority of people signing up to facebook do so to enable easier interaction with friends and the ability to reach out to all friends though one simple interface… to post info about events etc. Its simly the phonebook, calandar and daily newspaper tailored to your specific life….. its not mean to be focussed on blogging. …. but then again..you don’t have to “get it”
Finally in regards to advertising and privacy… you’ve missed the point.. advertising is about reaching out en-masse to people with a generally broad message.. if if they are targeting… hey are targeting thousand..if not hundreds of thousands.. big brand advertisers don’t care in the least to know about who your mom is, what her hobbies are, who you hang out with… the data is to fragmented and does not yeild enough users to be of any value. What the real concern is that your information can be shared with government agencies.. facebook was originally funded by a shell company of the CIA, thats what you should care about, not the advertings.. though I do understand the issues with Beacon.. that aside, the general advertising program on facebook is not as highly targeted as you may think.
Cheers and hopefully this was of some use to you.
Lucas, I think the point on photos/vid etc. was to be able to link from other sites back to those items hosted on facebook.
You are right, however, to make the point that facebook is a ‘social network’. Perhaps it’s not everybody’s ideal method of social interaction though… personally, I found it frustrating that I often had to invite 10/15/20 friends to add the same application as I wanted to use to make it work. That, to me, makes the social networking experience both tedious and sometimes seemingly pretentious.
I have deactivated my account – at least for now… I also have a myspace site which I prefer because it gives me the functionality I want and I only have to trust myspace with my info – not a million and one different application vendors… in saying that, I’m not claiming to trust or distrust myspace or anyone else on the internet… it’s more a matter of risk minimalization.
Peace
Why can’t I setup a facebook page on facebook?
Lucas: I was actually referring to not be able to _easily_ move my photos around like you can with flickr (or any number of other photo sites) through rss feeds and open APIs.
Alexandria: While this isn’t the best place for facebook support, I’d say that if you’ve setup an account on facebook you’ve gotten a page on facebook. When you login and click on “profile” at the top, that’s the page everyone else will see when they are your friend.
Hey. Thanks you gave me 3 more reasons to want to leave facebook
. I’m definitely closing my account now.
@hehe: No problem!
Just a comment on the applications..the issue of having a million and one companies accessing your information! ..
These applications are elective. You Do Not Have To Use or Accept Them! This is called the cost of doing business. Facebook has provided a canvass with which to post your life…applications are just brushes to help you paint a better picture (this is totally subjective)….but guess what! ..what did you pay for your account last month..or the month before? NOTHING! lol..its a totally free service and if you want to enjoy what facebook applications have to offer, you have to give up your info..thats the nature of society. webpages and server space and developers do not grow on trees. Somehow they need to eat too cause at the end of the day..the people pounding the keys are like you and me, they need money and don’t work for free. They use the info you give them for advertising initiatives and thats just the way it is.
If you don’t like it a) you should have done better research before signing up – like the same wayyou wouldn’t give out your credit card number without knowing what for – why is personal info any different and b) Deactivate your account.. less crap popping up in other people’s news feeds.
To play on the internet safely all you have to do is read a little before signing away… i just find it shocking how people learn of these thigns after the fact.
Cheers
Hey. Thanks you gave me 3 more reasons to want to leave facebook
. I’m definitely closing my account now.
@hehe: No problem!
@Lucas: The argument that because it’s free so you can’t discuss possible issues isn’t something that holds water. Yes, we all realize we have a choice as to whether you put your photos/life/etc on Facebook/Flickr/Geocities/etc, and as part of that choice we can discuss the merits of one site/application over another.
In my original article I wasn’t so much referring to applications that you install but more so Facebook itself that can sell very targeted ads based on the information you give them. Just a heads up for people so they realize what they’re getting into with it.
@Lucas: The argument that because it’s free so you can’t discuss possible issues isn’t something that holds water. Yes, we all realize we have a choice as to whether you put your photos/life/etc on Facebook/Flickr/Geocities/etc, and as part of that choice we can discuss the merits of one site/application over another.
In my original article I wasn’t so much referring to applications that you install but more so Facebook itself that can sell very targeted ads based on the information you give them. Just a heads up for people so they realize what they’re getting into with it.
@iChris:
Thats the thing.. I specifically work for one of those evil ad networks..I’m the guy that finds the sites to join, then we tag the site and with code that allows our ads to display…one of those very sites is facebook.. and speaking from experience.. you pretty much have nothing to worry about!…As per my original post, advertisers are working in Mass numbers..they don’t care of your profile says you like expensive electronics or cheeseburgers… all they care about is if you are Canadian, on the site and a male of female. THey don’t even age target because the age is averaged out based on the type / style of the site. Advertisers don’t have the time, money, resources or personelle to manage going through the trillions of bit of information. Its that simple.
The only true issue you have to worry about (again, per my last post), is that groups like the CIA have a share of Facebook as a company. THats what you should worry about. If you like posting about you love of Improvised explosives or your feeling that terrorism is great and like to post about it… I’d worry a little bit..but if you are just a normal guy/ girl sharing tales with your friends or posting pics your pretty safe.
I’d almost say its convoluted to thing people care enough to go after your information of qualitative nature (likes, dislikes, age hobbies)…..the only thing malicous people want is your SIN number or your credit card.
Get over it.. you’re not that special, Im not that special.. and I’m not gonna blame facebook just to make it seem like my information is valuable.
Just because you posted it, doesn’t mean there is some evil corporation looking for it…. 99.0% of it useless and unactionable!
Pew Pew Pew!
@Lucas:
Ah ha! You’re Dr. Evil Advertising Guy! I knew it!
j/k
It’s good to hear that most advertisers don’t have the time to filter down to that level and I realize it’s no different than what was/is done with television (i.e. stay at home mom’s love watching Rachel Ray so let’s advertise for a new mini-van, etc). Nor am I worried that they are going to do something malicious with my information – I think I get as frustrated as it sounds like you get over people who blame “the corporation” and “big business” for issues.
My main point was to raise some issues that people may or may not have thought about when putting stuff up online, whether on facebook or otherwise. Facebook happens to be the place to be right now and it is a more focused entity than the hundreds of random blogs around the web.
Truth be known, I’ve been drawn back onto Facebook just to be able to keep up with friends/family who don’t know how to use anything else. A bit like AOL in the old days.
hear, hear!
Oh god, I could tell Lucas was working for ‘them’!!
Chris, I completely agree with all your points. I left facebook about 4 months ago after having been on it 2 years, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on why, but after reading your blog I think it sums it up perfectly. And after reading Lucas’ blogs, it completely confirms it! Facebook is not for me! I can’t help but feel that Lucas arguments were just that – arguments and not really against the points that Chris made. They were just voiced for the sake of voicing and although I am pretty good at that too, I really hate observing it in other people…!
I also feel a bit free after leaving facebook, like I am not a sheep following the rest of what society does. They all know it’s wrong in the sense that it enables stalking and kinda justifies people being really ‘sad’ but the more people that conform, the less wrong they are made to feel!! That’s just my opinion anyway, hope it makes sense, not the best writer.
Gee, I’m learning more and more about these sites! Thanks guys
2 Trackbacks
[...] a follow-up to my earlier post on why I dumped Facebook, here’s a bit of a “I told you [...]
[...] playing a Scrabble game on Facebook (I’ll explain later)and am getting by butt kicked. What can I spell to get back in the [...]