Goodbye Facebook
I threatened to do this a few months ago, and today I decided enough was enough. I deactivated my Facebook account. The last straw was the inappropriate advertisement that popped up when viewing my friend’s profile page. Since there’s no way to either turn off ads or filter the ads that show up, I’m finished with Facebook.
If you’re keeping score at home, here are the key reasons I’m saying goodbye:
- I don’t want to be a pirate or a ninja. And, I don’t want to deal with the endless invitations to use Facebook applications. When I want an application, I’ll go find it. There isn’t an option to turn off application invitations.
- I’m not going to attend your event if you invite me through Facebook. It’s annoying. And, I’m tired of having to go through the process of removing event invitations. Again, there’s not a way to block event invitations. You can turn off notifications, but you can’t block invites.
- I don’t need another inbox to manage. I already have work email and private email and blog email. I don’t need Facebook email on top of that.
- I don’t like to be poked or superpoked. That’s just wrong.
- I’m not interested in viewing inappropriate ads. I understand the need to monetize the site, but there should be a way to filter the ads that hit my profile.
My apologies to the almost 700 folks that are my Facebook friends. You’ll need to either subscribe to my blog (click one of the subscribe buttons on the main page) and/or follow me on Twitter.
In the mean time, go poke your friends.
good call. you will not miss facebook. i shut my account down a couple of months ago and when I did, my life got .023% easier.
While I realize this won’t change your mind, I would like to point out to other readers that you now have the option to block any given application once for all. Yes, that means you’ll have to block new applications as they come out, but at least you can put an end to the pirate/ninja invitations with a single click. Secondly, if you use Firefox and AdBlock, you rarely see any ads anywhere on the internet. If you’re not already using Firefox, this may not be helpful, but for the nearly 20% of users (getting closer to 50% in EU) who already use Firefox, ad relief is only a click away.
Yes, I sound like a commercial. Sorry about that…
I’m jealous. I’d like to dump Facebook, and for the same reasons you gave, but I have some friends who don’t have blogs. Facebook is the only place for me to keep up with them.
So, yeah, that’s about the only time I go to Facebook. Otherwise, I’m just a lousy friend on Facebook — never respond to anything.
I don’t blame you one bit. I hate Facebook! Blogging and Twittering are good enough for me. The only positive thing I have gotten from Facebook is to connect with some long lost friends and to update people when I have a new blog post.
Tony,
Ditto!!!
I’m going to forward the comments to Facebook and see what happens. Many people seem to have the same challenges.
I agree. I do have an option for you. I am a Pastor In South Jersey and my Tech Guy developed a new social network called trekden.com. He has complete control of the ads and it is on the ground floor. He is adding a lot of things that combine the features of other social networks without the trash. Check it out. My name on there is revtjc.
As someone pointed out firefox with adblock plus takes care of 99% of ads. That’s not to point you back to facebook, but its a suggestion for dealing with teh interwebs in general. I haven’t seen an ad in forever.
I must ditto Matt’s comments: AdBlock Plus for Firefox = no more annoying ads on Facebook or just about anywhere.
Goodbye Tony.