Leaving Facebook

My friend mhoye covered everything I would say about why I'm choosing to leave Facebook (and then some, he gathers all the privacy stuff well!).

I'm really hoping that by leaving Facebook I will be reclaiming some time and creative energy to revitalize this blog, make more vlog posts, re-do my website so that it's up to date, and generally enjoy intentional communication over the deluge of lazy input that Facebook provides in spades.

There was a time when it seemed that in order to learn what was going on around town you had to have a Facebook account but now that feature has been drowned out by so much publicity that I don't even look to the events anymore. I expect my friends to tell me when there's something awesome going on. I will look to the local papers if I'm desperately seeking an interesting night out.

Living without Facebook will be hard at first because I'll probably fear that I'm missing something. I will most miss the casual posting of media that my friends are so good at doing - the links, photos, videos. I'll be encouraging people to blog, to email me, to post on flickr or other content sharing sites. I'm also going to trust that when I see the people I love in person they will whip out the baby/trip/food photos.

I'm doing this in a conscious effort to become a creator again. I've been sitting back and consuming too much.

Having been a part of Facebook since the "early days" when you had to have a university email address to join, I've enjoyed watching it grow. At one point, I applauded Facebook for being a great teaching tool on privacy because I believed that it was teaching average internet users more about granularity and control over access. Now they have gone too far. I was originally planning to stick around to bear witness to whatever the next violation of privacy would be, the one after that, and the one after that. Instead I'm going to lead by example. I will have a full and media-rich life on the internet without Facebook, and I will happily discuss the awesomeness of this with anyone. I will actively encourage people to try it out for themselves, just as I love to encourage people to quit smoking, eat more salad, and learn to run.

See you 'round here more often. Don't be a stranger.