Bye Bye Facebook

I’ve had a manic week and one which has featured Facebook quite heavily.

We had a unique opportunity for the company when Mark D’Arcy (Director of Global Creative Solutions at Facebook) came into talk to the global community about Social by Design. He had a lot of very interesting things to say and was very relevant to the way people use the Internet and social media these days.

Professionally this is very interesting and helps a company like the one if work for move forward into this new age (in fact Advertising Week called us Digital advertiser of the year only the week). I

I am however concerned by the way such media is being utilised and taken for granted. It seems that Facebook is moving towards a more advertising and marketing driven site which utilises our personal information in ways that most people cannot comprehend.

I have had a long love hate relationship with Facebook and recently feel out of love with it again and so today I deactivated my account.

That in itself annoys me. Why “deactivate” why not delete? At which point is my information not my own and what gives Facebook the right to not allow me to delete my account?

I also hate the way Facebook has made people become lazy. It’s great that we can all see what everyone is up to (if we choose to share it) but the conversation has changed from “did you see Fred went to China” to “did you see Fred on Facebook?”. There’s also an assumption in conversation that people think you have been on the site in the last 20 secs and. You have a clue what they are whittling on about. So many conversations have included such statements that I tire of them…

I used to like Facebook as it connected me with people I lost contact with and it allowed me to connect with those I do not see often but to be honest my blog can do the same job and the information I share here is much more meaningful and interesting than some random repost.

Responses to my blog also seem more human and thought out. Comments on posts on Facebook usually come across as flippant or negative. Who needs that in their lives?

I much prefer new social services such as Path which are much more Personal and transparent. Path allows me to connect to who I want without the constant barrage of “you might know” or “do you want…”. Facebook even tried to guilt me into deactivating my account by telling me “this person will miss you…”. How patronising is that?

So professionally I find Facebook and certain sites intriguiugn and exciting but as a personal user I am concerned about how this information is used and how much I am being exploited as an individual…

So if you want to contact me, if you want to know what I’m up to… Read my blog, drop me an email or give me a call. Just don’t expect to be poking me or writing on my wall any time soon.