This weekend, I'm quitting Facebook. I've downloaded my photos, collected the important email addresses. It's time to say goodbye to the big, blue social network. 

The notion to quit crossed my mind a long time ago. I'm sure it's crossed everyone's mind at some point. However, everything I've read and listened to since the big IPO basically points to a future where shareholders will have a vested interest in making sure Facebook does everything it can to maximize the money it makes on it's users. There's nothing wrong or evil about that, I just don't want to be a part of it. Here's Why I'm quitting Facebook.

Privacy
I'm not a privacy nut (though facebook is super creepy). Never the less, everything you post, share and like on Facebook is mined and counted for future monetization. More over, if you log onto Facebook then surf other websites, Facebook comes along for the ride. Dutifully taking notes on the sites you visited and the content to which you paid the most attention. That way when you come back to Facebook, the ads are more tailored to the stuff you already like. While there are all kinds of well documented ways that this information can be used against you. I'm most concerned about what it means for us culturally.

When we are mined for our likes and what we're watching on netflix and what music we're listening to and what places we shop and what cars we drive and what teams we like so an algorithm can serve us up more suggestions of stuff that we might like what have we become? The answer is certainly not "more human." At that point we are little more than the variables in an equation designed to help companies expand their reach. We become defined by the things we like and not for the people we are, I fear this can only coarsen the culture. 

Liking
The world of Facebook, or as one author calls it, "Facebook-istan" is one of "liking." You post something, (very often that someone else created) in the hopes that your friends or worse your "social graph" will "like" it. In other words, they will confirm to you that the transient thing you shared but put no real effort into was in fact funny, or cute or whatever. They will help you like yourself.

We live our lives now (especially at big events or family get togethers) as if they are photo-ops for the mini-media empire we call our Facebook page. There was a time when posting something to Facebook was an afterthought, maybe something you'd do later. But now, with the proliferation of smart phones, it's more than that…we take photos as we go, broadcasting life as we live it. In an age of inflated celebrity culture we've taken the model shown to us by the rich and famous and copied it, made it our own. We are our own celebrities in our own little world. 

On more than one occasion I've thought to myself, "this is going to be a really great shot for Facebook." Because that's the way we should live our lives? There's a major downside to the world of liking though...

Never Ending College
Facebook was invented by a kid in a college dorm, as such, while it has certainly changed at it's heart it's still about all the things dorm life are about. Presenting a polished version of your life so world sees you through a flattering lens. Your child is always cute, you always look nice, you always share the funniest most clever stuff, you become defined by the stuff you like. That is Facebook's formation of our identity. 

Ever see what happens when someone posts something unpleasant on Facebook? It's the same thing that happens when someone comes to a birthday party crying. For a few moments everyone is concerned, questions are asked, then once the subject is dropped (or the status is deleted) we go back to previous rather mindless activities including snickering about the person and wondering if all that "drama" was just for attention or why she can't just get it together. Behind the veneer of a screen and keyboard we feign concern as we privately condemn. Facebook is never ending college, which is too bad, because as a generation, we need to grow up.

I realize I'm probably blaming the tool, when I should be blaming the carpenter. Afterall, I can define my experience on any social network any way I want. The trouble is Facebook is not a simple hammer, its a company and a platform looking to grow and is ambitious enough to think it can define the way we communicate in the future. They may be right, online we are increasingly defined by the way we post and share information. We are defined by the content we share and the forms we fill out. It is in this way that I cannot abide to be controlled any more. Facebook isn't some digital bully. I signed up for this, I signed up to have my life parsed into Status updates and photo uploads. I chose to click the "like" button.

So this weekend, I'm pulling the plug. I will remain on Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn. I'll be treating all of these networks as public by default. Twitter is my platform to share content with those who might be interested. Google+ will be a place to share my work and have more in-depth discussion and Linkedin is my place for professional networking. 

Quitting Facebook is part of my effort to simplify, to chip away and get to the essential. Here's hoping it helps. 

In closing here are two quotes on Facebook from authors I deeply admire. They encapsulate my objections to Facebook better than I ever could. 

First Jonathan Franzen"

And, since our technology is really just an extension of ourselves, we don’t have to have contempt for its manipulability in the way we might with actual people. It’s all one big endless loop. We like the mirror and the mirror likes us. To friend a person is merely to include the person in our private hall of flattering mirrors...

And Zadie Smith:

Shouldn’t we struggle against Facebook? Everything in it is reduced to the size of its founder. Blue, because it turns out Zuckerberg is red-green color-blind. “Blue is the richest color for me—I can see all of blue.” Poking, because that’s what shy boys do to girls they are scared to talk to. Preoccupied with personal trivia, because Mark Zuckerberg thinks the exchange of personal trivia is what “friendship” is. A Mark Zuckerberg Production indeed! We were going to live online. It was going to be extraordinary. Yet what kind of living is this? Step back from your Facebook Wall for a moment: Doesn’t it, suddenly, look a little ridiculous? Your life in this format?