Rearranging Social Media

My personal friends know but I thought I’d make it very public: I’m leaving Facebook.

For quite some time, I’ve been first frustrated, then disgusted with Facebook thinking they’re god (or at the very least, my parents). They decide what I can see when and that includes not showing posts from pages I’ve liked. If I’ve “liked” a page, don’t you think I want to see updates from them? I shouldn’t have to “get notifications” (and that doesn’t always work, either). Over the last several weeks I’ve also noticed that I don’t get to see all my friends’ status updates, or they’ll show up in my news feed 12-24 hours after the actual post. Some of them even appear in my “pages” feed.

The last straw was this bit of news that Facebook was going to deactivate personal accounts that didn’t sport a “real name”. As the article points out, there are tons of reasons to use a pseudonym on the Internet. Although I use my real name, I understand why a lot of people don’t. Some witches aren’t out of the broom closet, nor are LGBTQs out of their closet – for good reason. The Internet has become a place to track down, stalk, harass & threaten. Sure, you can report someone to Facebook but by that time, the damage is already done.

And as for Facebook’s “get a page” to the drag queens? As of this morning, I had 734 likes on my Facebook page. Of the few posts I made in the last week, 10% or less of those likes saw those posts. One page I do get to see some updates from complained that of her over 14,000 likes, less than 100 saw her posts. So, those queens will lose the interaction with their friends/fans by 90% or more unless they pay to promote their posts. It’s about the almighty dollar – something I certainly don’t have. (And if you pay, you still don’t make it into the newsfeed of all your likes. Just a percentage of them – and that’s not a firm guarantee.)

I”ll keep my Facebook page for another month or so and then that will disappear, as well. I’d originally thought to keep it active but I chewed on it overnight & changed my mind. If only 10% of the folks that like my page are seeing my posts, it’s a lot of effort for not a lot of return. I’ve reactivated my Google+ account and I’ll be more active there than Facebook. I’m not going to have a business page on G+ … just separate out what I want the public to see versus my family and friends.

I’m still on Twitter. But, if Twitter decides to curate my timeline based on some algorithm they’ve chosen, I”ll leave there. too.

There is a new social networking site being talked about amongst my friends. It’s called “Ello”. I took a look around what you can see without actually being on there (you need an invite to join) and I can’t find where they plan on making their money. Ads? Selling data? Someone has to pay for at least the domain name & server usage. Until I know how it will operate, I’m not willing to test it. At least I know how the other sites are using my data. (Well, perhaps not but better the beast you know…)

If Facebook is the only way I have to interact with you, I will miss you. But I don’t like the way that site is being run and my only option is to vote with my feet. It’ll also save my sanity a bit – I won’t get frustrated with not seeing things I really wanted to see.

1 Comment

  • Thyme Wisper Posted September 26, 2014 2:45 pm

    So totally agree. I will be leaving Facebook too.

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