Everyone should watch this:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4097602514885833865#

Why I left Facebook

It’s been a little over a week since I cut the cord and asked Facebook to delete my account forever.  I have to admit I really do miss it.  I miss knowing what my friends are up to without having to put any real effort into finding out.  I miss posting about my accomplishment or whining about something that went wrong and getting some support back from people.

I really like that I left though.  I feel more honest, like a better representation of who I am and want to be.  I mean, it’s a little silly to post links on facebook about how you shouldn’t be on facebook isn’t it?

My primary objection with facebook is a response to the nature of the business deal inherent to joining and using facebook.  In return for providing the facebook corporation with your personal information, your whereabouts, your habits, things you like and dislike, who your friends are and a myriad of other information you get to talk to your friends with little or not effort.  In reciprocation for your personal information you get to be lazy, a little more connected with people you generally don’t talk to, a little creepier than you want to be (the term ‘facebook stalk’ comes to mind), but generally, in my opinion, a bit lazy in comparison to the manner in which socialization and friendship are generally conducted.  I find this tradeoff to be unfair and biased towards the corporation.  I value the information I was sharing on facebook the same as I do any personal information.  We have federal laws about protecting our medical information, why not the bands we like or our pictures from last weekend?  Is one really more valuable or inherently personal than the other?  In sum, facebook gets too much in return for what they give me.

This leads me to my second major issue.  I think that our economy is not set up to deal with putting a value on a non-consumable good.  All the content (data) you generate on facebook can be mined, related to your friends data, and used in very powerful ways to target marketing towards you in an unrelenting effort to make us think less and buy more.  I think that people generally do not understand this and therefore undervalue their own information.  This is made abundantly clear to me when people give up their online privacy to find out what their ‘Stripper Name’ is, what ‘Sex and the City’ character they are, or whatever other asinine thing some insidious data miner has come up with to get access to you and your friends information.  Your data can be collected and resold an infinite number of times to whomever wants to buy it.  This commodity is fundamentally different than traditional consumable goods.  That fundamental difference is what drives the misunderstanding among the public regarding the value of their personal information and the data you create just by using the service.

There’s a reason facebook is “free and always will be” – it’s that your information is incredibly valuable and they’re getting the long end of the stick. 

I’m out.

Today I deleted my facebook account.  Forever.

I couldn’t take it anymore.  My primary frustration is with the commodification of personal information that is gathered from people who are (in my opinion) unwittingly providing a (soon to be publicly traded) corporation with their commodity as well as exposing themselves to dangers they are completely unaware of.

I think that our society has found itself in the midst of a revolution that it is unknowingly participating in and legally unprotected from.  At this point I’m struggling to articulate all the things I’m angry about but it seems the only thing I can do is stop participating.  So, I’m out.  Apparently, facebook is so appalled that I asked them to delete me that I have 14 days to consider my decision.  Perhaps I’ll work on articulating my reasons for leaving and express them here.  From this point forward, you can expect to find more posts here.