Hello, Facebook - Goodbye, Facebook

Hello, Facebook - Goodbye, Facebook

Reading the article Why Some Dissatisfied Users Are Shunning Facebook, I wasn't all that surprised as others might be. I've seen a decline in my Facebook friends in the last few months, as is. Many people decide to delete their Facebook accounts because they become obsessive and compulsive about checking up on their favorite network. With the technology available today access to Facebook is available at the click of a button on phones such as the iPhone, Droid, Blackberry, and a variety of other cell phones. People in school libraries are constantly fixated on their accounts instead of doing their school work. Some of us know how to retain self control and resist the urge to constantly peek at our Facebook account during inappropriate times. However, many other people cannot do the same. They must check their Facebook when they are driving, in class, with their friends or family, church, and basically everywhere, getting a Facebook fix has no limits. Instead of staying with the network these people decide to cut off all contact and delete their accounts since they cannot exercise control.

How addicted to Facebook are you?

One of many reasons why people have a hard time deleting of deactivating their Facebook account is because everyone wants to know what everyone is up to and what's going on in the cyber world. Jenna Wortham explains in her article that she goes through the emotions of continuously wanting to be in contact with people around her and the best way to do that nowadays is to go through Facebook. One of Facebook’s main selling points is that it builds closer ties among friends and colleagues. However, some who steer clear of the site say it can have the opposite effect of making them feel more, not less, alienated. “I wasn’t calling my friends anymore,” said Ashleigh Elser, 24, who is in graduate school in Charlottesville, Va. “I was just seeing their pictures and updates and felt like that was really connecting to them.”

Facebook locks users in with privacy settings

However, I personally have stopped using Facebook because of all the changes to the Privacy settings. The major issue I have with that is that they don't ask permission from each individual user but rather decided for everyone and make the major call - despite users being against it. A new Facebook feature that lets users pay to promote their friends’ posts is raising privacy concerns. The promoted posts abide by privacy settings, but users have zero control over which posts friends promote. There is no way to opt out of it. The feature is the latest in a series of gimmicks to generate revenue for Facebook. For a $7 fee, friends can select "promote and share" from the drop-down menu on the top-right corner of a friend's status update. Facebook says it is rolling out the feature because there was demand for it. The feature is supposed to benefit users, allowing friends to draw attention to good deeds, achievements or milestones, such as fund-raising for a charity, starting a new job or having a baby. "This feature respects the privacy of the original poster – i.e. it will promote to everyone who originally saw it. You can only promote posts to the people that your friend originally shared with. If you have mutual friends, they’ll see that you shared it and promoted it," Facebook said in a statement. Privacy watchdogs say the feature is yet another example of Facebook wresting control of users' information and turning it into a commodity to be sold. "The user, not Facebook should control the data," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. The reason I bring this point to the table is because this is an integral part of issues with Facebook - resulting in users leaving the interactive website. 

In terms of communicating  Facebook makes things much easier but, to me, turns people into more individuals who prosper technologically but fail socially in a face-to-face setting. Being on Facebook is parallel to being in an abusive relationship with a partner that you just can't leave no matter the effort you put in.