After Facebook’s many privacy kerfuffles — can you believe there was a situation where users were able to read each other’s private chats? — it’s once again become fashionable to say you’re going to quit the social network.
Engadget founder Peter Rojas, who says he’s “tired of not having real control over what I’m sharing,” did it. So did VC and professional know-it-all Paul Kedrosky. So did that one guy in your office with the thick-rimmed glasses who says he prefers to “tweet.” And so did I.
Yup. I don’t have a Facebook account anymore.
So in one day, I have lost all of my online friends. That’s the equivalent of two fully packed jumbo jets colliding in mid-air and leaving nobody alive. And based on how neglectingly I used to treat my friends that refused to join FB, I will soon be forgotten by most of them, while they will continue to follow each others’ lives, share their latest photos, send event invitations and work on their virtual farms. I won’t even be able to track some people down outside of Facebook with whom I have been in regular contact (and would like to continue to be), nor will people easily find me who will try to do so. I will miss some people and I will miss some of the features, conceded.