Why I left Facebook

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2013/05/28/everyone-hates-facebook-but-we-cant-leave/

As much as I adore staying connected with my far flung friends and family, I believe those relationships will survive offline.  There were several instances that brought me to my decision to leave. 

The harnessing of personal info is too much. A friend of mine took some kind of "what kind of person are you" quiz that analyzed every single post, like, group, page, pretty much everything she ever did on FB, tallied it all up, then analyzed the same usage for all of her friends and made comparisons. I had never elected to be part of the quiz, and yet there I was, presented in her data with my FB "personality" on display. It said I was "contentious" and "neurotic". 

I found that alarming. 

FB has a way of twisting the way you appear. Even if you want to celebrate the good things online, you come across as boastful. Or whiny and ungrateful in the opposite case. I like to keep things to myself. You want to see a picture of my kids? Too bad. Come look at them in person. Hang out with me in life. I found that the timesuck void of FB was actually making me feel more lonely instead of more connected. 

I find a lot of insincerity on FB. A lot of people like to ramble on about their perfect this and perfect that. We all know it's crap. Stop trying to impress everybody. Your kids have as many tantrums as everyone else's. Give me a break.

Then final straw was on a page dedicated to the memory of a deceased friend. All of these people had wished him Happy Birthday. Why? He's dead? They were doing it for themselves, clearly. But why? These are people who had not seen or spoken to my deceased friend in years, if not decades. One woman had actually reused to speak to my friend for several years because of an old feud. She refused to forgive him, would not attend his funeral, and was convinced he was going to hell for his lifestyle. And here she is on FB proclaiming her sadness and loss and wishing him happy birthday. I don't want to see it.

And then there's this: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/facebook-tinkers-users-emotions-news-010656869.html

So, you want to stay in touch, here I am!