With more than 800 million active users, out of which 50% of them logon everyday, Facebook is the biggest social network! We have already seen some examples of Facebook addiction in the past and this is yet another one out of the millions. After the introductions of some new features like the timeline and Facebook sidebar ticker, I could find mixed reactions from people regarding these changes. However, the few lines below convey what my thoughts and feelings are regarding the changes Facebook had made in the past few years.
You can also read Lalit’s post on reasons to hate facebook.
Dear Facebook,
I was one of the early adopters. I remember, I used to ask my friends to join you and leave Orkut. And I used to get replies like, “Are you kidding,” “Orkut is the best” to “Facebook is too complicated.” I still continued with you as I had complete faith in you and did not open any account in Orkut. Time passed by and the tables turned not only in India but across the web – Facebook became the DE FACTO. Every one now had a Facebook account. Everyone now shared what they were doing, how they were doing it, where they were doing it and with whom they were doing it. While Flickr and Google Picasa were fighting for the numero uno spot you came out of nowhere and became the largest picture sharing site. You kept adding more and more users; for you, sky was the limit. You became the most visited site after Google.com. You redefined what blogging is, what online marketing is, what social media is. You created a $12.2 billion economy dependent entirely on you. You shut and challenged many companies. You connected lost families, friends and even kidnappers.
All these years you kept improving and developing and expanding like the Universe. Initially I used to Update status, pics, write notes and comment on the same (which I do, even today). But then you introduced apps and games, and opened a plethora of different things and stuffs that at times amazed me and at times annoyed me. But I must point to you that you gave least importance to privacy and instead wanted people to share more and more. You wanted to be bigger than Google. Our Google. You started rolling out features that added more to the complexity than to the usefulness of the site. Titan was thought as the Gmail killer. As a matter of fact i do use Titan but i haven’t gotten myself a username for email address and thus saved myself from extra spams. But of course you helped the world by decreasing spam by increasing spams in your own self. Today I hid 9 spammy apps from publishing to my news feed. The features that you added at times annoyed me at times benefited me. But most importantly you made me an addict! I used to waste/invest my time checking notifications 200 times a day! I kept adding people whom I had never met and the so called “long lost” friends who if, were so important wouldn’t have lost in any case. You came up with ticker that showed/s to me what my friends were/are doing and vice versa, which completely shatters the privacy. Hence going by your current mood, I request you to remove the unavailable option from chat as it will ensure efficient connectivity.
Today, you are over confident of your supremacy on line. People found an escape in you and you en cashed from the unemployed during the recession and you kept growing. Now, You want to have people spend more and more time on you, you want to be THE-referral-site for all the traffic to any site. I see no wrong in it. I wish you all the best for it. But I dont enjoy spending time on you anymore. May be its for the fact that I have other work to do or that I have used you extensively or that you are way too complicated now. Facebook you have changed. I want back MY old Facebook. I doubt it hence I am quitting you, of course it may not be forever but definitely, indefinitely.
Following quote is regarding the complexity and features that you have introduced. Hope you’ll learn from it.
“Steve Jobs gave a small private presentation about the iTunes Music Store to some independent record label people. My favorite line of the day was when people kept raising their hand saying, “Does it do [x]?”, “Do you plan to add [y]?”. Finally Jobs said, “Wait wait — put your hands down. Listen: I know you have a thousand ideas for all the cool features iTunes could have. So do we. But we don’t want a thousand features. That would be ugly. Innovation is not about saying yes to everything. It’s about saying NO to all but the most crucial features.” – Derek Sivers
Missing the old Facebook,
Yours truly,
A Facebooker no more
Source: OPEN LETTER TO FACEBOOK
Author Bio
Rahul is a geek, at times humourist, thinker, full of sarcasm and a developer in the making. Add him to your circle on Google Plus or read some of his blog posts