Why I Would Give Up Facebook in a Heartbeat

Yes you read that right. A social media professional publicly stating she’d give up Facebook. Let me explain…

I have been a Facebook user since the fall of 2006. I enjoyed simply because I could keep up with my sister out of state. My mom joined a few years later.

Being on Facebook originally was fun – reconnecting with friends I hadn’t seen in years, staying in better touch with family out of state and even getting to give an apology to someone that was about 10 years overdue. There were no ads and no games – you could say Facebook life was much simpler.

Fast forward to now. Everytime I log on, I’m shown more ads that I ever remember seeing. I’m constantly getting game requests from older relatives that all they do in retirement is play Facebook games (MOM!!!). Facebook is busier than it’s ever been. Over 1 billion people and over 50 million business pages.

As an everday user, I’m over it. As a business owner and a social media marketer, I’m deep into it. Can’t win for losing, right?

Today I’m writing this post as a user, not as the social media marketer. To be honest, it’s hard to switch between the two, but we have to. So why am I over Facebook as an everday user?

1. It’s no longer interesting.

Call me boring but all the content in my News Feed these days are selfies, obvious cries for attention and people overinflating their lives. Rarely do I see something good, such as a promotion or someone’s exciting news. It’s more vain and ego and less celebration. There’s too much shallowness in this world, I want to see the good stuff going on in my friends’ lives.

2. Too much noise.

I love the cleanness of Instgram. One nice thread of pictures with comments. Twitter lists too – one nice stream of tweets. Facebook now has your entire left column of your pages and such, then the main feed in the middle and ads and the running trend ticker on the right. When I constantly have 5 or 6 tabs open at any given time, I just want to flip over to something clean.

3. I’m missing out on posts from friends & family.

I know all about Facebook’s algorithm. I know why I’m not seeing their posts, but I shouldn’t have to go to each of their profiles to see what’s going on. I have an Interest List set up for them, but the downside to that is that I see every single page they have liked. all of the friends they’ve become friends with and each time the reach a new level in Candy Crush. After about 5 seconds of scrolling I just give up. There has to be a better way.

4. Too much drama.

This goes back to point number 1. I know almost all of my Facebook friends in real life and I can weed out the BS from reality. Sweetie, you ain’t foolin everyone. Facebook gets really bad during election years and I will typically hide A LOT of stuff during that time. Politics have no place on social media. I have rarely seen a level-headed debate or comment thread on one. No one has time for that! This ecard says it perfectly…

So if I’m over Facebook and not using it as much, where in the social web am I? Twitter, Google Plus and Instagram. Why?

1. I see the content I want to see.

I am in love with Twitter Lists and Google Plus Circles. These are two of the greatest inventions in social media. With each of these, I see all of the content of the people I want, minus the games, likes and new friends. It’s easy to read so there’s no noise and distractions. Oh glorious day!

2. Less drama.

Okay, I have to put an asterisk next to this one because Twitter can be one drama-filled party like the Real Housewives of whatever city it is this week. BUT you only have 140 characters on Twitter, so you gotta be short, sweet and to the point. Not a lot of long, rambling posts like Facebook. Google Plus is typically more mature because the userbase is older, saner and so over the teenage drama.

3. Content is more interesting to me.

I’m all about quality, value-building posts both personally and professionally. I’ve found the content as a whole is better on Google Plus and Twitter. Instagram is fun – it’s like you are getting a behind-the-scene peek at others’ lives in a voyeuristic way. Less drama. Less headaches. Less fakeness. It’s articles I want to read, pictures from people that matter to me and the latest news (seriously, I’ve found I get the news much faster on Twitter than on any website or TV station).

Because I own a social marketing business, I cannot leave Facebook. My clients are doing well on it and I need to be there. I’ve scaled back my personal uses of Facebook though. When I do use it personally, it’s from my iPhone or iPad 90% of the time. It’s easier to keep the business part separate that way.

How about you? Are you tempted to leave the big blue brother? Would you ever completely leave Facebook personally?