Goodbye Facebook

When the social websites were becoming popular in 2008, I signed up for Facebook like many others.  It seamed like a good idea, sharing photos and catching up with friends and also building connections with people I lost contact many years ago.  But over the years it lost its appeal and even became a nuisance having it as a bookmark that I checked daily and also on my mobile phone.

Then one day while on the train I read this article in Economist that basically stated that people who check Facebook are miserable.  Then I did a self assessment and realised that by checking facebook, I noticed friends vacation photos and felt jealous.  (not even thinking that next weekend I was going on vacation myself!).

So I thought about, what would I miss if I left facebook.  Close friends all have my email.  Those who want to get in touch can, I own my family name dot com.

Now I'm looking at more specific sites for interests, 500px and flicr for photos, meetup to meet people and local interest sites for things to do in London.

After a few months of no facebook, do I miss it?  Not really.  Why did I write this?  It's an answer to those who may want to friend me on facebook.

2015 Update: I'm back on facebook, but mostly follow the Bike and Nature blogs that are on facebook.  I guess it's a tool like anything else.