This non-Facebook posting will suffice to be my final posting to Facebook. I know I have talked about this before and not gone through with it, however this time I mean it. If you are reading this via my FB feed then you are one of the very few "FB Friends" I have left. Truth is I do enjoy some of the posts I see and I will have to find some alternative to them because there will otherwise be a hole in my life, but FB is dead to me now.

Why? Well, for some time now I find that most of the time I spend on FB provides no value to me at all. Indeed, often it has negative value to me in that it wastes my time, annoys me with requests to play silly games and the latest trend, having an App involved with every little thing, like reading/sharing a URL from some other online resource. I resent the time I have to take to check my privacy settings, the constant barrage of notifications, the ever-present attempts to get my attention, and the juvenile approach many bring to FB relationships.

I am interested in what some of my friends are up to ... there are perhaps 1/2 dozen that I really give a rat's ass where they are at any given point ... but for the vast majority of the people I know, I don't care what coffee, beer, shot, wine, or water you are drinking today with whatever food you are eating at whatever establishment you happen to be eating at. Some people do it right (eg: Bob's beer picks) but I still don't give a shit really, others simply inundate me with their life trivia that sounds as boring and mundane as it obviously feels to the poster (cause if they were truly enjoying it they wouldn't take the time to post to FB). "I'm in Timmies", "I'm in Chicago", "I'm eating pancakes", nothing is too trivial for a Facebook status. I'm truly sorry if any of my friends see themselves in this description, I'm not out to offend or even judge, I'm just not interested that's all.

And then there is the other end of the spectrum, those who have been on Facebook for months or even years and you don't hear anything from them at all. Or the people who friend you but then don't respond even to direct wall posts ... why are we "FB friends" again? Why should I be pushing out my information to those who are unwilling to share themselves? I think I'd rather have folks pull my information, visit my site, read my tweets, or even call me on the phone.

I thought hard about just rethinking how I use FB, of de-friending a ton of folks and doing a heavy bit of "unsubscribing" but I didn't see how I could do that without spending a lot of time and most likely offending people ... just because I don't want to be your FB friend doesn't mean I don't want to be your real friend! I realized it is FB I am rebelling against not my friends and acquaintances that I have hooked into FB. I realize that my most enjoyable times are actually hanging out with my friends, not online with FB and I realize that I am increasingly unhappy with FB as a corporation and losing my online anonymity (I feel similarly about Google but I find the services Google brings to the table generally do provide value).

I will miss Ed's piano recitals, Peter's informative blogs, Lori's funny statuses, half of Steve's posts (the non-sports ones), and all of the posts from Andrew, John, Tara, oh hell, a lot of folks really, but I won't miss FB.

So, before the FB timeline reveals the ugly truth about my soul to the world, I shall sign off this service. But not the Internet, nor social media. I will still provide the occasional tweet, my blog will continue, and other sites and services will still be used, look for me I won't be hard to find ... but Facebook is dead to me and Google is on the death bed.