Dear (John) Facebook,
Its not you its me.
We’ve grown apart.
I just need to focus on my career.
It started off so strong. You were a great way to connect with friends. You became the high school reunion platform and replaced the awful “Classmates” option. I used you for announcements in my life, college graduation, marriage, kids, and what I had for lunch.
At first you were so conversational. A platform to communicate with people who I didn’t have phone numbers for. I would use you to setup lunches, talk to my friends about last night Office episode (2008), complain about the NBA lockout (2009), even communicate with my wife. We were together from the beginning. Since you were The Facebook. I even chose you over Friendster and Myspace.
Then something changed in you. The platform got big… like larger than China big. You changed from a connection point to a content sharing platform. You led to the creation of fakenews and clickbait. I grew tired of seeing sponsored content urging me to see “What a childstar looks like now”. I don’t blame you, it was a time to monetize the future advertising giant, but we’ve grown apart since then. You’ve forgotten your roots of community, friends, and events in favor of data gathering.
I write you this letter in hopes that it isn’t too late. We haven’t seen each other since I stopped logging on early in the year despite your best efforts to notify me of what I might be missing each day. I had to delete you from my crowded app space on my phone.
I think the hardest part for me is that I have felt completely fine moving on. Sure there were some tearful nights as I tried to move on, but I feel stronger now than ever before.
I’ve found some new people that I think you would like. My friends Twitter and LinkedIn are filling a void in my heart that I never thought I could. I’ve connected with some great friends and thought leaders there and brought back the voice I once had with you. I’m sure you’ll move on and be just fine. We were so strong for so long, but just like Socrates said
“The hottest love has the coldest end”. I wish you all the best of luck and I really hope we can stay friends. Ill make sure to add you.
Love,
Joe
