Leaving the Evil Empire of Facebook

It seems an accurate summary would be, "Another Facebook user discovers that their paying too high a price to use the service."

People often don't think of it in those terms, "In exchange for letting you know everything about me, I will be able to share information with my friends online." But the alternative is paying the costs of running such a service with subscription fees, and well nobody wants to do that either.

One of the more interesting things I hope develops about the Internet with the current "kids" generation is the understanding that the Internet has never been, and never will be "free", and that once that is understood, it will enable companies to be created that provide services payed for by subscription fees rather than influence and data.

I haven't, don't, and never will have a Facebook account. Ditto all the rest. No need for all that to stay in touch with the people in my life.

What concerns me is the lack of anonymity being pushed. The real name nonsense. Real name policies prevent so many people saying so much. Also highly bothersome is the trend with websites to have a Facebook sign-in and nothing else. It's like the want to track you EVERYWHERE, not just on their own digital properties. No, thank you.

It's still chat and email for me, coupled with as-often-as-possible face-to-face coffee outings.