I permanently terminated my Facebook account 2 months ago. Prior to that, I had been a Facebook.com user since 2005. Occasionally suspending the account to focus squarely on my to-do lists but mostly active. I was one of the earliest users on campus during my undergraduate years and I used Facebook every single day till 2010 thereabout. Facebook was great for keeping up with friends, increasing my network and sharing information publicly. Here are the top 5 reasons why I closed my Facebook account:
1. Other platforms became more user friendly with a wider reach. One blog post on Olatorera.com gets thousands more readership than one posting on Facebook. This is because Facebook limits friends to 5,000 people. Visibility on Facebook became more limited sometime after the year 2011 to allow Facebook generate more revenue from paid Ads.
2. Mark Zuckerberg and his team recently made it possible and easy to close your Facebook account permanently. This was not possible a year ago and I believe it must have been a mandate from government that emerged from Mark Zuckerberg’s recent political problems. Facebook over the years would only temporarily suspend your account and if you ever logged back in all your details would still be there making it an easy decision to log back in. There was no option to completely terminate a Facebook account until 2018. Full termination for many means no going back as no one wants to re-build a Facebook profile in 2018.
3. Facebook became more focused on revenue than the customer journey. Usrs would see more ads on newsfeeds than they cared to.
4. It was simply time to stop being a Facebook addict. Personally, my network had changed from the 5,000 friends limit Facebook locks accounts into. I didnt feel the need or have the time to remove and add new friends.
5. Facebook stopped being useful to me. My growth focus changed.
Facebook is an excellent platform. Very well built over the years by the most intelligent tech experts but as of today, its usefulness is wearing off. Facebook might want to capitalize heavily on Instagram during this phase of revenue decline and mass termination of accounts.
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