I expect to log into Facebook once more — to message my connections there that they won’t be able to find me there, why, and where to find me instead — then I’ll leave for good.

Why leave?

I knew I wanted to leave after Facebook made its privacy policy too intrusive for my tastes. I felt they had too much control over my personal data.

Facebook is creepy, getting creepier, and shows no sign of slowing down.

Free cost does not mean I’m getting something for nothing. I came to see I was the product being sold to advertisers. What benefit I got — networking online — I realize I’m better off without, because I find myself more social without Facebook.

I still appreciate online networking. I use Diaspora — a peer-to-peer network where you own your data. Here’s my public stream. Like early Wikipedia, it’s small and has mostly geeks. I expect it will grow by respecting user’s privacy and freedom.

I remember people in 2003 calling Wikipedia doomed, saying it could never grow. Now it’s the #6 site in the internet. Even so, also like early Wikipedia, I don’t expect non-geeks to join Diaspora much until its size and features grow.

I expect Facebook, Google+, and other centralized sites, in an arms race to profit more off users’ data, will drive more users to Diaspora. I hope to see you there. Join by clicking “sign up” here and choosing a site near you.

(Edit: Diaspora hasn’t taken off so well either. Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.)

Why now?

I’d thought about leaving since the cost of Facebook’s creepiness overtook the benefit of its usefulness, but I felt like I needed to plan.

Forcing the timeline on me unilaterally told me to act sooner. If only I’d realized how easy and fun leaving would be, I’d have left earlier.

It turns out I didn’t need to plan.

Was leaving hard?

Leaving was easy!

And fun, because I socialize more in person!

And effective, because I do other things I value more.

Plenty of sites say how to quit Facebook. What told me to do it now was reading how many people find the biggest surprise in leaving Facebook is how little leaving affected them. Like them, I found leaving a non-issue.

Did I lose anything by leaving?

No. On the contrary, I gained more than I lost, mainly with the extra free time and sense of freedom.

My life seems no less full, so whatever invitations or group activity I lost, I more than made up for with more direct socializing and getting other things done.

I’ll find out more when I log in for the last time to message my contacts that I left and how to find me. I’m open to finding out I missed something important, finding the benefit of staying outweighs the cost of losing control of my personal data and doing business with a creepy company.

What will my parting message be?

Hi <name>,

Facebook got too creepy for me so I left. It messes with my personal data too much. More importantly, I found the transition of leaving trivial and life without it better than with.

I don’t want to leave you, though, so I’m logging on one last time to let my contacts here know how to find me. My email is [my email] and my web page is joshuaspodek.com. I post to it daily, including a post on how leaving Facebook was easy and fun — https://joshuaspodek.com/leaving-facebook-easy-and-fun.

I switched to Diaspora, a peer-to-peer network where you own your data. Here’s my public stream. Like early Wikipedia, it’s small and has mostly geeks. I expect it will grow by respecting user’s privacy and freedom.

I remember people in 2003 calling Wikipedia doomed, saying it could never grow. Now it’s the #6 site in the internet. Even so, also like early Wikipedia, I don’t expect non-geeks to join Diaspora much until its size and features grow.

I expect Facebook, Google+, and other centralized sites, in an arms race to profit more off users’ data, will drive more users to Diaspora. I hope to see you there. Email me if you want to connect there.

For that matter email me for any reason. I’d love to hear from you.

I repost my Diaspora comments to Twitter — http://twitter.com/#!/spodek — but I expect to leave them eventually too.

EDIT: people are sending me tons of articles about people leaving Facebook. I don’t think it’s a trend so much as a rational response to a company accelerating its invasive creepiness. I don’t see people following each other so much as running away from something scary. Anyway, I like how this Village Voice article explains the situation.

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