After a few months of complete absence from facebook I have decided to cancel my account.  Unfortunately facebook does not allow you to completely delete the account but rather they let you deactivate it.  They still keep all of my profile information and everything else I have ever done on facebook (that's just one of the reasons I quit it.  Way to invasive.)

facebook, like all other social networks, is just a temporary fad.  First there was friendster, then came myspace, now facebook *yawn*.  Tomorrow it will be something else.  I'm sure that the vast majority of people who chose to remain on facebook  had or have accounts with the other social networks.  Why?  Every time you sign up for these you need to fill out a long profile, you need to build your network, you need to care enough to participate.  Well I don't. 

So what alternatives are there to facebook?  Well for starters, isn't the entire web one giant social network?  Why use lousy software that someone else made and is making billions off of, and in the process completely invades your privacy (Beacon *cough*)?  Why not have a blog and tell all your friends about it?!  That sure sounds a lot more reasonable to me.  If I want a place that represents my identity on the web, I sure want to have full control over it.  And I want to be the one who is responsible for my privacy! 

So this is goodbye facebook.  I wish you well. 

Well just when I said that Facebook is useless, and it doesn't work for me, they go and release a development platform!

My first impression of it is quite positive. There are tons of ready made applications you can add to customize your facebook account, from music, to politics and everything in between. It also comes with an API for developers to develop new applications. This is quite exciting! I may even try to develop something.

Will it change my opinion about the whole social networking thing? I don't know yet but this is a step in a good direction!