Qutting Facebook

Quitting Facebook has been in the news a bit recently, sparked in part by the reports that Bill Gates is one of those trying to get out of Facebook:

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has stopped using the Web site Facebook, the most damning indictment in a week full of bad press for social-networking technology.

Social-networking Web sites, which help people share and find information about one another, were supposed to change the way people use the Internet and the way we work. But lately, all we’re hearing about are the problems.

Workers who created profiles on Facebook are horrified to find out they can’t be erased, the New York Times reports. Even if you deactivate your account, Facebook still keeps a copy of all the information you ever posted. And, the Times reports, it’s still possible to contact people through deleted Facebook pages.

And it’s not just older worker who realize they’ve inadvertently given colleagues insight into their private lives that are upset: The MySpace generation is getting sick of MySpace, too, according to MSNBC. They’re turned off by too much advertising on social-networking sites. That’s one reason the amount of time the average person spends on a social-networking site has dropped 14% over the last four months, according to Internet research company comScore.

If that weren’t enough, Computerworld recently regurgitated a handful of reasons why the sites aren’t appropriate for the workplace. The highlights: They use up too much bandwidth; they cause employees to waste time; and there’s a chance that someone will disclose sensitive information.

None of those reasons caused Bill Gates to abandon his Facebook account, however. His problem is excessive celebrity. After Microsoft invested $240 million in Facebook last year, Gates spent 30 minutes a day on the social-networking site, the Sun reports. “But he signed off after getting more than 8,000 friend requests a day, and spotted weird fan sites about him,” says the Sun, citing an unnamed colleague. The article linked above says he deleted the account. A Microsoft spokesperson tells us that Gates hasn’t deleted it, but that he has stopped using it because he was inundated with friend requests. Not that deleting the account would have done any good.

Read more here (from the Wall Street Journal).  Negative stories like that have prompted a change to Facebook so that it is easier to permanently delete a Facebook profile:

Aiming to address the privacy concerns of disenchanted users, Facebook.com said on Tuesday that it was trying to make it easier for people to delete their accounts permanently from the social networking site.

Until now, Facebook has offered only a deactivation option, which keeps copies of the account’s personal information on the company’s servers. It is possible to delete an account fully using a cumbersome manual method, but it is difficult; many users complained that Facebook did not provide clear instructions.

On Monday, Facebook modified its help pages to tell people that if they wanted to remove their accounts entirely, they can direct the company by e-mail to have it done. But on Tuesday, representatives of Facebook stopped short of saying the company would introduce a one-step delete account option.

“We’re always working to improve the user experience,” Katie Geminder, director for user experience and design at Facebook, said in a statement sent by e-mail.

Read more here (from the New York Times).