It's not you, it's me

A few months ago Cambridge Analytica was known to few people outside of political and data analytics circles. Now the company has reached levels of notoriety which will secure its infamy for years to come. A study by Syzygy has found 93% of Britons are aware of the scandal involving Facebook.

The fallout shows little sign of abating. Consumers have become more aware of their privacy settings and the levels of data being shared with social networks. This has directly resulted in 1 in 20 Brits deleting their Facebook accounts and a further 6% intending to do so.

Facebook face losing up to 11% of all users due to immoral practices. I am not one of the 11%. It may be because I work in the media industry but the practices of Cambridge Analytica did not surprise me. As the saying goes, if you are not paying for the product you are the product. I have stopped using Facebook for another reason.

It has become obsolete.

I wonder how many people feel the same.

My profile was set up in 2007. I had just missed Myspace and Bebo. I never signed up to Second Life. My Friends Reunited profile had long been discarded. Facebook was something new. The idea of sharing pictures, contacting people I went to primary school with and endless poking was equally intoxicating and exciting.

When I received my first smartphone in 2009 Facebook was my first download from the App Store. I could update friends when on the go and tell them where I was at any time. It became part of my daily routine. Such was my obsession I decided to give it up for Lent – 40 days and nights without bread, chocolate and alcohol was far easier.

Things started changing 2 years ago. The reason I loved Facebook was because it connected friends. It was how we planned events, caught up on gossip and saw what everyone was up to. But in chasing ad spend Facebook seemed determined to make it more difficult to view this content.

Publishers and brands clogged up my news feed with posts often with ‘evergreen’ articles which was produced up to three years before. Facebook deemed this more important than images of my nephews or birthday parties AKA things I actually want to see.

I purged accounts I had liked in the vain attempt to give more prevalence to friends and family. Alas I received ever more posts from The Telegraph, The Guardian and – due to liking Happy Socks – sock brands. The friends I was interested in hearing from had long migrated to other platforms or off social media altogether.

It is not just me. An estimated 3 million under 25s across the UK and US are set to leave Facebook this year (this was pre-Cambridge Analytica) with over half of 12- to 17-year olds in the US not logging in at least once a month. Facebook is now perceived as being for an ‘older’ generation.

Speaking to friends at the weekend they did not seem all that bothered about the Cambridge Analytica story. Like me they were not surprised about these practices. What they were surprised about is how many people still use Facebook on a daily basis.

The Facebook platform offers nothing for me in 2018. I understand social platforms have to move on but so do I. The chronological newsfeed of Twitter and the aesthetic simplicity of Instagram command my attention in a way Facebook can no longer do.

I am acutely aware Instagram is owned by Facebook. There is every chance my data is mined in the same way as it is on Facebook (I see a lot of sock brands here too). But that’s fine with me. It is the platform - not the company who has become irrelevant in my life.

My profile has become an online memorial to my twenties with no place in the offline world of my thirties. I have mothballed my account rather than delete it. I have a decade of memories that one day I might want to revisit.

Maybe.