“Om’s Long Goodbye to Facebook”
Sunday, September 2, 2018
Long-time and highly respected writer-turned-VC Om Malik is leaving Facebook.
“I don’t need [Facebook] and don’t miss it. (...) I left because it was making me someone I am not — someone who lives life through the eyes of others. There is a hard edge in Facebook life. People are always fronting — putting their best life forward. Just like startup life these days.”
I’ve been thinking about this for years, but while I wish I could go through with it, being an expat and living in an international relationship where both my partner’s family & friends, as well as my own, are thousands of miles away, it is near impossible to keep in touch with the Big Blue.
It’s not from lack of trying, using emails, or setting up a /now page. But the truth is that the family members and the ‘normals’ of this world (as opposed to tech-savvy or tech workers) are simply too unlikely to move away and too dependent on the platform and its services.
From the newsfeed, to Instagram, to WhatsApp and Messenger’s dominance, it’s very hard to change someone’s daily habit(s) when they’ve never given too much thought or consideration about the services and platforms that power their day-to-day.