One word: PRIVACY.

The changes that Facebook made last week put the nail in the coffin for me.

I had two Facebook accounts, one for business and one for personal concerns. I’ll admit I was late to the game on the business end, but it was more of an experiment for me than anything else. For my personal account, I used it very differently than most people. I didn’t see it as a way to interact with EVERYONE I MIGHT POSSIBLY KNOW. However, I saw Facebook as a way to communicate with people that I couldn’t reach in a more efficient way using some other method. Generally speaking, this meant friends outside the country. I also have regular interaction with a ministry group in Malaysia and a dear friend in Indonesia. Facebook was a very efficient way for us to get in touch.

With The Acronym blog, our Forums, e-mail, text messages, and phone calls being all available to us — Facebook was not needed.

However, it all really came down to privacy. I am very displeased with some recent changes that Facebook made last week. They may be of little to no concern in your eyes, but I’ll bet some of you may see it my way.

Instant Message (chat) and Messages (more like e-mail) used to be separate. Now they are integrated into a unified messaging system. Chat messages show up as messages and messages show up as chats — and they can both be seen in your “new and improved” messages section. Facebook accounts can now send e-mail out and receive email in, making the messaging function no different than Gmail, Yahoo Mail, or AOL mail.

I appreciated this concept more when messages could only be sent to and from Facebook uers and most easily between friends. Furthermore, a big drawing point to the Facebook messaging for me was the fact that MESSAGES COULD NOT BE FORWARDED to other users and outside of Facebook. As it stands, individual chats (which are now just ordinary messages) can be forwarded to anyone. I always thought Facebook conversations were more personal and more intimate. I cannot live with this change.

Finally, un-friending someone for any reasons used to be a personal choice. And it was private. Now removing a friend is publicized for all to see.  Please do not be OFFENDED if you were UN-FRIENDED.  I closed the business account.

Goodbye Facebook — I hope you reverse course and listen to the hundreds of thousands of people who are unhappy with you.