It wasn't even the privacy thing either. I really didn't care if my posts were seen by everyone, because I don't do stuff that would get me in trouble at work or embarrass me with friends. I'll just say it right now: If you end up getting your picture taken doing something that might get you in trouble at work, school, with your parents, or cause you to lose friends, you are an idiot. If you write a message on your wall (timeline, sorry, timeline) that gets you in trouble with any of these, you are an idiot. I don't care if you were drunk, high, being a kid, or felt pressured from your friends. You have to know anything you do on Facebook will get out. That is the whole point of Facebook. Not only that, but it is specifically designed to share your personal information with only the people you care if they know these things. It is of no real consequence if some guy in some other country sees your pictures. It does matter to you, however, if your friends and family do.
Sorry, back on topic. What finally made me switch to Google+ from Facebook were two things: usability and features. This post will be focused on Facebook. For my opinions on Google+, see my other post.
Why I Left Facebook
NOTE: Just about all my Facebooking was done through my smartphone, either an iPhone or Android. This my have something to do with the issues I had, but that is in no way an excuse for Facebook's shoddy programming.
Facebook's privacy issues never really bothered my too much. I knew what I was getting into. Over the years, Facebook became part of my daily routine, checking it every morning for updates, as well as getting the usual smattering of phone notifications throughout the day. I actually had no real qualms about the product itself when I switched. It generally performs its intended function pretty well.
Usability
What prompted my switch were the little things. The biggest one of all, which is also probably the smallest one of all, is their switch from organizing their news feed chronologically to the baffling Top Stories. Usually after using a product for a while I can figure out what a program is doing, even if it seems random at first. I still haven't figured out the Top Stories algorithm. (I could probably just Google it, but now it is a matter of principle)
And actually, it wasn't so much the switch. It was the inability to go back. One day the sorting method just changed. After a few days I found the option to switch back, and all was better. Until it wasn't. The next time I loaded the app we were back to Top Stories. So now every time I loaded the app, I had to switch it. Facebook finally updated the app so it would save your news feed settings. Except it didn't. The Most Recent option showed as checked, but the News Feed was obviously not sorted properly. Reselecting the option updated my News Feed to chronological order.
This error has lasted forever. It was still that way the last time I used the app. We are talking about a relatively simple bug that has gone unfixed for months, if not years. It's pathetic. And it is infuriating to me. As a person who does a lot of programming for a living, I am embarrassed for them.
This issue with Facebook's coding extends beyond this one error though. Again, let me reiterate that I have almost never used the normal Facebook website from my computer in years. The situation on the website may be completely different. This is only a critique of what I know. The Facebook app, or at least the Android version, is slow. Really slow. And the app doesn't just run slow, it makes the entire phone run slow. For those Android users with more powerful phones than mine, this may or may not be noticeable, but I definitely did. Even without using the app, I noticed a significant performance improvement on my phone after I uninstalled it.
As an engineer and a programmer, the Facebook app feels messy. Knowing where Facebook started, and knowing all the features they have added over the years, I get the impression that Facebook is layered. What I mean by that is there is a core Facebook program, then they layered new features on top, then they layered security features on top of that, et cetera. This is not an efficient way for a program to run.
My evidence for this is the sometimes bizarre errors I have noticed. Facebook is supposed to notify me if someone sends me a private message, someone mentions me in a post, I am tagged in a photo, if someone in my list of close friends writes a post, or a host of other scenarios. Over the past few months, I hardly ever get notified (Android system notifications, not Facebook app notifications) when I am mentioned in a post, and only find out about the post when I open up the Facebook app. I realize the background Facebook program running that syncs with the Facebook notification system is shutdown on occasion by my phone due to its limited memory, but I should get the notifications eventually. I never get them. This defeats the purpose of getting the notifications, because I am not about to open up every app I have, one at a time, and see if there are any updates. That is what the system notifications are for. If I cannot rely on the notifications getting to my phone, I might as well not get them.
By far the weirdest thing that has happened with the Facebook app is with the notifications I do actually get. I have gotten a couple that do not mention me, do not have pictures of me, and are not from people that are in my close friends list. When I open them up, the message timestamp says something like 1 minute ago, but it is obvious from the comments that this message is from months ago. Why am I getting these? I have no idea. I can only guess it is due to some update they did to the system, that manifested itself oddly because of the layered and fragmented nature of the code. I could be completely off-base, and if I am I encourage people to correct me, but I don't think I am.
This error has lasted forever. It was still that way the last time I used the app. We are talking about a relatively simple bug that has gone unfixed for months, if not years. It's pathetic. And it is infuriating to me. As a person who does a lot of programming for a living, I am embarrassed for them.
This issue with Facebook's coding extends beyond this one error though. Again, let me reiterate that I have almost never used the normal Facebook website from my computer in years. The situation on the website may be completely different. This is only a critique of what I know. The Facebook app, or at least the Android version, is slow. Really slow. And the app doesn't just run slow, it makes the entire phone run slow. For those Android users with more powerful phones than mine, this may or may not be noticeable, but I definitely did. Even without using the app, I noticed a significant performance improvement on my phone after I uninstalled it.
As an engineer and a programmer, the Facebook app feels messy. Knowing where Facebook started, and knowing all the features they have added over the years, I get the impression that Facebook is layered. What I mean by that is there is a core Facebook program, then they layered new features on top, then they layered security features on top of that, et cetera. This is not an efficient way for a program to run.
My evidence for this is the sometimes bizarre errors I have noticed. Facebook is supposed to notify me if someone sends me a private message, someone mentions me in a post, I am tagged in a photo, if someone in my list of close friends writes a post, or a host of other scenarios. Over the past few months, I hardly ever get notified (Android system notifications, not Facebook app notifications) when I am mentioned in a post, and only find out about the post when I open up the Facebook app. I realize the background Facebook program running that syncs with the Facebook notification system is shutdown on occasion by my phone due to its limited memory, but I should get the notifications eventually. I never get them. This defeats the purpose of getting the notifications, because I am not about to open up every app I have, one at a time, and see if there are any updates. That is what the system notifications are for. If I cannot rely on the notifications getting to my phone, I might as well not get them.
By far the weirdest thing that has happened with the Facebook app is with the notifications I do actually get. I have gotten a couple that do not mention me, do not have pictures of me, and are not from people that are in my close friends list. When I open them up, the message timestamp says something like 1 minute ago, but it is obvious from the comments that this message is from months ago. Why am I getting these? I have no idea. I can only guess it is due to some update they did to the system, that manifested itself oddly because of the layered and fragmented nature of the code. I could be completely off-base, and if I am I encourage people to correct me, but I don't think I am.
Features
Facebook essentially provides all the same features that Google+ does. I actually find it funny, because every time I discover a new feature in Google+, that feature usually shows up in Facebook shortly. It is obvious that both Google and Facebook are stealing each other's ideas to try and maintain their user base.
Really, even the reason I like the features in Google+ better than Facebook is integration. I just feel like everything is working together in Google+. My Picasa web albums, my Google Drive files, the sharing and privacy features, even my Google searches seem integrated together. I managed to get all my photos from the past ten plus years into Google+ in matter of a few hours of work. I shared my entire set of photos from my latest Disney trip in a matter of hours. With Facebook I only ever got the choice photos I felt like sharing with everyone. I am able to quickly share entire photo albums with the people I want, choose the best ones and share those with everyone, and then go back and change everything instantly. With Facebook it is far more cumbersome. It isn't that the features are not available, they just aren't as easy to use.
While the privacy settings were not an issue with me on Facebook, I have found myself using them far more often on Google+, primarily because I trust them to work. There have been more than a handful of occasions using Facebook that posts and pictures have been shared to specific people but still were visible to others. I have never had this issue with Google+. I actually use Google+ to talk with people who left Facebook due to security concerns, because it is so easy to create private posts. They would never, nor would I, trust that a private post in Facebook will stay private forever.
One feature that I would never use in Facebook due to privacy concerns, is the auto-backup feature. Both Facebook and Google+ have this feature, which automatically syncs all your phone pictures with your account. In Google+ these end up in a separate album that is only visible to you unless you specifically select pictures you want to put into another album or put them in a post. I do not trust Facebook to do this correctly. Maybe I am wrong, but my experience with Facebook is one of mistrust.
Summary
So all these complaints can be boiled down to not trusting Facebook to do what it is designed to do. There are many things it does very well, but my experience with it has been so fraught with issues that I finally pulled the plug. I do still have an account, and I don't see any reason to get rid of it, but my life since taking Facebook out of my life has been far less stressful. My phone works better, my pictures and videos are all organized and on the cloud, and I now spend that thirty minutes in the morning that I used to browse Facebook reading the news. I strongly suggest all Facebook users to give Google+ a real shot. There are differences, and it isn't going to be for everyone, but I think it does a far better job integrating your digital life with your real one.
No comments:
Post a Comment