Recently, I had a conversation with a successful businessman discussing the best marketing strategies for my business and the first thing he asked was whether or not I was signed up to use Facebook? Since I quit Facebook and LinkedIn several years ago, I am amazed that I’ve been able to stay in business when this has been almost everyone’s go-to vehicle that’s used exclusively to promote and market their brand. When I tell everyone that I have actually achieved a decent amount of success without the help of Facebook or LinkedIn, they seem to be shocked and in disbelief.

Given the fact that there are so many other social media platforms out there, I was surprised to find out that even though Facebook is in the process of changing its entire brand over to Meta, people still call it Facebook and look at it as the same innovative social media platform that they most likely joined many many years ago. I was proud of myself that I could do it without Facebook and now view it as an extreme waste of time. I look back at how many hours I spent logged on to it and being caught in a trance. I soon learned that being connected to the Internet all the time is not all it was cracked up to be.

It got creepier when ads were being sent right to my browser because of the what I had searched for or pages I had recently viewed on Facebook. It felt weird to be driving and listening to the radio and constantly getting ads targeted at me because of the pages I had visited on Facebook or LinkedIn. This was the last straw. I value my privacy to the point where I like to make my own decisions when it comes to the things that I want to buy and be able to do it without being tracked or targeted.

From a business standpoint, I view Facebook exactly the same as LinkedIn because people give them too much credit for their own success. I also deleted my LinkedIn account after being on it for over 12 years and without getting one face-to-face interview as a result. That’s right, I’m literally embarrassed to tell people that I was on LinkedIn for that long and didn’t get one interview from it. It was the same thing year in and year out.

LinkedIn would try to sell me the upgrade package that would allow me to get in direct contact with headhunters and recruiters, but it was all to no avail. LinkedIn told me every year I was on it that my profile was in the top 5 percent and even called it a “Superstar” profile, however, that didn’t get me one face-to-face interview after submitting over 500 applications seeking employment in two states. I believe the whole concept behind LinkenIn made the site impossible to benefit from in the long run for anybody working in a corporate environment. There were even times when an employer that wasn’t even advertising on LinkedIn, would require each applicant to have a current LinkedIn profile in order to apply for that job.

After a while, I woke up and said “Really?” Is this platform worth this much of my time and am I getting anything out of it? And this was even before I learned about how they share most of their user’s information with other agencies like the FBI and CIA. Not to mention all of the divorces and relationship that Facebook and LinkedIn created when they literally turned into dating sites.

I finally looked at the reality of being on these types of platforms, how much time it took, how many relationships it ruined because of likes and dislikes, and how many of my so-call real friends came out of the woodwork to be who they really are, not true friends, just people seeking likes an attention online. I learned that my real friends are not on Facebook. I also learned that all of legitimate employment prospects, business relationships and interviews did not come from LinkedIn. Once these platforms started selling advertisements based on their user’s searches, surfing characteristics and other privacy invasions, I learned how extremely important my data and privacy actually is and the true intent of these platforms.

I have always been the type of person that believes in face-to-face interaction as opposed to hiding under a screen name on a social medial platform, so quite naturally, I am enjoying my time away from these privacy snatchers. And since I don’t crave the likes and thumbs up buttons that people view as vindication that they must be doing something good for all of mankind, or the people who follow me because of content I have posted, I feel much better.

I’m at peace knowing that my life is back to normal and I’m in control of my own emotions when it comes down to things that I do and say on a social media platform. Goodbye Facebook, goodbye LinkedIn, my life has been so much better without you.