In 2002 I was on Friendster, do you remember poor Friendster? It was cute and some of my friends joined it, and for the life of me I cannot remember what it did, but it was my first. I remember leaving it quickly though, and signed onto Bebo. Bebo was more popular internationally than in the States, and since many of my friends weren't joining I quickly abandoned it. In early 2003 I created a MySpace page. What a fun, party site - I could control everything, I learned a bit of HTML, I had music pumping from the site and hundreds of comments going from hundreds of my friends and bands I loved, but everything stopped once Facebook came along. It showed me that all the MySpace glittery .gifs were just a phase. I knew from the moment I entered my password in summer of 2004 it was going to be a long, beautiful, relationship because it was love at first site.

The first few years with Facebook were happy ones. In the beginning only a few schools were able to use it, and it only consisted of one page with no photo abilities, & no newsfeed. I was flirting with Facebook because of my time with MySpace, but eventually I couldn't deny it any longer. Once Facebook added a newsfeed and I could upload albums of pictures, I spent less and less time with MySpace. I loved that I could see what my friends were doing without having to search for it! The Newsfeed was simple and easy. Having a place for tagable pictures that wasn't Webshots was great! The networks it had were a great idea to help with privacy - School, Region, Work - simple.

I moved abroad, and Facebook was my only way of communicating at first without having a cell phone. All of the foreigners I had met from around the world were also using Facebook - and we posted videos and pictures and notes - and we made groups that we would check throughout the day in order to not have to use our expensive cell phone plans. It was magical. My time in Asia is now forever recorded and kept on Facebook.

In 2008 Facebook changed its appearance drastically. Millions were outraged, including myself, but eventually we learned to live with it. In 2009 things started to get a little rocky though. Facebook started doing things behind my back. It was changing too fast and wasn't consulting me. Worst of all, it was airing all of the things I had posted that I thought were private. Companies and websites and third party apps were now able to see everything I had done. We got through that time because I searched the web looking for answers. I was able to find ways to make Facebook keep quiet about the goings on of my early 20s and I thought we were ok. Just a rough patch.

Twitter came along for me in late 2009. I admittedly thought it was the new kid in town who didn't have anything good to show for itself, and I wasn't going to be a part of it. I was still hopelessly in love with Facebook. However, once I returned back to America and needed to start jobsearching, Twitter showed me a different, and very useful side. We connected immediately and Twitter helped me to keep things simple with its 140 character limit, but endless amounts of nice people who were willing to help.

Meanwhile, in 2010 Facebook lost its mind. It became crazy with web domination and changed into something I didn't even recognize any longer. Facebook exploded from its place on the web and now puts itself on every other website and wants you to "Like" it! And every time you "Like" something, pieces of your information get sold off to the highest bidder. Your very personal, private pictures and notes, and community pages are now in the hands of strangers! You can turn off its features, but if your friends don't do the same, your information is still not safe. Your profile is no longer your own either. Facebook has forced me to create an online identity in its image, and I just refuse.

I still see Facebook from time to time. I'll update a status, or post some pictures, but I have deleted all the information in my profile, and "un-liked" 98% of what I had there. I stay because my friends are there, but I worry because companies and potential employers now have access to my information. Facebook was supposed to be my little corner of the web where I played with friends, and posted pictures that I probably shouldn't have because I was drinking in many of them, but I thought it was a safe place with it's privacy settings. I once felt secure, and Facebook has gone and changed what it was. I see the "like" button around and want to throw caution to the wind and go back to it... but I just... can't.

Now, like anything else in Social Media, I am just waiting for the next big thing to come around. Twitter's my friend and is there for me, but maybe I judged MySpace too quickly - I left it quickly and it never did anything bad to me like Facebook has. My trust has been broken.

Years ago I would have said nothing would have taken me away from Facebook. Now? I'll jump ship at the first chance.