After the latest random self-serving Facebook change today where The Zuck decided it was in my best interest to show my Facebook email address to the world as my prefered address I was very close to de-activating.

Something I've considered a lot these past few months, but never have been able to pull the trigger on.

I was hoping Path would be an alternative, but it just doesn't have the people Facebook does and with people a social network isn't all that interesting.

Then I realized I can get the intimacy of Path myself, I just have to be ruthless about who is my Facebook friend. Not mean, just very picky. I think it's important for everyone to do this, becuase Facebook is not out for my best interest. As a publicly traded company they are out to earn the most dollars they can. 

The reality is there are some folks I love and care about that I wouldn't be as connected to without Facebook so it needs to stick around but on my terms.

My new rule: the car keys test. If someone showed up at my door looking a bit worse for the wear and asked for my car keys would I hand them over without asking any questions?

The amount of data my Facebook friends (and whatever wacky apps they add) have access to is about the same in terms of value.

For some people that's a wide circle for others its smaller. For me it's about 86 peope, which sounds like a lot but when I look through my friend's list they pass the car keys test.