I wrote already once that I moved from the Netherlands to the Czech Republic (now in 2019 I live in Slovakia and in between in Austria as well). This was a good move for me. It made me think about what I want and how I want to develop myself. I am not going more into this right now as you can read it here. One thing that did change a lot by making this move was my social life. I already moved once within the Netherlands but that is still nothing, distances are small. There are no real barriers that keep you from visiting your family and friends and with Facebook it is easy to maintain your relations. However, when you suddenly don’t see your family and friends anymore Facebook seems to be all there is left (next to other communication tools/apps/software etc). 

Nevertheless, I chose to deactivate my Facebook account. It did not seem to contribute to my life at that point what I really needed. It felt like everyone is tracking your moves, the_big_brother_is_watching you effect. I had plenty of other options to stay in touch with family and friends. I did not need to share my pictures, my favorite music, videos or all other things I like on the internet. Like everyone needs to know what I like by ‘liking’ it. During my online Facebook absence Facebook did not sit still, neither did I. After some years not using Facebook (trust me, you won’t miss anything) I decided to go back online on Facebook.

I appreciate the fact Facebook stuck to their core: socialize and show the world who you really are. Honestly, I do not find many things have changed, besides it got more grown up. One aspect I did not like is on the timeline: the sharing of information that I don’t want to know. Naturally, this is still there as it is the key to sharing. However, Facebook has very useful settings which are highly appreciated. The main reason to go back on Facebook is the awesome use of marketing in it. The endless possibilities to profile yourself, in my case my business and to create participation in what you do. Next to LinkedIn is it a logical business network tool as well.

By being back on Facebook I decided to reinstall my old network. I was wondering if everyone would be  still out there and if I would be easily accepted back as a friend. To my surprise I already exceeded the 150 ‘friends’ (the word Facebook uses referring to all the people you know) within a few days. On purpose I did not add a picture, just curious if that would raise any questions. I had two invited friends who asked me: “who are you?”. I am also positive that some of the invite accepting persons do not really know who sent them an invite.  Nevertheless, I do believe it is great to know that there are many people out there that want to join my network (even without actually knowing me). If you read this article, please feel free to invite me to yours (in case you are not there yet).