​I'm shocked, shocked to find that Facebook apparently has no respect for users' online reputations. And given that they seem to think this is a feature not a bug, don't expect to see this go away any time soon.

When I dumped Facebook a few years ago, most people who found out couldn't understand why I was doing it. For the record, my reasons were a mix of privacy concerns, worries over the Facebook engineers' technical acumen, and a desire to have real, meaningful relationships with my friends. Only two years later, my how the landscape's changed. More than a handful of my friends have already made the leap back into reality for many of the same reasons, and I've not heard a one who regrets it. Plenty more tell me they wish they could get off Facebook but feel stuck because of family or long-distance friends. (Honestly, breaking up with Facebook just isn't as bad as you think. It's quite freeing.)

I bet stuff like this — stuff that upsets more than just the nerds and privacy advocates — is the beginning of a long slide into obsolescence for the social media giant. The average users won't delete their accounts outright; they'll just stop feeling like Facebook is a meeting place they can trust. Then they'll stop using it. And after a while, it'll go the way of MySpace — a graveyard of user accounts.