There is simply no denying it – Mark Zuckerberg is a very smart man. And perhaps one of the most influential entrepreneurs of our time. One could even argue that Facebook has had as much of a profound impact on the world as any great war. From world-wide social connection, sharing of ideas, and the spreading of news and information (whether credible or not), no one can deny the fact that Facebook forever changed the way that billions interact and communicate. Love it or hate it (or simply tolerate it), Facebook covered the globe like a great blue ozone layer.

But as is often the case with many things done on a massive scale, it has not been without plagues of problems and controversy. For 2018, the 21 biggest scandals have been outlined here by WIRED.

Among all of its issues, concerns over privacy has been the greatest, which has lead to many either deleting the app, taking a break, or dumping Facebook altogether.

But the news isn’t all bad. In fact, Facebook (as a company) still commands the lion’s share of all social media interactions world wide. This is primarily thanks to Facebook’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp (which accounts for its great dominance outside of the U.S.). Again – Mark is a smart guy!

Truth be told, in spite of all of its bad press, the majority of Facebook’s users either simply don’t care about such things, or enjoy their experiences and interactions so much that the “bad stuff” is simply accepted. After all, what’s the worst that could happen? Is it all really that big of a deal for the average Facebook user?

Then there are users like me – those who have become more and more weary of Facebook. Not so much because of anything horrible, but more because of a greater understanding of the scope of it all: how information about you is gathered and used, who ultimately has control over this information, and how to be one’s own steward of this information to the best of your ability. And I cannot deny the fact that for quite some time my Facebook news feed at best has been “less than appealing” to look at.

So why don’t I just ditch it altogether and be done with it once and for all? I’ve told people time and time again that I don’t actually “hate” Facebook. Quite frankly because the vast majority of my family and friends interact there heavily, and if it weren’t for them using it so much I would be long gone. But what I’ve come to realize is that it’s not whether I hate or don’t hate Facebook. Rather, I think Facebook has some really great features. This leads me to the title and point of this post – my opinion on how to Make Facebook Great Again for users like me.

Simply put, Facebook should split out all of its great features into stand alone apps for those like myself who love these features but don’t want to necessarily use the primary Facebook app. Facebook already has stand alone apps for Messenger as well as Facebook Pages Manager. But just think how awesome it would be to have stand alone apps for Groups and Events (not the Facebook Local app which had seemed to be what I’m referring to, but is more about finding events nearby – I’m referring to Events created by your family and friends on Facebook’s calendar). And so on and so forth – even down to Facebook’s games. Of these, Events would be of the greatest use to me personally, followed closely by Groups. From birthday parties, to graduations, church functions, and simple get-together s,  I find Events to be very useful and effective. Quite possibly one of Facebook’s greatest features in my opinion, as it makes creating events and communicating with event organizers and attendees a breeze!

Of  course each of these stand alone apps would have typical app notifications, and bring with them all of their current feature sets found in the primary Facebook app. And of course the primary app would still have all of these features – users simply wouldn’t have to use the primary app to use the stand alone feature apps. Facebook would still count stand alone app users as active Facebook users (after all, you’d have to have a Facebook profile to use them). And since ads are revenue, they could even throw targeted ads into each of these apps.

Think of it as Facebook à la carte, much like we see in the world of television thanks to Cord Cutting.

#MFGA!!