Part 1, wherein people are the problem:

Complaining

Facebook is all about clever new ways of doing social networking. The developers make lots of changes to make it better, and that is why people use it instead of MySpace. So, when people complain about Facebook changing, I get very annoyed, because they're missing the flipping point of facebook.

"Friend" Requests

Nextly, people accept relative strangers as their "friends" because they're too soft to deny anyone what is essentially a useless bunch of words which tell the world that you're bezzies. This puts pressure on everyone else to do the same, because of the mutual friend count. Vicious cycle ensues.

People fail at groups

Facebook groups are so badly used. I hate the way people are satisfied to become fans of literally thousands of things (I have a friend who is a fan of 1100 things, and in 290 groups).
All of these things can be classified under "I like nice things", "I don't like bad things" and "Funny things amuse me". It doesn't make you interesting, it makes you inane.

It's a shame:

I love Facebook as a software platform, I really do. I think the way they've recently restructured groups and fan pages into one form of 'likeable' entity type, thus redesigning profile pages, is magnificent...

Summary

...but when people use facebook, they mutate into terrible, terrible images of humanity, longing for company, recognition, and conformity.

Part 2, wherein the machine is the problem:

What is yours?

Facebook own your soul. By which I mean they keep all the data about you (cue comic strip), with which you supply them, about what you like, do, and are. Fair play: you own your intellectual property now, so it isn't outright theft any more, but the fact remains that Facebook have a lot of power over anything you put on their computers.
In summary, you are not in control of your own property.

Business is business.

Facebook is closed source. It is all about monetary gain on Facebook's part, and that's not a great evil in our capitalist nation(s), but it does mean that they are not your mate. They are not providing you with a free service because they love you, they are using every measurement of your psyche in order to sell you stuff.

Part 3, wherein there is an alternative

About Diaspora

Diaspora calls itself "the privacy aware, personally controlled, do-it-all, distributed open source social network"

Distributed means that you can host your own "seed" and you will always have full control over all of your content, because they don't want it. The philosophy behind open source means that they are not a badass business; at the end of the summer, they will release the diaspora software -- for free -- for everyone.

They are funded by a movement called kickstarter, where they receive donations. The project was set to go ahead if they received $10,000. So far, they have received $180,000.

What about human failure?

I can only hope that diaspora will be built in such a way as to correct the failing that facebook had in allowing millions of people to make trashy groups and then encouraging everyone to join them.

The fake friends dilemma will likely not be solved, but who knows: while networking in such a different environment, maybe people will respond differently.

When

My leaving facebook will not overlap with the instigation of diaspora. I mean, there will be a period of a few months of dead time where I will not be available on any full social network.
You'll live.

I'll be available via email and twitter.

Come with me and we can have another shot at social networking. This time, the right way.