Bill Gates and Martha Stewart Leave Facebook

MySpace may be “a place for friends” but now it looks like Facebook may be turning into a place for (too many) friends. And it can get overwhelming, especially for famous people, so some of them are leaving for greener, or rather bluer, pastures, where they don't get so many friend requests from people they don't know.

Yesterday, Microsoft founder and ex-CEO Bill Gates decided to leave the social network claiming it took up too much of his time and now Martha Stewart, America's favorite cook, media mogul and ex-convict, has also called it quits, saying she will focus on Twitter from now on.

While in New Delhi, India to receive Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development, Gates commented that he tried to use Facebook but after having 10,000 friend invites waiting to be accepted he decided it would just take too much time to figure out if he knew the persons or not. As the AFP reports, Gates told the audience that, while he once envisioned one in every home, some technologies could become time wasters if not used properly. But even if he may find no personal interest in Facebook, Microsoft does own a 1.6 percent stake in the social network, for which it paid the nice sum of $240 million.

Meanwhile, Martha Stewart also decided to leave the social network citing similar reasons. In an interview she said that it just took too much time and it was a hassle to keep up with all the friend requests. She believed Twitter to be a much better alternative for what she was trying to achieve online. "First of all, you don't have to spend any time on it, and, second of all, you reach a lot more people. And I don't have to 'befriend' and do all that other dippy stuff that they do on Facebook," she told the Daily Beast.