The downside with being top dog is you're going to take shots from all directions. The upside is you probably don't care.

So it is with Facebook, which lately has been taking a lot of criticism aside from the usual "I hate the new design."

A coalition of consumer groups this week filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission about what it said were misleading privacy policies on the social network.

That followed news that a group of U.S. senators had asked Facebook to change its privacy settings.

Then the other day, a security flaw temporarily allowed users to see private chat messages.

Then there's the controversial deployment of the "like" button, which, if you believe Slate tech writer Farhad Manjoo, is part of the company's plan to "take over the Web."

On top of all that, they've probably got James Bond tied up somewhere at their headquarters.

A widely circulated blog this week offered "10 Reasons to Delete Your Facebook Account," ranging from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's "documented history of unethical behavior," the contempt for privacy and the interface itself, with its "thousands upon thousands of crappy applications."

To that list, I'll add that Facebook chat is about the most annoying thing in the history of things. Before I figured out how to disable it, my (fairly obsolete) computer would crash almost daily, when someone from the past -- usually a high-school friend -- popped in to say "what's up?" What's up, as in, what am I doing at this exact moment that I would have to provide context for? Or what's up, as in, what have you been doing in the 10 years since we last talked?

Anyway.

Has anybody out there walked away from Facebook and lived to tell the tale?

(Oh, and while you're at it, join The Grand Rapids Press on Facebook!)