Why it's become impossible to leave Facebook

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I think I want to leave Facebook. It’s been brewing for a while, but I have been using it less and less for the past year and now I don’t think I really need it anymore. Why on earth, I hear you ask, would you want to leave Facebook – it’s so much fun! It’s so convenient! Well, it’s not really all that fun anymore, and for convenience … let’s just say the no-Facebook experiment has gone on for about a month now and I’m no worse off for it.

Facebook used to be fun and fresh, but now … I think the problem is that it’s become an “everyone” platform. My wall is dominated by updates about TV, fishing and babies from people I went to school with – people I haven’t seen since school and have no particular need to catch up with. I log in, scroll down the screen, and log out – these are not my people anymore and Facebook is starting to represent nostalgia.

Then I move on to Twitter and all of a sudden the conversation is interesting again – it lets you fill the stream with people you want to listen to. If I want to say something private there’s email – still the best way of communicating anything over 140 characters, I think. I have some friends who like using Facebook’s private messaging system, and I don’t understand why – email is so much easier to search through later when you are looking for something.

What originally drew me to Facebook was the concept of sharing photos with people – you upload an album and everyone can see it. Then I discovered Flickr, which is probably the most amazing picture-sharing tool out there, and I have never looked back. So then, I’ve gone through the things I liked about Facebook and realised I can replace all the functions with something else that I like better. Does that mean I’m leaving? … I don’t think so.

There is one function Facebook still has that nothing else can replace, and this stems from the fact that pretty much everyone uses it. Parties are organised on Facebook all the time, and I’ve heard of several instances where the friends who aren’t on Facebook are not invited because the host forgot. Not to mention if you want to find someone, anyone – you run a Facebook search. You can send them a message even if they aren’t a contact, and you don’t need to know their email address. Maybe I shouldn’t care about staying on the map like this, but that’s a separate discussion. The truth is that Facebook is becoming the new phonebook, and you leave at your peril.

ShinyJess

10 comments

  • i don’t want to know what everyone else is doing, and i don’t want them knowing what i’m doing. if i don’t get invited to a party because i’m not on facebook then who wants to hang out with them anyway. facebook will fade like everything else: myspace, aol, pong. i hope all of you continue to become digi-addicts to the latest worthless crap on ther because it will make my marketing crap to you so much easier. the shinier the better it appears.

  • Genuinely speaking if face book no more then no traffic for my online business. :(

  • Quit Facebook about a year ago and haven’t looked back. Really quit. Not just “deactivated”, deleted my account and everything associated with it.

    The benefits & rewards simply do not outweigh the risks to my privacy.

    Besides, everyone I want to talk to (A) I already have their Email and phone, and (B) they already have mine.

    Or they can Google me. If they’re too lazy to Google me even, then chances are I don’t want to hear from them.

  • Wow, discovered Flickr after Facebook. Novel. I’m in the same boat, I rarely get on Facebook anymore. Probably about once a month. Scroll down, check messages, log off. But when I need to message someone I know irl, and I don’t have their email on hand, I can usually Facebook message them. And I think Facebook is much better for sharing photos, because everyone is on Facebook, so they don’t have to go to another website to check for updates.

    Curb your friends as suggested, or just fine tune your news feed to filter out all the spam you don’t want to hear.

    Then again, if you really don’t like it, and you have everyone’s email, and you aren’t going to try to contact that girl you just met who you know is friends with your friend Scott, then yeah, sure, toss it. But don’t, as they say, throw the baby out with the bath water.

  • I think you just need to cull your friend list. i did this about 6 months ago and suddenly Facebook became much more interesting.

    Previously, updates from people I know and care about were being ‘bumped’ by idiots I barely know.

    I still have to go through the feed sometimes and ‘ignore’ certain post types (farms, horoscopes, questionnaires etc.) but it’s now a much cleaner and more relevant approach to keeping in touch.

  • I think you just need to cull your friend list. i did this about 6 months ago and suddenly Facebook became much more interesting.

    Previously, updates from people I know and care about were being ‘bumped’ by idiots I barely know.

    I still have to go through the feed sometimes and ‘ignore’ certain post types (farms, horoscopes, questionnaires etc.) but it’s now a much cleaner and more relevant approach to keeping in touch.

  • I think you just need to cull your friend list. i did this about 6 months ago and suddenly Facebook became much more interesting.

    Previously, updates from people I know and care about were being ‘bumped’ by idiots I barely know.

    I still have to go through the feed sometimes and ‘ignore’ certain post types (farms, horoscopes, questionnaires etc.) but it’s now a much cleaner and more relevant approach to keeping in touch.

  • It sounds like you need to do a spring clean of your “friends”. I’ve always kept mine focused on quality not quantity. If I lost touch with someone from the past (with a few exceptions) it was probably for a reason. This keeps my news feed filled with people I care about.

  • It sounds like you need to do a spring clean of your “friends”. I’ve always kept mine focused on quality not quantity. If I lost touch with someone from the past (with a few exceptions) it was probably for a reason. This keeps my news feed filled with people I care about.

  • Hey lovely blog it is, and i love facebook, because the unknown people also appends to each other from facebook..

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