About a week ago I decided to delete my facebook account. It honestly just took up a lot more of my time than it deserved. Not to mention that it's been my primary way of socializing for almost a year now.....and, for some reason, that doesn't seem healthy.
Facebook is clever, though. When you attempt to delete your account, it gives you 2 weeks to change your mind before it is, in fact, deleted.
This morning I was feeling sort of lonely, so I logged back in.......and realized that I had made the right decision to delete. In the week that I had been gone, I had over 100 notifications.....almost all of them were impersonal things....links being shared, platitudes about life that other people had written....that sort of thing. While I care about the people in my life, I want to know more than just what's on their surface. It almost feels like I'm peeking into their life and only getting a small glimpse of who they are and what kind of life they're living. I guess, what I'm trying to say, is that I want deeper connections than what facebook offers. And I have that, with a few people....mostly with family, but a couple of friends here and there. Even the deeper friendships I had with people in other parts of the country grew less and less personal while using facebook....which makes complete sense. It's a very impersonal place.
I found this link recently, and have to say I pretty much agree with everything she said: http://techsavvybutterfly.wordpress.com/2012/06/27/goodbye-facebook/
She just said it way better than I could have...here's an excerpt:
I no longer want my friends to have this passive peepshow into my life and I don’t want to have the same view of theirs. I want us to talk. I want a personal email. I want to find a way to share photos in a way that encourages us to talk about them with each other. I want to chortle over sushi about the random events and cry together over wine when heartbreak attacks. In short, I want my friends back. The only way I can do that is to cut the cord.
So, in an attempt to simplify my life and establish/maintain/reestablish deeper connections with my fellow humans, I re-deleted facebook. Now I just have to make having ACTUAL relationships with others a bigger priority in my life. Being a shy, introverted type, it's something I'll have to force. The good thing is that I've made some wonderful friends over the years....and I'd love to know more about them than what cat pictures they find funny at any given moment.
Goodbye, facebook...it's been a nice 3 years.
"Borrowed" from another interesting post about saying goodbye to facebook: http://www.nickdanforth.com/goodbye-facebook Just found this blog and I have to say that I really love it!
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