In working my five-year plan, I have become rather too busy to write blogs of late. However, I’m currently in the process of falling out with facebook and am intending to move more of my personal output onto this blog, so things will be changing here soon.
I don’t know if I’m old-fashioned, but the idea of controlling my own content appeals to me, and facebook is just a little to chaotic to be able to do that. It’s one of those things I’ve been ambivalent about for some time; is it valuable or not?
Value lies, I think, in creating not consuming. Facebook, while allowing creation, strongly encourages consumption on an unprecedented scale. Even if I go to facebook with a plan, the temptation is there to click around and lose an hour without even thinking about it. Sure it’s fun. Sure it’s social. If I ditch my account, I may well cease to exist for a number of my contacts there. Is that such a bad thing? That is what has to be decided.
What are your experiences with facebook? What kind of value does it add to your life? What thoughts have you had (if at all) about quitting facebook?
2 Comments
The majority of my day to day socialising is done through Facebook, mainly with people who live a great distance away. Without it, I wouldn’t be able to keep in touch with these people in the same way. Yes, I would have the option of e-mail or text, but that’s not the sort of relationship I want with many of my FB friends. I want to know the random silly thoughts that pop into their heads. I want to know the gems their children have just come out with. I want to know what crazy dream they had last night. Basically, I want to hear about all the stuff that will have been forgotten by the time they get a chance to e-mail or text.
More importantly, I love the fact that, with FB, I can get all this info, smile about it and carry on with whatever else I was doing without having the emotional obligation to reply. Sometimes I’m just not in a chatty mood. If someone e-mails or texts me and I don’t reply it’s like a personal dig at them. With FB they’re telling everyone, not just me, so there’s no responsibility put on my shoulders to reply.
I am fully aware that FB has too much control over my life. If it shut down tomorrow there are people I would never be able to contact again because I don’t know them well enough to have their phone number or e-mail address. Do those people matter? Well, yes, they do. They matter because they all contribute to my day in some ways.
I think if you have a full social life already and the majority of your FB friends are real life friends too then I don’t think quitting FB is a big deal. Mind you, how many people on FB fit that profile?
Interesting ideas – thanks for sharing! I guess the internet as a whole has re-moulded how ‘friendship’ works. It used to be the people you hung out with. Now there is no geographical limit on where your friends can be.
The pool is wider, but perhaps shallower?