I was chatting with my friend K.D. at work today while we were both on break . We discussed many things. We talked about our shared love of Christmas, Italian food and many other delightful topics. Somehow she brought up facebook, and she was shocked when I told her I deleted my facebook account months ago.
"Why would you get rid of it?! It makes it so easy to keep up with people. Plus is it SO entertaining!" K.D.mused.
And she is right. My husband has a facebook account, and so do all of my friends, minus one that I can think of off the top of my head. It is an easy way to keep up with people who have moved all over the place. Everything is right there at your fingertips. Vacation photos, baby pictures, wedding pictures. Extremely funny/witting/entertaining status updates, and then of course status updates that share waaaaaaaaaay TMI or status updates that you don't give two shits about, i.e. "I took a shit this morning. It was a little runny, but had good color. I washed my hands afterward." And then there was this one serial status updater that told me (and her 900 something other friends, yes, NINE HUNDRED) wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy toooooooooooooooooo much about her pregnancy.
I do NOT, under ANY circumstances, want to read about your cervical mucus or your leaking breasts.
But enough of the TMI facebookers and onto the reasons I got rid of facebook ...
I got rid of facebook for many reasons, but the number one reason was that I had privacy concerns. I fear that people don't realize how creepy facebook is about privacy. They stalk you, major big brother style. They use your information to try to sell you things. They change their privacy settings like I change my underwear, and then they "forget" to tell you about it. They make it thisclose to impossible to delete your profile for good, and then I don't think it's ever actually deleted because when you signed up, you essentially gave them the rights to your profile. It's dicked up, my friends, as A.J Soprano used to say.
The second reason I got rid of facebook was that it made me LAZY. Super lazy. I don't wanna call my cousin to congratulate her on the birth of her second baby? Just say grats on FB. I don't want to do my cinema class homework? Waste some time on FB, naturally. I don't want to call my group of friends to organize a get together? Send them an "invite" on FB. I just didn't like how much time I was wasting on facebook, and how it made me feel connected to all these people (who, let's face it, I didn't want to be connected to) in some super weird way.
The third reason I got rid of facebook was because I felt like it started becoming too big a part of my life, and that was not cool with me. I felt like I just had to check facebook several times a day. I felt like every time I snapped a great picture, I had to post it on facebook. I felt like everyone was posting about how everything is just so perfect and happy, and everyone's life was just totally, mindblowingly amazing. It all started feeling a little too "Stepford Wives" for me.
So away facebook went. And guess what?! I am surviving. I still see all of my local friends on a regular basis. I email or call my long distance friends/family on a regular basis.
There is life after facebook. And it's damn good. ;)
"Why would you get rid of it?! It makes it so easy to keep up with people. Plus is it SO entertaining!" K.D.mused.
And she is right. My husband has a facebook account, and so do all of my friends, minus one that I can think of off the top of my head. It is an easy way to keep up with people who have moved all over the place. Everything is right there at your fingertips. Vacation photos, baby pictures, wedding pictures. Extremely funny/witting/entertaining status updates, and then of course status updates that share waaaaaaaaaay TMI or status updates that you don't give two shits about, i.e. "I took a shit this morning. It was a little runny, but had good color. I washed my hands afterward." And then there was this one serial status updater that told me (and her 900 something other friends, yes, NINE HUNDRED) wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy toooooooooooooooooo much about her pregnancy.
I do NOT, under ANY circumstances, want to read about your cervical mucus or your leaking breasts.
But enough of the TMI facebookers and onto the reasons I got rid of facebook ...
I got rid of facebook for many reasons, but the number one reason was that I had privacy concerns. I fear that people don't realize how creepy facebook is about privacy. They stalk you, major big brother style. They use your information to try to sell you things. They change their privacy settings like I change my underwear, and then they "forget" to tell you about it. They make it thisclose to impossible to delete your profile for good, and then I don't think it's ever actually deleted because when you signed up, you essentially gave them the rights to your profile. It's dicked up, my friends, as A.J Soprano used to say.
The second reason I got rid of facebook was that it made me LAZY. Super lazy. I don't wanna call my cousin to congratulate her on the birth of her second baby? Just say grats on FB. I don't want to do my cinema class homework? Waste some time on FB, naturally. I don't want to call my group of friends to organize a get together? Send them an "invite" on FB. I just didn't like how much time I was wasting on facebook, and how it made me feel connected to all these people (who, let's face it, I didn't want to be connected to) in some super weird way.
The third reason I got rid of facebook was because I felt like it started becoming too big a part of my life, and that was not cool with me. I felt like I just had to check facebook several times a day. I felt like every time I snapped a great picture, I had to post it on facebook. I felt like everyone was posting about how everything is just so perfect and happy, and everyone's life was just totally, mindblowingly amazing. It all started feeling a little too "Stepford Wives" for me.
So away facebook went. And guess what?! I am surviving. I still see all of my local friends on a regular basis. I email or call my long distance friends/family on a regular basis.
There is life after facebook. And it's damn good. ;)
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