Why I Left Facebook
Yesterday, I made the decision to deactivate my Facebook account. This is something I’ve done once or twice in the past, but this time I’m hoping to go without Facebook for a significant period of time (the entire year would be nice, forever would be even better).
Too Much To ‘Like’ #
My primary complaint with Facebook is the abundance of mundane things that people can ‘Like’ and the resulting notifications that end up in my several news feeds. The promoted stories are especially more intrusive than anything you’ll find on Twitter, and Facebook just allows too much junk into the news feeds in general. The stuff I want to see never seems to be at the top, and the stuff I couldn’t care less about always appears front-and-center.
People I Don’t Want to Friend #
Recently, co-workers and others I’d rather not let into my personal life have requested my friendship. I don’t have anything against these people, I just don’t want them seeing everything I do. I realize that Facebook has security controls to prevent over-sharing, but it’s too complicated. It’s nowhere near as simple as Google+‘s 'Circles’ mechanism. I really wish that Google+ had caught on with everyone that I know like Facebook has. Though it has it’s flaws, it’s a much nicer platform for social networking that Facebook.
I Want to Focus #
Facebook is a serious distraction. It has gotten to the point where I involuntarily open a new tab and start typing f-a-c-e in the location bar. Autocomplete finishes the URL and jumping into the time-suck is only a return key away. It’s out of control. Every minute I spend on Facebook reading about my old neighborhood friend’s dog being ill is a minute I could be spending more productively, learning something new or spending quality time with my son. This, to me, is a no-brainer. Seeing a smile on my son’s face brings more satisfaction than any number of ‘likes’ on a post could ever hope to bring.
What I’m Giving Up #
It wasn’t an easy decision to make. Facebook is my primary means of communicating with a number of people, which means I’ll have to establish a new route of communication with these people. In times when I have tried to leave Facebook before, I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to stay current with local events. I was afraid that I’d lose contact with those friends I had lost contact with before I found them on Facebook.
Maybe it’s time to start cutting away the excess in life. Sure, it was great to reconnect with those people, to let them know that you’re still alive, but what about after that? I’m ready to start making things happen in my life, rather than reading about what everyone else is doing.
Summary #
Facebook, for all intents and purposes, has become the worldwide people index. Everyone who’s anyone is on Facebook. This is why people get addicted to their news feeds, thinking that what they’re seeing is important and that in 2013 it makes sense to know everything about everyone simply because we can. When I was getting serious about deactivating my account, I brought up my newsfeed to see if there was anything in there that I was truly glad that I saw.
There wasn’t.
And I realized that there very rarely was anything that I was truly gracious to have learned through Facebook. This is not a rant against social networking. I’m still a fan of twitter (@marpstar), and plan on using Google+ a lot more.
I’m committed to avoiding the platform for non-professional purposes indefinitely. Should some situation arise where I need to contact something I thought I could only contact via Facebook, I’ll do what it takes to get around using Facebook.
Expect futures updates. Have you quit Facebook, or know someone who still hasn’t gotten one? Leave me a message in the comments below.