Editorial: Why I Left Facebook After 7 Years, But Was Forced Back In

I have a facebook account, although I don't trust some of the opt-in feature it maintains to "make the world more open and connected"; Timeline, in particular. And I log in for only so much time, it becomes tedious on the time being.

(I wish I could Like the following comments above on TechSpot's facebook, rather than being impatient to get a Dislike button!) ;)
 
Jim$ter said:
...If being uninformed and isolated makes you feel better by all means do it..But for most people being connected to people is what life is about..... Sure could facebook be evil and actual making things worse in the world....possibly....but it isn't going anywhere and few people not using it won't stop the fact facebook is still there and almost everyone and your friends and family are on it but you. And more and more websites are going to require and use facebook. So enjoy isolation but don't shout it out like its a good thing.
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First off if Facebook is your main media outlet for information you need to reassess things. I can know about things before someone on Facebook does, very easily in fact.

Now, what's this about Facebook not going anywhere? All things come to an end in the virtual world. Facebook is yet another rehash of other social sites. Almost everyone uses Facebook? That's the funniest things I've read this week. 0.9 billion use Facebook. There are 7 billion in the world. Hardly "almost everyone.
 
Bravo Julio! I offer one and all a recommendation to read "The Digital Divide" by Mark Bauerlein in which there is at least one chapter directly related to this article:
'Virtual Friendship and the new Narcissim'. Another that is somewhat shocking is 'Is Google Making us Stupid?' The book cited is worth your time if the impact of three decades of the Internet are of interest to you.
 
I'm a little curious to know what the average age of the commenters here are. I'm not sure if that matters a whole bunch, but it's certainly a factor to consider.

I'm 21 now, and I've spent far too much of my life online since the age of 12. I've had four or five different groups of friends over the course of those years, and I don't exactly want to toss them all to the wayside every time we're not able to physically meet up (which gets hard when we're spread across the country).

By and large, my preferred communication is instant messaging-- but not everyone uses that. What if I want to address multiple people and have them all comment? Or I found a cool thing and I want to show it off?

I don't use facebook for the games and I rarely use it for the apps. I use it as a quick and easy way to let people know what's going on with my life. Some people don't like that, sure. But I do, and obviously, so do most of my friends.

It's easy to write off facebook as an intrusive and crapp-riddled site; but it's not hard to use it exactly as intended-- a social network. And that's why I'd never give it up.
 
I do have a Facebook account with a few hundred friends. I do very little with reading posts or replying to them. If someone sends me a friend request and I even vaguely remember who they are I'll accept. I'm not on it for the keeping in touch part, or even the sharing my daily life activity. I just like some of the games they have to offer. If those games ever go offline (standalone) I could more then live without logging into Facebook. Although I don't think I could delete my account because I also have several other things linked to Facebook. Now that I think about it I post more on TechSpot or other specially forums then I ever have on Facebook. :)
 
Recycle said:
I'm a little curious to know what the average age of the commenters here are. I'm not sure if that matters a whole bunch, but it's certainly a factor to consider.
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IMO, maturity, not age is THE factor :grin:
 
I nuked my account mid July, best thing I ever did. Don't miss it, not in the least bit. I feel facebook is a social d-evolution, it's almost just an extension to the text message epidemic. The use of verbal communication is decreasing fast, and its effect will span a whole generation. It's already pretty bad when you meet someone and instead of getting a phone number they tell you to "Add me on Facebook" But it's not just people, now it's every business under the sun that has to put the little symbol on their card or menu or whatever. I can remember the early days, before it became a source of commercial advertisement, when it was really about the people you know. Now it bothers me to the point where I wish it was gone completely, the world would be a better place without facebook, because at the end of the day it does nothing you can't do with a phone call.

Forgot to add one more thing, since I've left I noticed people who rely on it extensively have not contacted me since, and only my close friends actually pointed out that I wasn't on anymore.
 
Jim$ter said:
People always hate what is most popular. Facebook is awesome in that you can easily log into most websites without having to signup. If you know what your doing and how to set your privacy and control your apps and news feed it is a great place. If you let it take over your life then like any addiction you should stop. But for most people its a great way to be able to get in touch with people...Closing your facebook account is nothing to be excited about...you might as well get rid of your cell phone too and turn into a hermit. Like my one friend who never had facebook and think its evil is always surprised when he hears some news...and I'm like dude I knew about that for months. If being uninformed and isolated makes you feel better by all means do it..But for most people being connected to people is what life is about..... Sure could facebook be evil and actual making things worse in the world....possibly....but it isn't going anywhere and few people not using it won't stop the fact facebook is still there and almost everyone and your friends and family are on it but you. And more and more websites are going to require and use facebook. So enjoy isolation but don't shout it out like its a good thing.
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Zuck, is that you? Or just another insecure non-person who has to justify his addiction through pitiful "I'm so cool" posturing? Oh wait..there's no difference.
 
@Jim$ter.

There is a whole world out there that doesn't have anything thing to do with fakebook. It's cool that you are so connected, but there are other ways in this digital world to stay connected to friends and get news and information without having facebook know every move you make. I personally have found that if a site requires me to use a facebook interface, than I probably don't need to use that site. Isolation? Hermit? Not really, I just figure facebook doesn't need to know anymore info about me than they already have. Who really needs hundreds if not thousands of "friends" anyway? It's just another excuse to hoard so called "friends". So, before you make it sound like people that aren't on facebook are total losers, It is just a choice of how much of your life you intend to share or exploit. Some prefer not to do either. That is me.
 
Guest said:
@Jim$ter.

There is a whole world out there that doesn't have anything thing to do with fakebook. It's cool that you are so connected, but there are other ways in this digital world to stay connected to friends and get news and information without having facebook know every move you make. I personally have found that if a site requires me to use a facebook interface, than I probably don't need to use that site. Isolation? Hermit? Not really, I just figure facebook doesn't need to know anymore info about me than they already have. Who really needs hundreds if not thousands of "friends" anyway? It's just another excuse to hoard so called "friends". So, before you make it sound like people that aren't on facebook are total losers, It is just a choice of how much of your life you intend to share or exploit. Some prefer not to do either. That is me.
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So very true. Just sometimes wish people would realize this.
 
I closed my account once. A year later, I went back on and entered my old username/password. FB popped up with a question asking if I wanted to reactivate my old account. I said yes and every picture and my old friends list was still intact as if I had never left, as were all of my old posts. Closing an account does not truly delete the account.
 
Before I read the article all I could think of was "How can you be forced back in?" Then I remembered that new Spotify members can only signup with Facebook. That is the problem the person is trying to show people. He had a Spotify account that he was locked out from after getting rid of his facebook. If he could use his email for Spotify he could still log in and change his email address if he changed email accounts.
 
To me, Facebook is my contacts book since it's easier to keep in touch with my friends and family there rather than keeping their addresses somewhere else and using the email instead.

Additionally, it's my "public diary" (all my privacy settings are set to "friends only"). Whatever I post on my timeline is mostly for myself to commemorate an event and to share it with my buddies who I trust.

Everyone on my friends list is someone who I have close relationships with. I have no virtual friends there, no acquintanances as I don't have an urge to add everyone I've ever known there.

I only add people who I don't have a problem with sharing my personal stuff.
 
I agree with the article. nothing worse than seeing a bunch of bible verses in post after post. Its like dropping a prayer smack dab in the middle of a good time.
 
Facebook is annoying when people treat it like its the be all end all form of communication. Hilariously I hit on a girl and her response was to "Facebook me" instead of giving me her number.
 
People like to know that they are liked. As you get older, you start to appreciate your real friends more, releasing thier true friendship and support are priceless. Facebook is mostly a gallery of photoshopped and cherrycoated junk, a joke with no punchline.
If used correctly it can be a powerful communication tool with all types of intuitive ways of interacting. But mostly its a a 'hey look at me' website that people use to gloat about thier success and cherrycoat everything in between.
I don't use facebook and never will. My girlfriend does and having to hear about it from her is enough for me.
 
Erik said:
I've never truly disliked Facebook but it HAS gotten tiresome. The main reason I have not closed my account is my family abroad. I have a 4 month baby boy and it's the easiest way for me and my wife to share pictures with them, specially the older folks that are not to tech savvy - they don't post or interact, they just open their accounts to see the pictures they've been tagged in.
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This.

I don't care what other people do with their lives on Facebook, but I log on for things like this. I use this as another outlet to see my family from the other side of the world and share what's going on in their lives to me as if I'm right there with them. =)


But ugggghhhhh!!!......this is just another article with a similar premise that expresses their reason/opinion for leaving or using Facebook. Welcome to the world wide web, where there are millions of other people who use/don't use them. But only they either aren't capable of writing an article about it or they don't want to because no one cares. For those who never want to use Facebook, cool. Good for you. If you are using Facebook, that's cool too. Good for you.
 
Personally I don't like Facebook at all, and I am sick of hearing that dreadful word, the fact that Facebook is so low on privacy is just ridiculous, I've heard so many bad stories of Facebook, like them using someone elses artwork which they posted on Facebook, and the fact that they don't really delete your data when you ask them to is kinda scary too, why do they need to keep my personal data? This is a horrible way of doing things, I have moved to Google+ which is really awesome despite what most people say they probably haven't even tried G+ it's awesome, I hate when I read peoples comments saying G+ is stupid when they haven't even tried it. But I have also gotten a few friends back into IM (instant Messaging) but one day I plan to set up my own private server something similar to Diaspora so I actually OWN my data and I'm in charge of my data, and no more Corporations will have my data ever again.:)
 
I did this recently but with one of my MMO accounts that I had been playing on for 3 years.. it got to a similar stage where as soon as I was in from work I wanted to log on or when I got up in the morning before work I wanted to see what activity had happened overnight etc! It's been a few weeks without it now and was definitely the right move. It seems so easy in this day and age to get completely sucked in by these online bubble worlds and only when you take a step back to look at it do you realise that it can be quite unhealthy

Also a few years back I deactivated my facebook for about a month or so and that felt quite good.. it's a while ago now though so hard to remember (or why I even went back). I have had the feeling recently to do a disappearing act again (like you I'd have to set up a dummy account for UFC.. can't be missing that!) but unfortunately where I'm from and with our big circle of friends everyone uses facebook all the time for everything.
 
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I have facebook account but I use it rarely.I like to spend more time on forums ,interacting with strangers ,sharing knowledge.Its refreshing.If anu1 is getting bored of facebook,you can always give at different forums of your interests.
 
I agree with the editorial. I'm sick of all the pontificating about politics and especially religion. Religion is such and personal thing.
But as some of the comments, we like to see the pics of the grandkids, even though we are techy for old people Hahaha.
I myself hardly post anything about my life as some post when they are wiping their asses from a bowel movement. I just reply sometimes to my true friends under their posts, usually with something funny.
Basically I hate Fakebook!! lol
 
I opened a fb account only to communicate, albeit it's usually just one-way, with my grandchildren. I found myself being asked to friend an awful lot of people with whom I communicated fairly regularly in a chat group. Now I have discovered that many of the latter no longer post in the chat group but only on fb, but - and it's a big one, a frustrating one -- no-one seems to scroll down the next time to read any comments. One might as well be invisible. The whole thing is absurd. But then I'm old, too, so I suppose that makes a difference.
 
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