Thursday, September 29, 2011

Leaving Facebook

Not sure why, but it finally seemed like the right time to kill my Facebook account. Evidently it dawned on me that I was using Facebook for two primary reasons:

  1. To put ideas out into the world that I think are worth sharing, discussing, contemplating, etc.
  2. To connect with friends.
Neither of those reasons force me to use Facebook, though, and the latest blurb from Douglas Rushkoff, about how we are not Facebook's customers but its product, really hit home. I don't want to be Facebook's product. That sort of defeats the point of the things I post there. 

So back to the reasons I used Facebook.

Regarding the first point, I figured that I can just as easily share the sorts of articles and ideas here that I do on Facebook, and while fewer people may encounter them, those that do might be more included to contribute more than a "like" or a snide comment.

Regarding the second point, how many of my "friends" on FB are actually friends, how many are acquaintances, and how many were people I spoke to once in high school who remembered my name and tracked me down? Shutting down FB will mean more face to face conversations, more phone calls, more emails, and heck, maybe even a couple of hand-written letters. All of which are good things, especially if one of my goals is to build that elusive creature, community.

Anyhow, adios Facebook.

1 comment:

  1. Sorry to hear that. I have been there now a bit over my own projected 90 days and, while I use it more than I thought I would, I don´t feel "addicted" and, in fact, have found some people I admire to the nth degree (Stan Goff, Phil Rockstroh, Jeffrey St. Clair, etc.) and people who meant a lot to me many, many years ago. Of course, I don´t know how long I´ll last but so far, so fun...

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