I've decided to take a break from Facebook. Whilst not quite ready to totally obliterate all my data and settings from the site, I've taken the step of 'deactivating' the account, which essentially just makes me vanish from the Facebook world.
So why? Why take this seemingly drastic step? Must admit, I do feel a bit like a counter-culture maverick, flying in the face of all contemporary logic, so I think it's only fair I set out my personal reasons for going down this route. My guess is that, as a minimum, you'll empathise with my reasoning, or perhaps you'll even agree with everything I say. I'm genuinely curious to hear your thoughts, so please add a comment below. OK, here goes :
Reassessing my definition of 'friendship'. Just like everyone else, I have friends and I have family. If I take a step back from Facebook and ask myself who are my friends, my list is going to be a subset of the 100-odd 'friends' I've accumulated on the site. I'd say a third of the total, at most.
So what do I mean by a 'friend', or more to the point, what do I want the definition to be (remembering the old cliché that we choose our friends, unlike our family)? Well, for me, a friend is someone who I am still actively engaged with - ie. someone who I see, visit, call, text, email or IM on a regular or fairly regular basis. They're the ones with whom I can pick up where I left off, no matter how much time has passed. They're the ones who don't need a status update on Facebook to tell them what's going on in my life, and vice versa. It's not that all the other people don't have some meaning for me, more that they are part of my past. Why should I continue to engage with my past if I have no intention of actually seeing those people anywhere outside my computer screen? So, my decision is partly based on a wish to focus on family and the friends I am actively engaging with in the present.
Too much Social Media noise. I've been on a drive to simplify my life in 2011. Somewhat challenging my efforts has been the explosion in hype around Social Media, forever encouraging me to sign-up and share. It all gets a bit overwhelming. I don't remember ever posting a status update on Facebook. For a long time now I've been finding the brilliant simplicity of Twitter suits me far better, and so I simply instructed Twitter to send my tweets to Facebook as status updates, so I didn't have to do both. Twitter wins because it's a fantastic networking tool and the 140 character limit (pure genius) ensures it is easily digestible. I like it so much that I have two accounts - one personal, and one professional, and am constantly fed useful information about what interests me. Compare and contrast this with Facebook status updates which I'm forced to receive from all my 'friends'. De-friending, the equivalent of un-following on Twitter, is mired in all sorts of etiquette complexity, so it ends up being like family - the friends you didn't choose. See where I'm going here?
The irony is that the first thing everyone pokes fun at Twitter for is the status updates where people describe what they had for lunch, but I'm more likely to see that kind of thing on my Facebook feed (wow, puns all over the place). Tweeting what you had for lunch is Twitter for beginners. If you use the service more constructively it's capable of so much more, and again, you choose who you follow with much greater freedom to stop following than you'll ever feel with a Facebook friend.
So that's Twitter. Then there are the other social networks that serve a purpose for me. LinkedIn has proved a simple yet powerful tool for collating the professional contacts I've made and continue to make. It's also very handy for keeping an eye on what other employment opportunities are out there, should my current employer no longer tick all my career boxes.
And finally, there's the new kid on the block, Google+. I fear in time it may end up much like Facebook has become, but right now it feels like a lighter option, and crucially, one which I feel properly in control of. So when I want to post more than 140 characters, Google+, or indeed here on Wordpress, will be the place I turn.
Facebook is simply at the bottom of the pile. Not without its uses, but the one that's easiest for me to drop.
Facebook Irritation. Do I need to spell it out? I think you know precisely what I'm talking about. For as long as I can remember, there's been something or other irritating me about the site. They change things - all the time! I've become accustomed to rapid change in the internet age, but if it's confusing change which forces you to go and re-check your settings and wonder where things have gone, then it's change going backwards. It perpetually feels like beta software. Facebook always gives me this nasty feeling that something isn't set the way it should be, so I don't feel in control of what's on there about me and who is seeing it. I don't feel I can trust the company with all that data. 18 months after the iPad launched there's STILL no proper client. I don't know. I'm rambling. But Facebook has a way of making me feel like a mouse being continuously experimented on, a commodity. Let's be honest, Facebook users ARE commodities for that profit-making business.
Facebook is NOT the Internet. I'm old enough to have seen the whole genesis of the Internet, and experienced the thrill of the wild west, as I and others learned of the limitless potential of this network of networks. To this day I am still regularly reminded how truly awesome the Internet is - possibly the greatest invention since the Gutenberg press. What I love about it is that, in essence, it all boils down to a computer network running standards-based protocols which anyone can use as they see fit. Now along comes this phenomenon called Facebook. It aspires to somehow become the Internet. A portal beyond which you never need venture. All your communication needs are covered, so why go to any other site? As a child of www, I'm not at all happy to see advertisers using, for example, facebook.com/brandname, rather than www.brandname.com. In essence, I don't want to see one huge corporation making the World Wide Web irrelevant. The freedom of the Internet has led to strong competition and rapid innovation. It's not difficult to guess what will happen to those benefits if one company subsumes all in its path. No thank you. I don't want to be part of that future. The Internet is a public place with limitless potential, not a closed proprietary garden the great Zuckerberg designs for our 'benefit'.
Privacy. I've left this one till last, though for many it would be their first issue with Facebook. The truth is, I don't have that much to hide (at least that I'm aware of), and I'm not that bothered about people knowing me fully. I guess I'm comfortable in my own skin. The mere fact I'm happy to stay on other social networks should attest to that. But let's assume I was more 'normal' and actually quite concerned about maintaining my privacy. Well, this flies completely in the face of the whole Facebook ethos. Zuckerberg wants us to share our entire lives online and sees no reason why any of us should hide anything. Indeed, the site is about to launch Timelines, encouraging us to go back to our birthdate and fill in as much detail as possible about our lives. By doing so, we would be simply feeding the Facebook machine with more and more ammunition to use for its financial gain - enabling more and more targeted advertising and more and more delicate social situations. Just imagine! Not for me, thanks. It just doesn't sit well in my stomach.
OK, I've gone on long enough. A lot of the things I don't like about Facebook can be ignored or overcome with a little effort, so it would be wrong to discourage others from using it if they're comfortable or enjoy doing so. Hell, I may even return myself at some point, but for now I'm going to experiment with life outside, the way it was just 7 years ago, and see how it goes. No doubt I'll miss some fun stuff. No doubt I'll feel a bit of an outsider. But for now, at least, it's time to take a break, and something tells me I'll survive just fine without it. In the meantime, you can find my Twitter feed and Google+ details over on the right of this page.
Please share your thoughts and reactions - I'm interested to hear what you think.
