I did it. I pulled the plug on my facebook account. It\u2019s something I\u2019ve pondered doing before, but never did before now. I don\u2019t know how long I\u2019ll stay away. Permanently? I\u2019d say probably not, but who knows. It\u2019s kind of an experiment.<\/p>\n
So what would make me want to kick Facebook to the curb?<\/p>\n
Well, let\u2019s start with the reason I talked myself out of deactivating my account for such a long time. When the subject of Facebook came up in real world conversation, any time someone would speak of it in a sense such as \u201cI don\u2019t really use it,\u201d I would generally say something like \u201cYeah, I probably wouldn\u2019t use it at all if it weren\u2019t for it letting me keep in touch with people I otherwise probably wouldn\u2019t.\u201d That was a true statement, that is what convinced me that I should stay on.<\/p>\n
I kind of hate shallow relationships. I\u2019m an all or nothing kind of guy. If I like you, I\u2019m in it 100%. I\u2019m not a big fan of small talk and the like. Now, since I\u2019m in it 100%, but I\u2019m all or nothing, it gets weird when it becomes difficult to maintain that 100% (say, you live on the opposite side of the country). Well, Facebook offered this neat little thing where I can be \u201cin it\u201d in the world of cyberspace, but not so much in the real world. And that is kind of OK in some circumstances.<\/p>\n
However, I feel like in some situations Facebook has been stressing me out on an almost subconscious level for some time. That can be for various reasons. There\u2019s that whole effect of seeing the best of one person\u2019s life and comparing it with the worst of yours, which can definitely mess with your head. It\u2019s certainly a kind of addiction because it makes you feel that you need to see what is going on with people. Certainly, I was far less addicted than many people are, and also probably the least I have been at any point in my own life. Still, it consumed time and attention\u2026 and I\u2019d flick over to it randomly so often that it really feels weird that I can\u2019t do that right now.<\/p>\n
The biggest reason goes back to that staying in touch with people and my hatred of shallow relationships though. I sort of realized Facebook is just sort of fostering ultra-shallow, casual, passive, not really real relationships. There are some people who I just sort of felt like I was bothering them when I\u2019d message them, and well, I don\u2019t really need that. Sometimes I\u2019d want to actually talk to the person and I\u2019d just get a few minutes of sporadic messages of fluff and then nothing. But I\u2019d still feel compelled to send messages to certain people if I noticed them on and hadn\u2019t talked to them in some time.<\/p>\n
And so, I decided to rid myself of it. No more stress. If you have my email address, you can email me. If you have my phone number, you can call me or text me. With the exception of a short list of people, I\u2019m not likely to contact you more than once without you contacting me, because I\u2019m tired of being more in it than you are.<\/p>\n
So we\u2019ll see how this goes. Maybe without Facebook in the mix I\u2019ll be better at all of this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I did it. I pulled the plug on my facebook account. It\u2019s something I\u2019ve pondered doing before, but never did before now. I don\u2019t know how long I\u2019ll stay away. Permanently? I\u2019d say probably not, but who knows. It\u2019s kind of an experiment. So what would make me want to kick Facebook to the curb? … Continue reading Facebook-less<\/span>