8 replies to this topic

[The Heretic]

I've decided to delete my FB account (will do this sometime this week) for many reasons:

* time management. FB has become somewhat addicting, one that ate up way too much of my time. You're forced to read the inane updates of others you never really cared about. Hiding them doesn't do much.

* mixing friends with acquaintances. You may have a small circle of friends you want to keep in touch, but their friends' friends, and some of your distant relatives and perhaps coworkers are also on FB. Now you have to lump them all together in one cesspool of friends, and they all can see what you're doing.

Add your other reasons, if you have any.

[Parody of Language]

Ala mosaic

mosaic said:

The only good thing about these sites is is that there is potential for me to interact with family members and friends long distances away from Alaska. In nearly all other facets, I don't like it. All this talk of transparency obscures how quickly superficial and meaningless many of these "conversations" become. Furthermore, when you ask questions like "what degree of privacy should we realistically expect," you already cede control of your own personality. Why even enter a situation where this becomes a question? I'd rather disconnect and not engage it at all. I love this site and the relationships we've built here - small, mutually respectful ( for the mos part) and not an endless list of "friends" that pop in to say worthless things every once in a while. I just don't desire this overload of information about everybody's life - it feels like gossiping.

You're probably further into Facebook than I have ever been, and I've never acquired such a long friends list.  I guess, if you want to look at Facebook cynically, you might describe it as a technological tool for people to go through the motions of having a relationship with everyone without the substance behind it.  For instance, it will remind you when people on your list are having a birthday, and when someone messages you, you can take a quick at their profile and recent status updates to help you remember them, or failing that, make a pretty good pretense of knowing that person.

But ignoring Facebook for the moment, I do like the idea of a social network, but implemented differently.  First of all, I don't want a single identity, I've always used a pseudonym online (until Facebook), and in my opinion I'd rather be a member of multiple social networks than a member of just one.  The key difference is that, outside of a particular social network, my contacts won't know who my other contacts are.  For instance, lets say I want to add a bunch of people I know who are interested in a particular politics, do I really want everyone else I associate with know that I associate with the former people?  Or lets say I join an online programming project, those people should be on a separate social network.  Additionally, my co-workers should be on a separate social network; relatives on their own social network; my high school class on a separate social network.  But this desirable feature of segregating out social networks is actually against the interest of companies such as Facebook who use this "friend of a friend" feature to add to their userbase.

As to your comment about meaningful conversations, I definitely identify with that, but then I pause to consider what makes a conversation meaningful.  When I first started on Facebook I found some people I knew in high school and had a conversation with an old friend.  We did this a few times, engaged in some chat, and it was really neat.  We basically reminisced about people we used to know, and it was crazy to some degree because I was doing some serious flashbacking.  So yeah, it was meaningful.

But that was it.  He's gone off, moved away, married, and has a daughter and expecting another kid.  I don't really know him much anymore, we've both moved on.  It's just like there comes a time when family reunions cease making sense, when the bond of a shared past is no longer strong enough to form relationships with.

On the other hand, doing what I do here, chatting about philosophy with people who I've never met in real life, is a hundred times more meaningful, because this is what I'm doing with my life now.  All those people who I've met in real life, I couldn't discuss philosophy with, and that's the sad truth.  That's why I've always been grateful for the internet and sites like these.

Hey, for those of you planning on quitting Facebook, wait until May 31st: http://www.quitfacebookday.com/

[mosaic]

I haven't amassed the ridiculous friend's list either, Parody but the evidence is all around me. I don't know how many updates from different sites I've ignored and just the sheer amount of people I see on other accounts puts me of. What the heck is the point of this? I like your idea - pairing down who you want to talk to a few people that you can interact with without the extravagance and meaninglessness of the rest. By "meaningful" Btw, I don't necessarily mean serious or philosophical topics - a conversation you describe is certainly pleasant and with meaning but the rest? Not so much. It's a giant "friend's list" that I can't be bothered with.

[Parody of Language]

I didn't mean to imply that only philosophical or serious conversations are meaningful.  My sense is that for a conversation to be meaningful, it has to be about something we have in common.  If we're both interested in philosophy, that's one example, another example is a shared past, even further could be a common relationship with other people we know (which, I guess, is almost the definition of gossip).

I guess there's always popular culture, but that's the trap that I would that the internet would help get us out of.  That is, we find ourselves only able to relate about the most popular things, because those are the only things that most people have in common.  Sometimes I feel like I should start watching football or baseball just to fit in.

One of the great things about the internet is that unpopular and semipopular culture also has a place and people can connect on those interests as well.  We're not dominated by popularity in the same way that television and radio has always been.

I've always felt that there is a certain power in small networks of people united by a common interest; such an environment could turn consumers into producers, believers into thinkers.

[gamera]

Facebook is great for getting in touch with old friends, and in helping others get in touch with you if have some public profile, such as scholarly pursuits in a particular field.  But short of that, it's incredibly boring.  I really don't want to know what my ex-college roommate's former girlfriend thought of the revived version of "Cats" in Omaho.   It's probably really fun for young people who are just testing the waters of independent social life.   For adults, other than for the above benefits, I rarely open my Facebook account.

I think, lilke music videos, social media on the net has grown like an algae bloom, and then it will disappear for the most part.

[The Heretic]

After 2 months of sobriety, I logged back in and saw the same old shit.  
So I've sent my "Down with Zuckerberg" message to ppl in my inner circle, and the FB squad sent me this email:

Quote

Hi [Campanella],

We have received a request to permanently delete your account. Your account has been deactivated from the site and will be permanently deleted within 14 days.

If you did not request to permanently delete your account, follow this link to cancel this request:

http://www.facebook....ount_delete.php

Thanks,
The Facebook Team

Edited by Campanella, 18 May 2010 - 12:55 AM.

[the sad clown]

I had quit facebook before, but started it up again once I got a smartphone, since it is a lot easier to manage with one.  As for my reasons for using it, I mostly use it to keep up with people I see in regular life as well, so it's sort of a supplemental source.  My brother and his girlfriend joined a while ago also, so now I have even more reasons for staying on.  I do try and keep a small friends list though, and I fastidiously refuse all facebook games, as I find them tedious at best.

[Scotty]

I looked all over but it told me nothing about you deleting your Facebook account.

I log in once a month or so, maybe.  After I had read their EULA, originally when I signed up which was quite a while ago, I didn't want to really use it again, but I have a few friends I would like to just stay there if they want to get in contact with me because they always seem to forget my email address that I have had for the past 11 years.

Hmm, wonder what that means?

I will think about deleting it, but this site is much more interesting than the blather there.

-Scott

[The Heretic]

I didn't look on facebook how to delete it, cuz that information is buried deeper than Jimmy Hoffa.

What I did was do a google search on how to delete my FB account, and the best one i found was on wikihow.com. Go forth and never look back! There's no Eurydice waiting for you in the cave.

ETA: Here's the link:
http://www.wikihow.c...acebook-Account

Edited by Campanella, 20 May 2010 - 12:28 AM.