Quitting Facebook

CharlesWelles

So, I have been thinking about quitting facebook for a few years now. I first got on when it was only open to colleges and I was hesitant at the time, but soon became surprisingly addicted. My first year out of school I moved from Texas to Boston and did not check my facebook account for the 2 years I was in Boston. When I moved back to Texas, I soon started it back up and was caught back into it.

The only time I use it now is to check on people I have not seen in forever and I find myself judging them, and ultimately comparing myself to others in a negative light. I also just really get stuck on the gross narcissistic posts I see on the newsfeed. I don't feel like it is healthy for me to keep my account open. The only reason I have kept it is my wife. She tells me I should keep it open and only put people I really, truly like on my newsfeed. The more I think about it though, I don't really, truly like too many people and the people I like the most are not on facebook.

I know it sounds like a no brainer to get off and I probably will by the end of the day, but I just wanted to get some opinions from an awesome board like this one.

Thanks.

-Sleepless in the interwebs

handamputation

I too have often thought about it. Facebook can be a vampire.

However, I have a band and a podcast and I have to have a personal FB acct to check those.

Thought about just taking another break?

CharlesWelles

I feel you. I have postponed quitting before because of my small business. I have a small video game store, but I just don't even do much action on fb anyway.

I have thought about a break, but I kind of want to quit to make a statement to myself. If that makes sense. Just let my destructive habits go, and be free of my inner vamp.

Gods_Mustache

Yeah Maaan! Come over to my side... the water's fine. I was in the same predicament as you. Got on in college, became addicted to embellishing my life, a little stalking of exes, starting to compare my life with others, etc. It all felt so fake to me.

I just stopped. No announcement. I decided that I would call the people I care about or write them an email once in awhile to find out how they're doing. Basically keeping in meaningful contact.

It's tough for the first month but you get over pretty fast. Plus it's a bitch to actually delete your account. They really want you to stay. There are some websites that show you how to properly delete your account on facebook.

Heeee

Facebook is where people go to advertise themselves so they can feel relevant. It's nothing more than a way to market ourselves, to post smiley pictures to create a falsely lead social mask so people can hope to god that they'll be accepted.

The same is true away from Facebook, this is what humans do, and it's so incredibly sad to watch. Walking the malls I see pods of people moving like swarms of fish, I look into their eyes and all I see are the sparkly neon glows of stores beaming into their subconscious drilling into their so called "desires" that have been programmed into their mind.

Sigh.

[Deleted User]

I deleted my account after watching a doc about zuckerberg and how he was quoted with something like "I dont know why all these idiots are giving me their personal data?"

It took me 3 hours because I had to go and delete every single picture, and everything I ever typed in thier.

I highly recommend you quit bro. Its like crack.

I cant count the amount of times being in the "world" (bus, train, even movie theatre) where someone is checking thier page or the worst is when they are like "Oh my god, thats gonna be my new profile pic on facebook".

No offense intended with this next statement as it was what got me really thinking.

but if you need a service like facebook to keep in touch with your friends, maybe they arent really your friends. I have five or six 'real world' freinds that I still keep in close touch with.

thatdude21601 · Post edited by thatdude21601 at 2012-04-26 18:06:35

I just get on long enough to unfriend people when they send me farmville and dating game requests. That particular bug never hit me, sounds like I should feel lucky.

CharlesWelles

Great points. The final straw for me was going to a Black Keys concert two nights ago here in Houston and the lady in front of us was on fb on her phone pretty much the entire time. My friend and I were making fun of her and the thought was gross to me. But it really took off when we started smoking weed and this idea of a woman at an actual live event is probably posting what a "great" time she is having, although she was sitting down, while everyone else was standing. It was so sad. The saddest part is how it took me out of the moment and stole my attention away from a bad ass show!

justle · Post edited by justle at 2012-04-26 18:14:39

Deactivate for a month and see where you are. None of your information is lost, in fact, your account will be completely restored as soon as you log in.

From personal experience, after a month your opinion of the site will completely change. I returned for work, but don't check it on my phone anymore and rarely check it on the computer. Once you spend some time away from Facebook, the idea of all the information about you compiled onto one site is kind of creepy. I wouldn't want someone's opinion of me to be based on some strange projection of me on Facebook. I ended up upping my privacy settings pretty hard and deleting pretty much all of my pictures when I reactivated.

I don't know. Like I said, take a month off, smoke a lot of weed and really think about why you thought you needed it. See what you come up with and please share it.

shamblingmound

I deleted my account for a year after some serious shit involving two ladies....
just signed back up so I could play words with friends.

I don't give a shit about my personal information being on there, but I just don't give a fuck about anyone's day to day bullshit...remember like, hanging out and catching up with people? I miss that small talk that used to be so annoying.

[Deleted User]

shamblingmound said:
I deleted my account for a year after some serious shit involving two ladies....
just signed back up so I could play words with friends.

I don't give a shit about my personal information being on there, but I just don't give a fuck about anyone's day to day bullshit...remember like, hanging out and catching up with people? I miss that small talk that used to be so annoying.

so true.

iamalex4life

I support this thread.

Fire

Weird that this thread showed up today. I deleted my FB acc today, or filed for deletion or w.e they call it. Even weirder is my brother deleted his today too and we didn't even talk about it.

Hamsterfist · Post edited by Hamsterfist at 2012-04-26 18:46:09

I just annoy my 'friends' with posts from political or spiritual blogs I read. I use my phone so its a quick share button.

I rarely post information about myself. I also use it to read information from 'personality' pages, again either political or spiritual. So I don't know. I've long thought about deleting it, yet I feel if I can just reach one person, and have them awaken a bit, it is worth it.

But it can be a worthless time sink.

I do wish I had not used my name when signing up at first.

ColinJ

I cancelled my account about a week ago.

Most of my 'Friends' were workmates and I guess I started it, in large part, to try and fit in more with those people, as I'm pretty much a loner and a bit of a weirdo in that situation.

I became addicted to it straight away. It had a voyeristic quality that thrilled me and made me uneasy. Some of those people are a bit too open about their feelings. And even though everything they post is open to whoever had friended them I still felt like I was eavesdropping in on things that probably weren't my business.

So that and a bunch of far more personal reasons convinced me that it was time to let it go.

guestwho

iamalex4life said:
I support this thread.

Facebook free since a couple of months, I have no problems.

I quit because, I found it addictive and I don't like their privacy policies.

Gubermensch

Never had one.

/coolguyglasses

donut1005

I just like that my friends and I can share cool shit with a bunch of people.

Piquiod

ever felt there was a standard you had to hold yourself up to on Facebook?

jdirt2019 · Post edited by jdirt2019 at 2012-04-27 02:24:30

joined facebook for about 5 mos, till i found myself having chat with some asshole and i said to my self "i didn't like this clown when i was in school, why am i talking to him now" and see you later... also, you're mom is on facebook, and thats cool and al but, no it's not.... also, they're not really your friends.... also, what are you a thirteen year old girl? "bobby likes suzie"?...also (i really feel like i'm missing out) is NOT what you'll think. you know what your missing out on, and it's stupid.

push the envelope. quit that shit. you have a family here now. get your novelty on. then you can instantly become too cool for everyone. the first chance you get to say "no i'm not on that shit", yeah, but, it's too late, everyone knows you're balls deep, so you could still get a rush when everyone asks why you quit, you can just smugly say "i saw the light"

sad news too....twitter feels like it should be more right, but it's now full of advertisers that you didn't request to follow, they just show up in your grill...bullshit.

tobykief

Facebook Inc. stands for the FBI which runs the largest voluntary data base of humans on the internet. I will never have an account.

ANNAvsTheSHARK · Post edited by ANNAvsTheSHARK at 2012-04-27 07:58:45

Kill it!
Deleted my account almost 2 years ago and so glad I did. I always get weird looks when I tell people I don't have one, being 22 fb is like standard protocol? ha You'll be fine without it, in fact even better off. If you're worried about losing touch there's still email, phone calls, and face to face human interactions. There was life before facebook!

I do understand it can be used for good, but majority of the people I know abuse the crap out of fb. It's just unhealthy for the most part. Constantly checking it, making sure they look good in all their tagged photos, adding more "facebook friends", finding the perfect profile pic and status update. It's all so silly and a vicious never ending cycle. You don't need to tell fb you ate a sandwich today. haha

You might feel weird not having fb at first but it's worth it. And it's quite liberating!

Drunk_Kurt_Russell

It's funny, in the beginning it was cool to have a Facebook. Now it's cool to not have one. It's come full circle. Time to jump ship. The quest for novelty continues..

uiu

Sometimes I feel like getting rid of mine but I do use it to promote my painting. I get a lot of my business from people I already know and then from people they know. Also my day job is tedious so I use it to keep me company by seeing what everyone is up to...I have a huge, huge family and they live on the east coast...so it's a way for me to see baby pictures and all that fun stuff. But there are a lot of people who post way too much.

I had an idea for a social network that no one would join. It would be something where people were only allowed 365 posts a year. It would promote quality over quantity.

dhizzo

uiu said:
Sometimes I feel like getting rid of mine but I do use it to promote my painting. I get a lot of my business from people I already know and then from people they know. Also my day job is tedious so I use it to keep me company by seeing what everyone is up to...I have a huge, huge family and they live on the east coast...so it's a way for me to see baby pictures and all that fun stuff. But there are a lot of people who post way too much.

I had an idea for a social network that no one would join. It would be something where people were only allowed 365 posts a year. It would promote quality over quantity.

Careful. The book owns everything you put on there, including scans/pics of your art.

I'm in the middle of a move, which is putting me in a forced no-internet zone for 2 months. And it has me thinking about quitting fb too. I think I will.

Sell your stock, fellas, the tide has turned on facebook.

*goes back to myspace*

jab

I deleted my account a couple years ago after realizing that I had spent over an hour one day reading people's pointless comments and status updates. It occurred to me that those are moments of my life that I'll never get back again.

I'm happy my account is gone. As others have said, it felt odd for the first week or so because checking my facebook page had become such a habit and routine. But you get over it, and you'll be better for it. There are better ways to fill those idle moments of your life.

So, yeah, do it! Delete it.

BeefLeg

Yeah there are some gross aspects of it. I hate the chat feature, so I keep that off. But I think there are a lot of beneficial parts to facebook. The keeping in touch with old friends thing is nice. Its also a great way to get dates, honestly. But mostly i really like the sense of community it fosters. Yes its no substitute for real community, but a lot of interesting stuff is shared, and it makes me see how much I relate to others, and how their setruggles are the same as mine. Wow that was a really corny way to say it. Its definitely connected me to others, and helped me make more friends (in real life even). I have felt foolish a number of times after posting silly shit, but i've got a good feel for the boundaries of it and am disciplined with it now, so it works out I think.

Oh, its also a great way to hear about upcoming events too.

pinkfrost

facebook is fine for me. i like to share fotos and events with my friends and family, especially since i moved away from my hometown. but what is frightening is kids. not only are there a lot of unsavory freakazoids out there they must avoid... they cannot willfully look away from it, just their normal newsfeed. they may miss something, gossip, a tag, an unflattering post. it's ridiculous. i sometimes wish i would have been born later to utilize computers in my schooling (no, we didn't have a lot of computers when i was in school, ha!) but it's the 'slave to the virtual connection' mentality that makes me think i made the right choice, when i was choosing to be born :D

meg

I feel you! I want to get rid of it so badly because it is an emotional and mental waste but at the same time it is the main way I keep in contact with family and friends I care about and want to share pics of kids with. I don't usually have the discipline to not scroll through the news feed....and at that point I have already lost.

DrunkenAdama

I don't see anything wrong with facebook. If it causes you trouble, get rid of it. If not then use it as the tool it is. I don't have any problems with it. For me it isn't much different than this forum. I share things that interest me with my friends, keep up on my friends bands, and communicate with my band. Its very useful. I past the social networking as addiction phase long ago.

Doctor_Bob

Facebook. A lot of it seems like a stupid waste of time.

CharlesWelles

Gods_Mustache said:
Yeah Maaan! Come over to my side... the water's fine. .

Awesome! I'm coming, I quit that beast . . . Great comments

Pragmagic

Why is this even a thread?
If you're getting good use out of it, keep it. If not, delete it. It really is that simple.

jdirt2019 · Post edited by jdirt2019 at 2012-04-28 22:18:02

Pragmagic said:
Why is this even a thread?
If you're getting good use out of it, keep it. If not, delete it. It really is that simple.

i guess that pretty much wraps 'er up.

last time i use this lil guy

[Deleted User]

I think @charleswelles was trying to be pragmatic

@pragmatic

Pragmagic

I just find the overcomplicating of this particular issue to be incredibly frustrating.
Also, I am completely internet meme illiterate. What's the deal with the baby? @jdirt2019

jdirt2019 · Post edited by jdirt2019 at 2012-04-29 00:46:12

@Pragmagic success kid, just calling it like he sees it, and i knew @ladychef would get a kick. although i feel i've always excelled at forming my own sentences, Pragmagic had it right, it really is that simple. methinks we posted some legit arguments for/against, and the OP's out as of last night...success (is he though?). it feels totally righteous when people ask you why you quit. one team or another in every facet of life until you fade out. then instead of the book you can go here. dunno if there's a postmortem social network dedicated to facebook yet, but who cares.

side thoughts real quick, concerning the man and the book, perhaps worthy of its own or addressed in another thread, but now it looks like the man will be getting professional help spying on innernet users...and that's cool and all (!), but, it's not really, and it won't stop until who knows when. not using facebook right now is about as quas-revolutionary as anyone's willing to get, so i propose taking this chance to feel the cool air of never-really-was-freedom in your hair before it's not an option.

Pragmagic

@jdirt2019, Right on dude, that makes sense now.
I guess it boils down to what you can tolerate. I read about the myriad of issues surrounding Facebook and I couldn't be happier that I don't have one, but some ignore these things and others (the majority I want to say) are just plain oblivious. I'm not trying to be revolutionary, I'm just trying to avoid all the bullshit for as long as I possibly can.

[Deleted User]

I totally agree that it's the same hands that feed our faces til they explode that also click the mouse

Evil hands

KHAN

Hmm. I don't spend much time on facebook anymore but I can't see the point in deactivation. I make plans with groups of friends through facebook. I update people on what I'm working on, share funny and/or pertinent information like stuff about OWS or SOPA.

OWS wouldn't have gotten the coverage it did if it didn't blow-up on FB and Twitter. I know this because during the first 2 weeks everyone I knew was getting information about it through my FB page.

I've spent the last few years getting rid of vampires and zombies so my feed is filled with cool people. I made new friends from all over the world and they post amzing stuff, just like on the forum. I made a bunch of friends through Duncan's FB page. Heck I met Duncan through FB.

It's not the hive of coolness that this forum is, far from it. This forum is tailored for us. FB is the perfect example of taking a shitty situation and making it useful. It's a useful tool and almost everyone I know in real life can be reached through it. Knowing less assholes makes that a good thing. 20 years ago you if you called your friend and he wasn't home, that was it, your not hanging out, masturbate instead.

Wizardsleeve64

I quit FB. opted for twitter that's where all the death news pops off anyways. I permanently deleted my FB account and I bet they will still use my information like a bunch of creeps

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