Getting rid of Facebook - anyone else happier?

[Greek777]

I have not been on my facebook since July 2014. I remember loving life a lot more before I got facebook, and not caring so much about other people's lives/what people thought of my own life. You post some kind of picture and expect it to get "likes" and other dumb shit. It's a sickness practically

I had it for about 3 years, and not checking it anymore feels like a load off my shoulders. I used to immediately wake up, and before doing almost anything, check that shit. 18 months later and I couldn't care less who went to what show or what party, what this person left on this person's picture, etc

Anyone else delete FB and feel better off? I wish I could just stop using the internet completely and live a "normal" life but I need some stuff (IE TMMAC, Twitter)

Does Facebook dumb people down? Make us waste incessant amounts of time? How will people look back on the social networking phenomenon years from now when it's evolved - will it be even more in tune, like downloaded into our brains, or will people finally say "wow, we were pretty crazy with that whole peering into others lives thing"

 

[Deleted member 1]

Does Facebook dumb people down? Make us waste incessant amounts of time? How will people look back on the social networking phenomenon years from now when it's evolved - will it be even more in tune, like downloaded into our brains, or will people finally say "wow, we were pretty crazy with that whole peering into others lives thing"

I quit posting on Facebook. I still have an account because it syncs people's information to my contacts. So it's like a smart address book for my phone.

But yes I am noticeably happier in my social situation once I quit Facebook.

I am forced to contact people to interact with them instead of living some process on the periphery.

Also I've read several articles before about how social media falsely portrays people's lives. People aren't traveling, as happy, or eating as much fancy food as you think. Social media just distills down the aspects of someone's life they wish to portray.

I think there a lot of really neat cultural things like event invites and keeping in touch with distant friends and relatives that social media does well. But for local friends, I think it preempts too many conversations. Oh yeah I already saw that online!

I don't think there's any dumbing down of it. But I think in some cases social media enhances relationships and in other cases it minimizes the interactions to very casual and short thoughts. A like, 140 characters, etc.

 

[check it]

my husband rage quite facebook...a few weeks ago. got feed up with reading ridiculous nonsense from people he used to know. he accepted friend requests from everybody who sent one..people he went to kindergarten with or saw at the grocery store one day.

i'm much more selective with people i connect with...i've got a small amount of FB friends..basically only people i know well enough to care what they have to say.

facebook is great for reconnecting with people i suppose...and also great for realizing why ya ditched them as a friend in the first place.

although..i live far away from my fam...so i do like seeing pics of my nieces and nephews. other than that i don't click the like button too often or read the comments.

eta...plus sometimes i like to say smartass shit to people on the internet..and i'm not trying to fight with my friends/family ...that's what twitter is for....i have zero real life people on my twitter.

 

[SNIDELY WHIPLASH]

I never started with Facebook and only peripherally engage in any social media. As a former network/security engineer I am wary of my information being available to the entire world even if you can make pretty much everything 'private'. Your family/friends always does something stupid like uploads pictures of you to show off or some shit.

I don't want to get started with that madness.

I am totally unconcerned with who 'likes' me, on the Internet or in person.

 

[Punch]

I check it a couple of times a year. Make sure no one else's dying on me or something.

 

[SNIDELY WHIPLASH]

my husband rage quit facebook...a few weeks ago.

LOL. I have to see what a rage quit looks like.

 

[Punch]

I never started with Facebook and only peripherally engage in any social media. As a former network/security engineer I am wary of my information being available to the entire world even if you can make pretty much everything 'private'. Your family/friends always does something stupid like uploads pictures of you to show off or some shit.

I don't want to get started with that madness.

I am totally unconcerned with who 'likes' me, on the Internet or in person.

I like you, Abe.

 

[Greek777]

One bizarre thing is, at least for me, not having Facebook puts me out of the loop on just about everything going on in my social circle

Out of every single friend I have who is my age, there is only one other dude who doesn't use it and has never had it. My buddy Matt. Kid is an amazing artist, and one of the most creative people I know. I wish I listened to him back in 2011 and never made one in the first place. We have had a lot of in depth at length conversations about how poisonous the internet in general can be, especially shit like FB

But seriously. Not having Facebook basically means you are ousted from your social circle. At least if you're my age (26)... Like, everything that everyone I know does is set up through FB... and if you don't have FB.. good luck finding out about it. Not like people actually pick up the phone and talk anymore, everyone is all about texting and facebook.

I have definitely done wayyyyy less with various people since dropping FB and have lost contacts with folks because of it. But so be it. They were not real friends anyway.

 

[Joemacka]

I got rid of mine 6months ago dont miss it at all. I use instagram thats about it.

 

[Hong Kong Phooey]

I used AND in a sentence today
I wore a blue shirt
I made a left turn today
My burrito was gud


FUCK OFF

 

[Greek777]

After not using it since July, I later went on in Jan of 2015. I had 35+ msgs and like 70 notifications. All I could think was fuckkk, I absolutely do not wnat to sit here and go through every single thing and reply to every person who is like "Hey are you still alive"? all because I have not used this particular website.

All of those people have my phone number, if they really wanted to talk to me they could have called. They know where I live, too, and could easily get a hold of me if needed. I think they don't realize that not everyone's life constantly revolves around Facebook.com... Seeing how many damn msgs I had to reply to was overwhelming and made me realize, fuck this, I am done using this as a method of communication. I hate texting too honestly. You can never tell what someone's intent or mood is through texting (even on a forum). I really prefer communicating over the phone with people, even during the time I had FB for a while, I would much rather talk on the phone.

There's people I know who are like 2-3 years younger than me that NEVER, and I mean never talk on the phone. Like if you call they won't answer even if they are sitting at home.. they will immediately text you after you hang up from their voicemail, but actually talking? Nope. It's not just me either, lol, these people do this with everyone. It's mostly younger people I've noticed though.

I just remember being a kid and like, sometimes you wouldn't even call someone. You'd just stop by their house and see if they wanted to hang out. Nowadays the idea of that is so absurd, not calling someone in advance or giving them a heads up that you'd be coming by, that doing something like that would be considered rude

I miss those days man

 

[Greek777]

Guys and girls, y'all remember those days, and shit
Girls walk around in school, one ponytail with the beret
Necks looking like baby powder, youknowhatImean?
Those were the days right there
Boston baked beans, girls come to school with mad candy
YouknowhatImean? You'd come in school for half days, and all that
Just to see that little girl right there, I remember I'd just
Go home and think about it, youknowhatImean?
Might hump the bed sometimes on her, youknowhatImean?
Word, those days man, those, those were the good old days right there G
That shit was fun, lunchroom, she in the lunchroom, youknowhatImean?
Might get a little, go to the G.O. Store or something, youknowhatImean?
Word, buy a little chocolate, a little shake or something, youknowhatImean?
A little buttercrunch joints or something, youknowhatImean?
That's that real shit, G I miss those shits, man
I wanna go back to school, man
That's my word, man
For real y'all, those were, those were the... goddamn y'all, you remember...

 

[Yossarian]

I think Facebook is great. With family all over the world, and friends all over the country, count me in!

I do however, monitor who is on my list and what I will share about my life. Knowing WHY you use Facebook is key here. If you have 300 plus people on there, obviously they aren't all your friends, and your Facebook page becomes all of the sudden, public. And at that point Facebook may become invasive and can be disrupting your offline social life.

So I keep my friendlist modest and make sure everyone is cool, not posting drama or the like. Just make Facebook serve YOUR purpose, not the other way around. If you don't like the people you see on your list, why are they on there in the first place?

But to each their own. I can see how it could be a relief to get rid of Facebook, but I think that goes for Social Media as a whole. I have just made sure from the very beginning, that my interactions on Facebook were going to be positive knowing that I was under control.

 

[Greek777]

ALSO, let me just add

The absolute worst fucking part about Facebook is this

When someone sends you a message, they are told exactly when you read it. The time, the day, etc. So many times I've had people send me a message, and I read it and was not able to get back to them that very second.. and they would either end up offended, or message again

How lame is that? Like if you sent someone an email and you knew EXACTLY when they opened it.. you'd be all "oh this person is ignoring me, they haven't gotten back to me immediately within a few hours, wah wah wah"... Fuck this society

 

[SNIDELY WHIPLASH]

Guys and girls, y'all remember those days, and shit
Girls walk around in school, one ponytail with the beret
Necks looking like baby powder, youknowhatImean?
Those were the days right there
Boston baked beans, girls come to school with mad candy
YouknowhatImean? You'd come in school for half days, and all that
Just to see that little girl right there, I remember I'd just
Go home and think about it, youknowhatImean?
Might hump the bed sometimes on her, youknowhatImean?
Word, those days man, those, those were the good old days right there G
That shit was fun, lunchroom, she in the lunchroom, youknowhatImean?
Might get a little, go to the G.O. Store or something, youknowhatImean?
Word, buy a little chocolate, a little shake or something, youknowhatImean?
A little buttercrunch joints or something, youknowhatImean?
That's that real shit, G I miss those shits, man
I wanna go back to school, man
That's my word, man
For real y'all, those were, those were the... goddamn y'all, you remember...

 

[Yossarian]

ALSO, let me just add

The absolute worst fucking part about Facebook is this

When someone sends you a message, they are told exactly when you read it. The time, the day, etc. So many times I've had people send me a message, and I read it and was not able to get back to them that very second.. and they would either end up offended, or message again

How lame is that? Like if you sent someone an email and you knew EXACTLY when they opened it.. you'd be all "oh this person is ignoring me, they haven't gotten back to me immediately within a few hours, wah wah wah"... Fuck this society

It means you need to get rid of those people, not Facebook lol. Facebook is just a tool here .

 

[Greek777]

I think Facebook is great. With family all over the world, and friends all over the country, count me in!

I do however, monitor who is on my list and what I will share about my life. Knowing WHY you use Facebook is key here. If you have 300 plus people on there, obviously they aren't all your friends, and your Facebook page becomes all of the sudden, public. And at that point Facebook may become invasive and can be disrupting your offline social life.

So I keep my friends list modest and make sure everyone is cool, not posting drama or the like. Just make Facebook serve YOUR purpose, not the other way around. If you don't like the people you see on your list, why are they on there in the first place?

But to each their own. I can see how it could be a relief to get rid of Facebook, but I think that goes for Social Media as a whole. I have just made sure from the very beginning, that my interactions on Facebook were going to be positive knowing that I was under control.

Oh yea, I definitely see the benefits. I did some stuff in my life that never, ever would have been possible without networking through facebook. Especially being in a band, basically 100% of everything I ever did, everyone I spoke to, every show I ever booked, etc, was done through Facebook, 90% of the time to people I didn't even know and would have no way to contact other wise

I agree on keeping in touch with people who live far away too. IMO, those are the 2 most important uses for it.. Networking and keeping in touch with far away pals

I did go through and really customize my settings about a year before I quit. I took literally hundreds of people off from my newsfeed and would only see stuff from people I actually wanted to see it from. Also made my profile/wall postings only visible to people who I actually knew/trusted etc.

But eventually it was not enough. TO be honest, I think it speaks more to the type of people I was hanging around, or should I say, the type of people they became after knowing them for years. A lot of my friends became junkies, drunks, addicts etc in the last couple years, like seriously all of a sudden within the last 3 years 70% of my friends became total fuck up substance abusers who every single weekend, or in some cases every day, had to either be getting crazy drunk or doing drugs I never ever would go near.

But when you're in the underground music scene, like especially metal, a lot of people are into that shit. So really a lot of the people I had grown up with who were normal all started becoming weirdos, fucking drugged out losers sitting on the computer all the time and causing drama that somehow I would get brought into despite wanting nothing to do with it.

If I could create a new facebook and add, say, 2-3 dozen people, only those who are close to me and people I want to keep in touch with that I normally can't (like through my phone.. as in people across the ocean etc).. maybe that'd be good

But here's what would happen. Other people would find out I had a new FB. They'd try to add me, and if I didn't accept, they'd start bitching either to me or among their social circle about how I won't add them as friends. Me growing up with/knowing a bunch of assholes has a large part to do with this. I wish I could just move away from my area for good. There has to be SOME normal people out there, lol. I'd love to stay in touch with the normal ones I know, but the 90% of retards on my FB just makes it not worth it.

Sorry for the FRAT

 

[SNIDELY WHIPLASH]

RAGE QUIT

 

[Yossarian]

Oh yea, I definitely see the benefits. I did some stuff in my life that never, ever would have been possible without networking through facebook. Especially being in a band, basically 100% of everything I ever did, everyone I spoke to, every show I ever booked, etc, was done through Facebook, 90% of the time to people I didn't even know and would have no way to contact other wise

I agree on keeping in touch with people who live far away too. IMO, those are the 2 most important uses for it.. Networking and keeping in touch with far away pals

I did go through and really customize my settings about a year before I quit. I took literally hundreds of people off from my newsfeed and would only see stuff from people I actually wanted to see it from. Also made my profile/wall postings only visible to people who I actually knew/trusted etc.

But eventually it was not enough. TO be honest, I think it speaks more to the type of people I was hanging around, or should I say, the type of people they became after knowing them for years. A lot of my friends became junkies, drunks, addicts etc in the last couple years, like seriously all of a sudden within the last 3 years 70% of my friends became total fuck up substance abusers who every single weekend, or in some cases every day, had to either be getting crazy drunk or doing drugs I never ever would go near.

But when you're in the underground music scene, like especially metal, a lot of people are into that shit. So really a lot of the people I had grown up with who were normal all started becoming weirdos, fucking drugged out losers sitting on the computer all the time and causing drama that somehow I would get brought into despite wanting nothing to do with it.

If I could create a new facebook and add, say, 2-3 dozen people, only those who are close to me and people I want to keep in touch with that I normally can't (like through my phone.. as in people across the ocean etc).. maybe that'd be good

But here's what would happen. Other people would find out I had a new FB. They'd try to add me, and if I didn't accept, they'd start bitching either to me or among their social circle about how I won't add them as friends. Me growing up with/knowing a bunch of assholes has a large part to do with this. I wish I could just move away from my area for good. There has to be SOME normal people out there, lol. I'd love to stay in touch with the normal ones I know, but the 90% of retards on my FB just makes it not worth it.

Sorry for the FRAT

I get it. I have less than 80 people on my list. And as a guideline I do not add people that assholes, or live closeby. Thoser I can call or stop over.

As for people that get pissy about not being added on my list? I don't lose sleep over that at all. It is after all just Facebook.

But I agree that it is wise to decide whether or not Facebook adds to your life or not. It is NOT mandatory after all.

 

[SNIDELY WHIPLASH]

RAGE QUIT

 

[check it]

LOL. I have to see what a rage quit looks like.

i think it was funnier to the rest of us in the house...he was annoyed with nasty racist comments by people he went to high school with..and never ever hangs out with anymore...

he did this a few times to the computer then he deleted his account...instead of deleting the people. rage quit.

 

[SNIDELY WHIPLASH]

 

[maurice]

The criticisms are valid, but you're also correct that it's a useful planning tool in an age where most people don't really talk on the phone. The solution is to cull the fuck out of your friends list. I went from 400-something to 60-something overnight.

Warning: People, including people you barely know, will be butthurt that you cut them. I respond honestly that I only use it to make plans with people I routinely see IRL.

 

[Lamont Cranston]

LOL @ people who quit Facebook and then try and make it sound lame to those who use it! Tying to pretend that your life is now suddenly mystically better than those who are using it is wacko. It's like the guy who is an alcoholic going on an anti-booze rampage when he gets sober.

Here's the deal, if it doesn't work for you, then don't use it. Like anything else in life, you work it, don't let it work you.

 

[Psychotropic Wanderlust]

I only use it to keep in touch with people I have met on vacations & far away family.