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Why I’m (Still) Not Going to Join Facebook: Four Arguments that Failed to Convince Me

Deactivating Facebook

Why I Never Joined Facebook

Two weeks ago, I wrote a blog post about why I never joined Facebook. For those who are new to this discussion, here’s the short summary:

I have limited time and attention. I try to devote as much of it as possible to creating valuable things and spending time with my family and close friends. For a new tool to claim some of my time and attention from these activities it has to offer me a lot of value in return. Facebook falls well short of this threshold.

This post generated a lively debate in its comment thread. To be honest, this comments discussion is probably more valuable than the original post, as it covers a lot more ground, often quite eloquently.

A natural follow-up question, however, is whether this discussion changed my mind on the issue. The short answer: No. Not at all.

To provide a longer answer, I summarize below the four most common arguments in favor of Facebook that I received in reaction to my post (both publicly and privately), as well as my explanation for why the arguments didn’t move me closer to clicking “join.”

Argument #1: Facebook makes it possible to maintain lightweight, high-frequency contact with a large number of people spread around the world.

Facebook essentially invented this new type of social connection. Some people enjoy it. Some even use it as a replacement for a normal, in-person social life (usually, to their detriment). I have no interest in it. I’m close to my family and have good friends. I’d rather keep my time and attention focused on interacting deeply with them instead of pinging a thousand “friends” with exclamation-point laden wall posts.

Argument #2: Facebook might offer you personal or professional benefits that you don’t even know about. You cannot reject this service until you have tried it for a while.

I hear this argument a lot. I find it to be an incoherent approach to managing the tools in your life. If I had to test every potentially useful tool before deciding not to use it, I would end up spending the bulk of my life testing. My time and attention is valuable. If some company wants to make money off me using their service, they better have a compelling pitch for why it’s worth me taking away time and attention from my work, family and friends — even if just temporarily.

Argument #3: Facebook will not take your time and attention away from things you currently find important because you can access it on your phone during times, like waiting in line, that would otherwise be wasted.

This vision of Facebook use terrifies me. Facebook, like most social media, is addictive, because it offers, at all points, the possibility of finding out something that someone is saying about you. Once you get into the habit of seeking this distraction when temporarily bored, your ability to concentrate during other times will be reduced. If I start checking Facebook during my downtime, in other words, I’m convinced that the overall quality and quantity of time I can spend doing hard things — like writing or solving proofs — will, rather quickly, begin to decrease.

Furthermore, the idea that you can restrict your access to this addictive service to only downtime is naive. Think about the behavior of people you know: Facebook checking soon pervades all areas of your life, including those times when, in a pre-Facebook era, you would be interacting with family or friends. “You can access Facebook anywhere!”, in other words, is not the right way to persuade me.

Argument #4: Your general philosophy of only adopting a tool if it provides a clear and valuable benefit will deprive you of serendipity — think about all the interesting things you might be missing out on.

My careful approach to tool adoption almost definitely means I’m missing out on opportunities, trends, connections, and entertainment.

This doesn’t bother me.

As a consequence of my approach to tools, I have few electronic inboxes to monitor or online services to fiddle with. This means I spend a surprising fraction of my work day actually doing hard work, leading to a professional life that is fulfilling and, to date, pretty successful (knock on wood). It also means that when I arrive home in the evening, I don’t touch a computer until the next morning — allowing me to spend my time focused on my family and friends, and giving my full attention to any number of things I already enjoy, like reading. (I read a lot.) I would be a fool to dilute this to chase the possibility of something “new.”

Fear of missing out, in other words, is not a valid argument for trashing what you already have.

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On an unrelated note: My friend Todd Henry (of The Accidental Creative fame) recently published a new book, Die Empty. Here’s the blurb I wrote for the jacket: “Die Empty looks past simple slogans to highlight detailed strategies for building a meaningful life; a must-read for anyone interested in moving from inspiration to action.” If you’re interested in these questions of work, meaning, and legacy, I encourage you to find out more

123 thoughts on “Why I’m (Still) Not Going to Join Facebook: Four Arguments that Failed to Convince Me”

  1. Thanks for these posts, Cal. Here is a test case for you:

    My husband never joined Facebook and never will. I joined in 2004 when it became available at my university (we all just used it to find out if the cute boy in our class was “in a relationship,” because that’s healthy dating…).

    My husband and I both spent time living overseas after college. He used email and phone calls (Skype, Viber) to keep up with friends overseas; I used facebook. He used email and phone calls to keep up with friends from high school and college; I used facebook.

    If I survey our relationships to date, my husband is closer to his old friends from overseas and from high school and college than I am to mine, in terms of depth of relationship, frequency of actual communication, and number of people with whom he is in regular (two-way!) contact. He has more current friends than I do, and deeper relationships with them than I do with mine.

    I am now in the process of leaving facebook (collecting emails and photos I want to keep, leaving my proper email address up for long enough for people to write it down) after using it as a primary source of communication for almost a decade.

    What I think Facebook has done is reduce the cost of social interaction (to at least MY detriment). It’s much easier to meet someone and add them as a “friend” on facebook than it is to ask them for their number and invite them to lunch. Less vulnerability for me, but less of a chance of actual real friendship with the other person.

    The loss of vulnerability as a requirement for continued relationship results in more numerous and more shallow relationships. You have no idea if the person you just “friended” has any interest in you whatsoever, but you will know immediately whether they do or not if you ask them to get coffee with you. That is scary, and people don’t want to take the risk.

    All that to say, Facebook is not the best way to keep up with friends and family, even if they are locationally distant; phone calls and emails are. It is not the best way to establish new friendships; costless relationships are benefit-less relationships. My husband has proved that to me.

    Also, FYI, if you deactivate your account, it still exists in the permanent black hole of cyberspace, along with all associated data. If you ever randomly need to contact someone whose info you don’t have, reinstate your account, get their email, then deactivate again. Super easy.

    Reply
    • Hey CMB

      Thank you very much for sharing your experience. I am a college student right now and the reason for keeping facebook, as I told myself, was to keep in touch with friends on a study year abroud.
      Your post convinced me that other ways really are better! I never new for sure if I would loose touch with friends just because of not being always rachable.
      I no longer see the use of it. Yes it is practical to keep in touch with my friends at home and to arrange a girls night outbut for me it’s no longer worth the price.

      my best wishes

      Reply
      • I just came across this blog or post while trying to join Facebook. I’ve never had a Facebook account twitter or anything that connects me to people I don’t know. Now I’m in school and trying to get my life together and as sad as I am to admit this I have no friends. Sometimes it does bother me but other times @least I have school and of course my dog. My problem with Facebook especially baby-boomers they seem more addicted to it than their children not to mention the pictures and post that they tell every-aspect of their life. If you do decide to make a Facebook you can make it private yes? I’m so on the fence because I seem to attract women who become obsessive and the fact that I do have 2 children I just don’t want anything on their appropriate. Which brings me to should a person download or upload (whateva) it’s called a picture of you without your consent? If my son where to say search and he saw a picture that was taken not pornographic but something I don’t want him to see would infuriate me so I immediately had it deleted it was on another persons Facebook as I stated I don’t have one. You probably won’t even read this as it is old but I was looking 4-advice as to get a Facebook or not. One more thing is it true that if you apply for a job that they sometimes will look @your Facebook account to see how you really are behind closed doors?

        Reply
      • I just realized I made a few spelling errors I apologize my english is well let’s just say I’m no English major so again I apologize.

        Reply
    • You can permanently delete your Facebook account as well. Leaving it sitting out there inactive is a dangerous siren song. I wanted mine deleted into no existence. I was on it for just over three years and spent the last 18 months wanting to leave but imprisoned by the arguments about maintaining professional contacts there just in case. The freedom is indescribable. I only hope one day, Facebook and the like cease to exist. I do have an Instagram account, but the visual nature of it is inspiring and calming. It’s also something I can comfortably view occasionally without the compulsion that Facebook and Twitter inevitably create.

      Reply
      • I deleted my Facebook account 4 months after I joined college. I had ended up adding quite a lot of new people I didn’t know at all, seniors, etc. and I was flooded with weird, harassing texts. By then I realized that a large chunk of my life was online for many people to see and I wasn’t comfortable it. A severe phase of depression made me pull the plug and it’s been easier since then. I am a very guarded person and not being on Facebook lets me hold back. A couple of issues are that I’m not in contact with my school friends or my seniors or other interesting people, read missed dating chances, but it’s enabled me to connect better with myself and my writing. And not being on Facebook makes me a mystery entity for people, which I quite enjoy.

        Reply
      • Facebook blocked me for “using the platform in an unusual way”. My comment” Godam who told you that 400ppm of CO2 is plant food?” I have used these 30 days to report REAL RACIST MISOGYNIST GUN LOVING trolls using the 3 dots next to their comments. Facebook merely replies with the standard computer algorithmic mumbo jumbo that these foul mouthed racist abusive false news trolls do nit go against their “community standards”. Some “left” or “liberal” pages are so taken over by these trolls that intelligent conversation is impossible. I have been on FB since 2000 and now find it absolutely useless except for several pages that publish intelligent podcasts. FB makes money from creating dissension with right wingnut trolls, often FB created fake pages!!

        Reply
    • People try to close your Facebook account. They make it very hard to do. Why!!!! They just kicked the guy who won the Cartoon Contest in Dallas off of Facebook. Why, because they are a bunch of Communist. If you don’t believe what they do, you will be dropped. Speak out against them and their policies and see what happens. Facebook is not “Free Speech”

      Reply
      • I am blocked for 30 days for commenting, “Godam who told you that 400ppm CO2 is plant food?” FB calls this an “unusual use of FB”. Since then I have reported over 200 foul mouthed abusive misogynist racist climate denying trolls using the 3 dots next to the comment. Each time FB replies with the usual computer algorithmic mumbo jumbo. I have discovered that FB encourages such right wing nut trolls as a money maker, creating dissension in a time when we need unity, even creating fake pages!! These trolls invade “left” and “liberal” pages making intelligent conversation impossible. These trolls even “earn” “top fan” FB badges for trolling!! It is impossible to appeal a FB block, bcs on the FB Block page you are blocked from commenting, Catch 22. NO phone, no other way of reaching FB.

        Reply
  2. Here’s how I use Facebook (not necessarily how anyone else should):

    * It’s blocked on my laptop, using the StayFocusd extension on Chrome – can’t access it during “work” hours … access it only on the iPad during “play” hours.

    * All “notifications” of any kind are OFF. Facebook cannot “Ping” me or pollute my e-mail inbox.

    * I categorize almost everyone as “Acquaintance” and does not show up in my news feed.

    * News feed is for my relatives (by blood and marriage) and 5 or 6 long-distance friends that I genuinely love and miss — enough that I actually enjoy seeing their “this is my lunch salad” type updates. When I log onto Facebook, I see pictures of my nieces and nephews, that I wouldn’t see otherwise. People have shifted from e-mailing links to their online photo albums, to simply posting these on Facebook.

    * There are about four people that I feel comfortable calling on the phone: mom, dad, sibling and one good old (long-distance) friend. Talking on the phone feels weird, plus it’s intrusive. I have also found that people are out of the habit of answering genuine e-mail epistolary correspondence, to say nothing of hard-copy letters (confession: I’ve let it slide too…) So brief dialogue on Facebook is an easier way of “keeping in touch” than the alternatives that I’m aware of. All these people are long-distance, so in-person usually isn’t an option.

    * Male, 30s, got e-mail in college before texting and Facebook era, academic, recovering internet addict

    Reply
    • That was really helpful, Ben.. I better get that Stay Focused extension, too. And to think of it, I regret not putting most people in the Acquaintance List.
      Cheers 🙂

      Reply
      • Kia ora Shreya

        Facebook huh? – personally I think you may want to check a few things out before going any further with social media sites like facebook, twitter etc…Its true you own the content you display or communicate but unfortunately what it gets used for, and to who, isn’t. Put bluntly the legal terms of contract you ‘sign up for’ regardless of acquaintance or friend status on the site means:
        ‘you own your content, but we can just use it however we want.'” (Callum Sinclair, partner in the Intellectual Property and Technology group of law firm, DLA Piper)

        Social media sites are now a playground for cyber-bullying, and an increasing range of social media problems as Im sure you may be aware of.
        I suppose as a means to finding old friends sites such as facebook have merit, but bear in mind If you ‘leave’ facebook, your ‘intellectual property doesn’t till everyone you ‘share’ with leaves also, till then its open season on anything you post or have posted.

        I hope things work out for you and you don’t encounter setbacks using the facebook site.

        Noho ora mai
        Dean

        Reply
        • I’m an old lady who doesn’t understand technology or social media. I’m considering joining Facebook just to post one single message plus one photo to the world (not terrorism related of course!) and then leave. Is that how it works – is such a thing possible? I’d like to do one worthwhile, unselfish thing before I go & this was the only way I could think of to reach the most people. If not, would Twitter (whatever that is!) be better? Sorry if I’m a bit off subject. Ruth

          Reply
    • Ben, you can use Skype instead; for communicating with your acquaintances. You can interact with them real time during your play hours instead of staring at inanimate pics. Its better to use Email services instead of giving away your personal details to corporate advertising companies to better sell their products to you and so on cause its clearly stated by Facebook on their terms of services.Here is an article about it
      https://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosner/2013/08/31/new-facebook-policies-sell-your-face-and-whatever-it-infers/
      I don’t mean to contradict you but give it a thought..

      BTW Cal the article is awesome with excellent insights into the questions. Its a true addiction and most of the users are in complete or partial denial.

      Reply
  3. Forgot one thing. I like to browse a bunch of news sources that can sometimes provide new ideas but can easily become procrastination that gets in the way of work.

    Previously, I let Google Reader get up to almost 1000 feeds, most of which I ultimately did not need to follow. Now Feedly and every other RSS reader are blocked with StayFocusd.

    Now, I have a Facebook list of about 40 genuinely relevant news sources, which I can browse for a few minutes during “downtime.” Plus, I like how Facebook is more interactive than the classic RSS protocol because you can put in your own comment right there, as you see the item appear.

    Reply
  4. Hi Cal,

    Thanks for your thoughts on this. Actually, I was also very reluctant to join facebook but then I realised that more and more of the communication on our campus is done there and I thought this would be the best way to stay in touch with some people who start studying or working in other countries. So, in this sense fb provides a value to me. Twitter, for example, doesn’t so I don’t use it.
    However, I notice that fb really does reduce my ability to focus, which is why I’m about to go on a withdrawal for one week (just deleted the app from my phone) and will only allow myself to check it once a day afterwards.
    I will make this part of my “restore the focus” project, in which I will also shut down other sources of distraction to maximize my focus on hard thinking.

    Reply
  5. Cal: Facebook can be used as a convenient communication tool without having to spend a bit of time on the site. I was a heavy user and decided to stop using everything but the chat feature. This allows me to keep up with folks via the FB chat app on iOS without having to touch the site. Its not any different than texting and the like. Not trying to change your mind…but giving a different perspective.

    To CMB: there is no reason to leave FB. I did the same thing once and I honestly don’t understand why people do this. I went back. Everyone I know uses it and its a lot easier to keep the account. Keep the account. Set it up so that when you get a message on Facebook that it emails you. People will not take down your email. Your life will not become magically better. I am speaking from experience 😉

    Reply
  6. Hello Cal,

    Just wanted to ask you a question. You say:

    “Argument #2: Facebook might offer you personal or professional benefits that you don’t even know about. You cannot reject this service until you have tried it for a while.”

    In the section that follows you seem to describe why you think it is not worth trying out. I must say I quite like that and will probably use that argument next time someone wants me to test something.

    I’m also interested in what you would say against the argument that Facebook can lead to continued exposure of yourself in your network which makes people remember you better for business purposes. Care to share your vision?

    Reply
  7. convincing you is of no interest, but as for argument #1, there is a nuance that I feel you are missing. For those of us who have moved around a lot, there are a number of people that we care about a lot. But at this stage with kids and the number of times I have moved, it is not possible to call, email, etc. enough to keep up with. But through facebook, I get a sense of what’s happening in their lives and I have the opportunity for casual interaction that is a benefit to me.

    Facebook has created the opportunity for these relationships to go on in this way, but these relationships were in no way created by Facebook.

    Reply
  8. Ben: What I do is similar in idea to what you do. I’ve added only the people I truly care to keep in touch with (very few) to a list which will send me notifications when they post something. I’ve turned off all email notifications and have them only send to my phone. That way I only check them when I’m waiting alone at a bus stop for example. I also NEVER check the FB newsfeed.

    CMB: Like you I’ve found that FB kind of superficial in terms of the communication and I get much more depth and stronger connection through calls, video chats, texts and even IMs. What I do is use FB as a springboard to more in-depth interactions with people. If they are local I’ll transition the conversation into meeting up in person and hanging out. If they aren’t local or if meeting up in person isn’t what is wanted I’ll still quickly transition to other means of communication even if it’s only TXTing or IMing. The point is, I don’t allow FB to be the beginning and end of my communications/interactions with people.

    I think for people of my generation and younger, FB is kind of unavoidable as it’s almost a de facto method of communication and disseminating information. However, I don’t let it control me and I limit my usage of it to an extreme amount.

    Reply
  9. Honestly, Cal, good for you. I wish with all my heart that I could stop using Facebook (it’s now the only “social media” tool I use), but so much of my workday depends on it (primary form of communication for high-school students), it’s impossible not to.

    Have any alternatives? Face-to-face is out of reach when asking “Hey, do you get the homework?” Texting/calling, maybe?

    Reply
  10. Ok. What about the equally terrifying trend of professors requiring students to use Facebook for their classes?
    If you’re surprised, I had a Spanish prof. who required it, simply because it was easier for her to communicate with her students. It’s becoming more common.
    I’m on track to becoming a professor. I wouldn’t use it; I don’t see the benefit of “exploiting” facebook in a vain attempt to make class seem more appealing. What makes a class appealing? A skilled teacher and a carefully constructed system of teaching that engages students and whose course content is updated and relevant always trumps a class that’s built on faulty principles of enticing students with popular media to like a class because it’s “cool.” I’ve always respected teachers who are so good at what they do that you lose track of time and are so engaged in their beautifully-presented material that when you are in their class, Facebook and the rest of the chattering world cease to exist for 50 minutes or so.
    Just my 35 cents.

    Reply
  11. Hey Cal,

    I agree it’s distracting. The addiction for me is not the even the social aspect of it. It’s a way to aggregate pictures. Sure, there are other sites where you can share pictures but they haven’t hit that critical mass to be as useful as Facebook.

    If it wasn’t for missing out on pictures of parties and events so I can keep them, I would be off tomorrow (and I have tried to leave before).

    Reply
    • This is precisely my reason for staying on Facebook. I’m about to graduate from high school, and I deactivate it a month or two prior to exams and important, high productivity months. Other than that, I need it so I can keep up with my classmates and share pictures from my last year in school.

      Reply
  12. I agree with much of what you say Cal, and find myself wanting to leave. There’s a couple quick answers that I will stay, and probably will for a long time.

    I’m an avid photographer, and am involved in a few things. I really enjoy sharing my photos with my friends and family, especially while I’m away at college. It’s a way to provide a snapshot into my life easily without having to email or dropbox huge files (which my grandparents probably couldn’t use well). I also really enjoy seeing my friends photos as well, which also valuable communication between them.

    Also, as a political awareness activist and academic, I find that there is a lot of political and civic discourse happening online. Social media is where young people communicate, start social movements, market their events, and connect with their ‘peers’ to start something. I’ve seen this be an effective tool to collect petition signatures, increase issue salience, and build a broader coalition that has had real campaign effects.

    For these reasons and more, I’ll probably be here to stay. However, I try to keep the Fear of Missing Out and Facebook addiction at bay and at the front of my mind.

    Reply
  13. The first poster, CMB, says it all for me. Her experience is very much in line with my thoughts in the comment I made in the original “Why I never joined Facebook” post.

    Email can reach across oceans and mountains, and hit multiple people at the same time, just as well as Facebook.

    If you know people overseas, the only way to genuinely interact with them on a regular basis is something like Skype.

    Watching the handpicked headlines of someone’s life and occasionally commenting on them via Facebook does not count as keeping in touch.

    I lost interest in reading about every mundane event in hundreds of nobodies lives a long time ago.

    Also, FYI, if you deactivate your account, it still exists in the permanent black hole of cyberspace, along with all associated data. If you ever randomly need to contact someone whose info you don’t have, reinstate your account, get their email, then deactivate again. Super easy.

    I have strong opinions about deactivating the account. It’s a total cop out. When I was on Facebook I knew two people who repeatedly deactivated their account and then reactivated it a few weeks or months later despite saying they wanted to get away from Facebook.

    They still showed up on my friends list with a faceless but named photo.

    Permanent deletion of the account is the only way to rid yourself of it. It’s scrubs you off completely.

    You go through the deletion process which takes about 2 minutes. Google “delete facebook” if you need the link.

    Then all you have to do is NOT log in for 14 days. If you do, the deletion is undone and you carry on as normal.

    If you don’t log in, after those 14 days it will be like you were never on Facebook. You won’t be able to log in, and all the information is gone.

    I found it wonderfully cleansing. That was about 18 months ago.

    I built up to it by gradually extending the period of time I didn’t log in. I got up to 2 months without logging in and that was when I realised I didn’t miss it or need it and that it was safe to get rid of it.

    As a point of interest, I never had it on my phone. If you’re in the habit of constantly checking it via your phone, then that’s a whole different level of addictiveness.

    Reflecting for a moment as well, Facebook isn’t the only thing online that is a complete nightmare and waste of time.

    Twitter is just as bad. Google Plus is too.

    Having an RSS reader bombarding you with hundreds of low value updates that you don’t read anyway, but feel compelled to read *because*, is another enormous waste of time.

    Generally speaking, if I am online for more than 30 minutes at a time, I start to slide down the slippery slope of just clicking links and reading rubbish.

    Reply
  14. yes! Facebook is such a time suck all 4 times a year I’m on there, I can’t even begin to imagine how much time I would have cumulatively wasted on it at this point if I was a “normal” user! Another useful point: there have been some studies showing that at this point, many people feel a temporary wave of depression after perusing facebook due to the onesided nature of communication on it – ie, people will only announce very positive news on facebook for the most part, nobody will discuss how lunch was so so and their boss sucks, so it gives you this feeling that everyone in the world but you is doing awesome and is ultra happy. The only thing worse than wasting a huge amount of time is probably wasting a huge amount of time and then having to sit through a crisis of depression and low self esteem for MORE time.

    Reply
  15. “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” (says Hamlet) The extraverts in my family like and use Facebook, the introverts in my family don’t. And that’s about all the time and effort we put into analyzing it!

    Reply
    • I believe you. You certainly prove the critics contentions.
      However, I don’t think it’s fair to blame idiocy on extraverts;
      It seems there is some correlation with lameness and introverts,
      as they are what seems to make up the majority of Facebook lemmings.
      Not to mention privacy issues brought on by Zuckerman’s neo-nazism.

      Reply
  16. Hi Cal,

    This is exactly how I feel about facebook. I chose to not join facebook during my undergraduate studies when all my friends at school decided to move their social life there. I feared it would become a huge drain of time for me. Later as time passed by I realized that there were other benefits of not joining facebook like having a peace of mind. Now I see my friends constantly occupied with the never ending posts and notifications and real social conversations have taken a back seat.

    I also want to express my gratitude for sharing your wisdom. Its changing my life ever since I was introduced to your blog through Ramit Sethi’s blog. I have tried to incorporate deep work in my daily life and I have disabled email and other notifications at work. The quality of my work is improving. I am less distracted. Now my next hurdle is to be able to have 3 hour deep work sprints. I get compelled to google topics that I come across while doing any important work and I end up spending a lot of time going through Wikipedia links. But I am hopeful that I will be more focused soon.

    Please continue writing your amazing blog. An email notification in the morning from Study Hacks makes my day better than anything else 🙂

    Sushant

    Reply
  17. Cal,

    I read this post and immediately become envious of your resolute defiance of self gratification. I hate that I use Facebook…

    …and Twitter for that matter.

    The social platform I truly enjoy is Google Plus because it’s more conversation and discussion driven so I often leave the platform with some time of valuable piece of information.

    But then the platform doesn’t really matter does it?

    If the work we do is finding the people we want it to find then any extra spent time is just a waste.

    This is a lesson I continue to learn.

    Thanks,

    Hanley

    Reply
  18. Dr. Newport,

    I couldn’t help but notice that your friend Todd Henry has been using Facebook for almost 33 months. What’s your take on that? 🙂

    Just kidding. I’m such a big fan of your work. Please keep on doing what you’ve been doing. It seems to be working flawlessly!

    Reply
  19. One thing I found when I was in college was that some student organizations pretty much required you to have Facebook because events were only announced there, rather than via e-mail. So if you didn’t have Facebook, you simply could not participate in the student organization. When I explained that I didn’t want to use Facebook and wanted them to post their events over e-mail (at least in addition to on Facebook), I was told about all the benefits and that I could use it for as little as I wanted to.

    I suspect that this was because the organizers were just being lazy and couldn’t fathom why any college age student wouldn’t use Facebook. In the end, I dropped out such organizations because I refused to use Facebook and therefore couldn’t participate.

    It really doesn’t surprise me that Estara (comment #15) had a Spanish professor who required Facebook usage. It’s just one step away from leaders in college student organizations requiring it.

    Reply
  20. I find Facebook useful for my classes, believe it or not! haha that seems like an oxymoron, almost. There’s a FB group for most of my classes and we all exchange notes, tips on where to meet up and study (often it is just strangers since I do not know most of the 200+ people in my classes). It is a much more informal setting than e-mailing back and forth, and gets the message out quicker if someone has a burning question, needs to borrow a book, etc.

    Reply
  21. Hi,

    I have read both blog posts and, even I had no interest on the subject, once I read the second post, I thought it would be a good idea to explain my particular and never-before mentioned way of using Facebook.

    I am not on Facebook to like posts, watch what other people do or anything of the sort. I have a Facebook account just for one reason:

    1. To follow pages. This is my main motivation to have a Facebook account. Instead of having to visit each site I like every day or week, or subscribe to any newsletter from every website I find interesting, I just click Like on their pages to follow updates. This has proven, to date, to be the most efficient way of reading all kinds of articles of my interest.

    It is a great way of finding material I like without having to wander around the website. Cal, this is a good point even if it does not change your mindset.

    Reply
  22. “Argument #2: Facebook might offer you personal or professional benefits that you don’t even know about. You cannot reject this service until you have tried it for a while.”

    You don’t have to try it, others have and have experienced results. What makes you use email? What makes you use a computer? Others surely convinced you to use it, then you did, and it helped. There is absolutely no doubt you’re missing out on business.

    You can be stubborn and not even try it. The only person that affects is you.

    Reply
  23. I joined FB back when you had to have an e-mail address from one of a certain set of universities to join.

    I guess it was OK. Mostly, it was distracting and helped maintain connections with people I would never bother to make the effort see in person again. (I live about 1,000 miles from where I grew up and went to high school.)

    I deleted (not just deactivated) my account more than a year ago. I do not miss it at all.

    Reply
  24. Cal, would you write a post about what services you DO use and why? It’s not just helpful to rule things out, it’s helpful to understand how you rule things in.

    More generally: I have a Facebook account. After an initial phase of updating occasionally, I don’t check it or post. It exists so that people can find me; if they need to reach me, the messaging service forwards to my email. That’s it. It’s basically another interface to my email.

    G+, on the other hand … I’ve curated a top-notch professional community there, which has given me the opportunity to work on award-winning projects and gotten me nominated for major awards in my field. But that’s basically because I use it very mindfully, basically as a faster and more informal email discussion list with more ability to curate who gets involved in a particular conversation.

    Reply
  25. Interestingly, I use as a motivational tool for myself. I can only go on FB when I have completed something. It works very well for me! I have family across the country and world and this way I feel some connection to them because I have very little time for phone calls and email.

    Reply
  26. Cal,
    I’ve been reading some of Gretchen Rubin’s blog recently and she has a system where she identified people as either being abstainers or moderators. I believe she applies this to junk food but I think it works for social media as well. You seem like an abstainer and prefer to focus on things that matter to you and add value to you. Irrelevant venues such as facebook are better left out of sight. I’m the same way. However, moderators feel better knowing they have access to facebook and have the capacity to limit themselves to checking it once a week or even once a month. While this time may be considered wasteful, the comfort they get from logging on outweighs the anxiety they feel when the door to facebook is fully closed by deactivation. I think your main point is to limit distraction and focus on important things. Facebook is clearly a distraction but the way to limit it in people’s life is dependent on their own individual personalities, don’t you think?

    Reply
  27. i find this whole thing fascinating. if you only choose people on facebook that you care about staying in touch with, then there is a lot less nonsense. I notice such a difference in the phases of life of my friends in faraway places before we had facebook and after. I lack a certain amount of context for the parts before facebook, that I am now able to effortlessly keep up with. I check once/twice per day and that’s it. It really is such a benefit to me.

    Reply
  28. I enrolled in Cal and Scott’s pilot course, and feel I have an intermediate grasp on how Cal views his work (not the work itself. I’m not an academic. I don’t pretend to be one.) The important thing to realize about all of Cal’s arguments (and any counter-arguments) is that it’s all in the context of 1. our industry and 2. our level in that industry.

    In Cal’s field, he holds everything he says as true, regarding missed/not missed opportunities, focus, attention to hard / meaningful work, etc. For any of the commentors, we don’t necessarily know their fields. Thus, their argument may not hold water in Cal’s field, but in their field, they may be 100% correct.

    I work in entertainment (Hollywood). I assist three literary agents. For me, I believe the use of social tools and “thousands of pinging,” is important. Constant contact, across a number of mediums, is important. It’s crucial to develop relationships that will prove valuable to me and my peers, now and for years down the line. This is the nature of our business, for our generation, at our level.

    I stress “level” because it may (almost certainly isn’t) not be true for people at a higher level. For example, my boss has relationships he’s fostered over a 40 year career. While I may need to ping 5 people 10 times over the course of 1 year to begin to build that relationship, he can make 1 phone call to the head of a studio and make something happen. He doesn’t use Facebook (or Twitter, or Tumblr, etc. ad nauseum) because that tool isn’t relevant to him, in his context.

    Reply
  29. This is my last year of college, and I started using Facebook in high school. By this point, I’ve noticed that if I’m busy with work that I enjoy, I completely forget about Facebook, and don’t check it for several weeks. I just find that Facebook is just not interesting to me anymore, and I only really go when I’m bored or am procrastinating (which isn’t good, but I don’t stay on there for long). Plus I feel like I have to check it once in awhile because people my age find it convenient for communication purposes. So I’ll keep it, but I don’t find it that much of a distraction since it’s so uninteresting compared to things going on in my real life.

    Reply
  30. I guess a lot depends on how you/the people around you operate. For me it’s huge timesaver because almost everything I need or am I involved with puts information up there in one convenient place. The university has all it’s internships, important news etc… societies put event and projects up, work puts up rotas, any group projects are made ten times easier, and all my courses have their own page.

    80% of the information would be available elsewhere, and with things like rotas and group discussions you can use emails, phones etc… but to have it all in one place saves trawling through loads of different sites, and offers up opportunities that otherwise wouldn’t have been available.

    No one needs it though, and only an individual can determine whether it’d be worth it. If you can get by fine without it, why bother signing up for an extra service? And if you know it’s going to be a time sink then you should be sure the benefits outweigh the negatives. My 16 year old sister quit during her exams and has managed to survive not being on it ever since. Despite being a teenager among other fickle teenagers no ones forgotten her, she’s made plenty of friends since, and gets on fine because for her it was just a distraction. (Should probably point out I apparently have immense willpower when it comes to facebook, I only go on it to get the information I need, and can go weeks without going near it. For me it’s a not a distraction in the slightest)

    Reply
  31. Somehow, even with the benefits of using FB for interaction with school organizations, it’s not really effective.
    I have been president of two student clubs. We utilized FB, but to no avail; posters announcing events did more good than posting on facebook. And as far as getting books needed; you don’t need facebook for that. In my opinion, nothing trumps human interaction face to face.

    That being said, the fear of facebook is probably worse than having it; I have one, but I only use it as necessary, which isn’t very often. It simply isn’t on my radar – it’s a tool, not a master.

    Reply
  32. Thanks for your thoughtful post. I just wanted to let you know that your posts changed my attitude toward Facebook and I have now deactivated it for about a month now. Strangely I feel much more focused, calmer and I would say happier. I intend to never re-activate it!

    In my case I realized that Facebook had actually become a burden in the sense that people expected me to ‘like’ and/or comment on their statuses and on some occasions actually brought it up in separate conversations and made a big deal about why I wasn’t liking their statuses etc. FB had become too much of a responsibility in addition to having 2 kids to take care of. If I wanted more responsibility I would have had a third child….no thanks FB!

    Reply
  33. I appreciate the wisdom of your post. I’m in my 50s and occasionally reflect back on my parenting. There are some things I would have changed. One of the majors could be summed up in two words: less television. This simple step would have resulted in less conflict and more imagination. Now we’ve expanded and mobilized the options (certainly with many benefits but also with many drawbacks). Good leaders and wise teachers challenge the culture and encourage discipline and moderation. Good post Cal!

    Reply
  34. Whoever wrote #4 is, frankly put, stupid. There is quite literally nothing serendipitous about Facebook and never has been. As for interesting stuff? It cannot be so terribly interesting that someone feels compelled to “tell the Internet” rather than inform people of it directly. This is effectively talking to yourself and hoping all of your friends also overhear you while simultaneously not attempting to tell them directly.

    Reply
  35. Really want to thank you for these posts about Facebook. Before you’ve began this mini-series I had already identified Facebook as a major area of concern and problem in my life. The 20 seconds it takes to check Facebook start to add up, and the mental effect is huge as well.

    My one issue now though is I only have contact info for some people through Facebook. Losing Facebook will mean I’ll have to spend time to connect with these people through other means. Still… it might very well be worth it. The addiction, even if it seems small, is huge. Thanks for really getting me thinking hard on it!

    Reply
  36. How is argument #3 a reason to avoid Facebook? I also only really check it during downtime, and I don’t see how this impairs my ability to focus on work while working. Maybe I am just immune to that effect?

    Reply
  37. If I start checking Facebook during my downtime, in other words, I’m convinced that the overall quality and quantity of time I can spend doing hard things — like writing or solving proofs — will, rather quickly, begin to decrease.

    What is the reasoning for this? I check Facebook and do other frivolous things in my downtime, yet I don’t believe it affects my ability to do hard things, which I’ve done successfully.

    Reply
  38. Cal,

    I’m surprised you actually had to qualify this further (despite the excellent content). I would’ve thought that your perspective on using FB would be very clear by now!

    – J

    Reply
  39. Hi,

    This is directly related to this blogpost, but I’ve noticed you changed the format of the blog. The letters are kind of too big right now and although the make-over is nice, it’s actually harder to read because there is a lot of scrolling going on due to all the big writing. The blog column is also wider, which means it takes longer to scan lines in a paragraph. 🙂

    Reply
  40. Cal,
    Where has the search box gone with your new blog layout??? I can’t find the old posts that I read quite regularly easily anymore.

    Reply
  41. Cal,

    I think it’d be a great idea for you to use a unique avatar of some kind now that little photos appear next to every comment.

    I find the new site (while lovely) washes out the comment author names and makes it hard to see when you’re commenting. I like to skim the comments reading just your replies, so having an avatar would make the process of finding your comments much easier.

    Love the re-design!

    Reply
  42. Pingback: Odds and Ends
  43. Facebook is a small minded social net work with a nasty small minded sense of retribution. I quit fb because of the emails I got from low brow sites that falsified names. THEN I made the mistake of joining again, so I could give my condolences to a family member that lost their kin, my best friend. I then quit, because I still think facebook’s email advertisement is too intrusive and too unprivate for my tast?. So what did I get for quitting again ? ( after politely trying to say that FB was jut not for me)!? I got the resurfacing of all the old slutty emails that I quit for in the first place…. it is as if they purposefully tracked me, and for revenge on my quitting a second time, they let me have it with their crude sense of revenge. Good go! That really tells me I was right about FACEBOOK being the culprit of low brow advertisement, and not some tag along. It is FACEBOOK that has a image problem…. they are, were, and always will be a low brow, sub class humor social network that aspires to be hurtful and vengeful, and sell their clients if it suites them.

    I will sell my shares, and wait for what I know you will eventually attain –lice and social crabs.

    Reply
  44. When Facebook first started becoming popular, my Buffalo cousins persuaded me to join. I figured it would be a good way to keep up with family events. I soon learned it was a colossal waste of my time and opted out. A couple years later, my West Coast nephews convinced me to get on board again. Not too long afterward, one of their wives e-mailed me and said “Did you know your brother was in the hospital?” No, I didn’t. Not one bit of the Facebook chatter from his sons revealed that important (to me) fact. I terminated the account again and haven’t been back on since.

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  45. The way I see Facebook…not worth the trouble.
    If you are not in it, DO NOT join. If you are already in…LEAVE NOW.

    I hate it because the whole media is always telling you to “like us in facebook…”, “follow us in facebook”, etc…
    I really do not know what they want with it, and I do not care. If I want to know, I will get a book, or read it when I feel like it. No need to join anything in order to do so.

    Keep your privacy too. Haven’t you ever had an ex, or somebody who you deleted from your life suddenly appear again as a “person you may know”?

    Don’t you wonder?

    Reply
  46. I have been waiting to find a post like this for some time. I started blogging, in my retirement, last August 2013 and believed that I just had to suffer the unbelievable torture of using Facebook. Now 8 months later I have finally realised the utter futility of it and the time I have wasted. Since the awkening I have concentrated on developing my blog which I love. Guess what? Social media has done nothing for my blog but has wasted a lot of time. Now people are finding me via search engines and I am gaining quality followers. Slowly, I’ll admit, but seriously committed intelligent people and not the flybynight tittle tattle time wasters of Facebook. I still maintain my FB but really don’t bother much with it. So now I am fielding well written comments and likes to posts instead of worrying that Mary has bigger arse than her husband!!! Oh, and while I’m at it, since I retired I don’t need a mobile phone anymore. If I want to talk with anyone I use Skype (and it’s free). Imagine telling that to a teenager or high -flyer for that matter!!

    Reply
  47. I love this post. I am not on face book and have zero desire to be. I am an extrovert and extremely outgoing and social. I have spent my whole life communicating face to face or on the phone with people. I have been in the military, worked in Law Enforcement and in corporate sales for a very large company.
    Can someone please explain to me where there would be time to go on face book? I wake up at 630 am and go for a 2-3 mile run. I come home shower and make my healthy breakfast bowl (Thank you Mike Dolce Diet). I then drive to work. I work when I am at work. If you are on face book or doing anything other than work when you are at work, I consider you a thief and yes, you are stealing from the company. Sorry I am not a thief. At lunch, I eat my lunch and like to read a non fiction book for 20 minutes focusing on self improvement. Home at 5pm or 6pm. Go through mail. Relax a few minutes and go to the gym or grocery store. Come home, prepare a fresh healthy dinner. It is now 8pm and I am exhausted. I would like to spend the next hour or so watching a favorite show on TV or maybe reading more because I am a reading fanatic or just calling a friend or family member to talk about their day. Now it is 10pm and I am going to bed. When in the Hell in that day would I ever have time to go on face book? To accomplish what? To read how Sally and John went to Home Depot and couldn’t find the shower door they needed for their bathroom? Seriously what am I am I missing?

    Also if you check your face book, phone or text while driving, you deserve to die in a violent crash. Seriously do the world a favor and don’t breed or vote ever again if you think it’s okay to face book or text while driving.

    Bottom line. If you have a life and live proactively and productively, there is no time for face book. Those are the facts and they cannot be disputed!

    Reply
    • bro….. your life sounds boring as crap…. even without Facebook… BTW, if you’re gonna take time to write a post about how dont have time for anything. You’re human. We change. We adapt. We will make time. Get over yourself and stop stealing MY time with this nonsense. Go do something useful… the time you took to write that long reply is indicative of how much time you really have, its actually hilarious how hypocritical you all are.

      Reply
      • And are you telling us you don’t waste your life away with your pretend friends that you’ve never met and never will…grow up teenager.
        Your life is obviously empty and meaningless if all you want to do is big yourself up in Fakebook world. With your 8 year old photo of yourself looking all tanned from when you went on holiday and luckily managed to get a half decent photo of your ugly mug.
        Just imagine if you could get back all the wasted hours you spent talking crap on facebook and use that lost time to maybe get yourself a job and start contributing in some small way to the world instead of being yet another brain dead drone that does what every other muppet does just so you don’t feel like part of a gang.
        One day you just might grow up and find a purpose in life other than pretending to be better looking funnier and more exciting than you really are. You are a bore…” BRO”

        Reply
  48. I have already wasted a lot of time during my graduate study, fortunately, I saw your blog, spending lots of time on Facebook is definitely very exhausting and unworthy. Another question is that I don’t know how to plan my week days and they gone so fast!!!

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  49. Hi Cal,
    Finally your blog gave me the necessary push to not just deactivate my FB account, but also to delete it.
    More importantly, unlike others my decision to quit FB came from the responsibility of work I put on myself by ‘time-blocking’ my work plan – again inspired by your suggestion.
    While I prepare and keep a ‘Things to do’ everyday, scheduling the thing to be done on my daily work is giving me control and sense of control over my to-do list. More importantly, I feel that the fixed schedule is giving me instructions not to stray away – Thanks to GoogleCalendar’s notifications and reminders.
    Given that, the starking realisation that I simply don’t have time to complete what I have to do made me plug ‘leaks’ – Facebook being the first victim.
    Second, got myself scheduled ’emailing’ work (No, I couldn’t runaway from emailing) during fixed hours in my calendar and again giving me a lot of flexibility.
    Thanks for such practical tips.
    More importantly now I am getting the meaning of the word ‘deep’ in your blogs.
    – Sathya

    Reply
  50. A bit late to the comments with this but you may have missed a couple of clinching arguments for the other side 😉

    Firstly, not having a Facebook account may be a sign that you are a mass murderer, based on anecdotal evidence.

    Secondly, were you single and dating, it could be a sign that you are not who you say you are.

    See:

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/08/06/beware-tech-abandoners-people-without-facebook-accounts-are-suspicious/

    After reading this article, I have my suspicions about you 😉

    Reply
  51. As a blogger, I prefer G+ than FB …
    as a matter of fact … for my blog articles, i always get more and more respond in G+ than FB.
    in my opinion, it is because most of G+ people are more open in knowledge, while FB is full of teens who just like for fun.
    finally … I had to say good by to FB.

    Reply
  52. Thank you for posting your opinions about facebook! I agree 100% with you, especially argument #3. People are actually DEPRIVING themselves of real friendships because of social media! In my mind using social media is just like eating a PB&J sandwich with only one slice of bread. Social media takes advantage of humans natural need for interaction while only providing 1/3 of what is needed for a satisfying conversation between two people. Conversation isn’t just words, its also body language and tone of voice, which you don’t get if you use social media all of the time. This is why I almost never comment on posts, text, or have accounts on websites. As you’ve stated its addicting.

    Reply
    • You were right not to join Facebook… AKA Fakebook to me. I joined in May of 2015…I have seen and heard everything there. Some of these women are disgusting and post their bodies for attention. I myself have been befriended by a couple of men who wanted me to send them nude photos of me. You also see people with more than a thousand “friends” . There is no way anyone is keeping in contact with so many people…I think that is an ignorant thing to do… as if it were a popularity contest. You will also get people who would befriend you and they don’t message u or won’t reply to your messages. I will be leaving Facebook soon and don’t waste my productive time anymore than I have.

      Reply
  53. My facebook users from 2008, I am very happy, because I facebook can get acquainted with other people and eventually meet in place of the concert, I will keep to keep silaturrahmi friend away.

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  54. Facebook is for desperate, shallow, sheep.

    Facebook constantly breaks the law on privacy and sells your personal preferences, information and details on for profit. You are nothing but a commodity
    Fraud is much easier with Facebook
    Superficial comments and friends and updates etc take up genuine face to face relationships, though we are more connected than ever before we are less intimate, close and more lonely than ever before.
    The only part I understand is it can reach out to millions if you are a global business the rest is a no brainer for brainless wannabes who try to inflate their egos and superficial crap lives

    Reply
  55. As a bartender I’m seeing more and more establishments that are trying to require their staff to have all the major (facebook, instagram, twitter) social media accounts to help act as promoters and sell ourselves alongside their business. I make cocktails, pour beer and wine, wash glasses, maintain the bar, check I.D.’s, lend a friendly ear, all that good bar stuff, but I definitely don’t solicit myself publicly on the internet for the benefit of an employer. There’s already a paid promoter on the staff, since when did part of their job become mine? I’m certainly not asking them to go change a keg. Anyone else feeling the injustices of not having social media in the service industry? It’s not the bartenders responsibility to bring the customers in, it’s to see to it that they stay.

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  56. So happy to have found this great article. Kudos. I have not joined Facebook for many of the reasons you mention, but there are plenty more. Suffice to say, I was happy that I am not alone in rejecting this ridiculous form (abuse) of time, effort and psychological virtue.

    Reply
  57. THANK YOU FOR THIS ARTICLE!!!

    All right, I’m calmer now. But my question is… where the heck can I find people who want to be part of something substantive and insightful now? Believe me, I’ve scoured for years online. I don’t have a car and not a ton of money, but I oddly discovered I have something good I need to nurture, and I need that yesterday. Any help at all, or gobs of it would be highly appreciated. Your arguments against Facebook put a smile in my very sad start this morning.

    Reply
  58. I am a senior in high school and the college that I am planning on going to has a Facebook book page just for incoming freshman. This is how a majority of the school finds a roommate. I don’t have a Facebook and I feel like I will be deprived of a chance to meet people just because I don’t have an account. Also, a lot of my friends have Facebook accounts and they are always asking me to get one but I don’t know if I really want to get one. I agree with a lot of the points you made here but I just think that I wouldn’t be left out of my friends’ conversations if I had one.

    Reply
  59. Before I talk to you Cal allow me to throw my Facebook story.

    I got my Facebook in my last term of the senior year in middle school ’cause you know it was a joker card in my freshman year at High School so if you didn’t have it you were behind swerve, and my crush had it too so you know the deal. But I was one of the few in the freshman classes to hold a cool cellphone which had the app so my friends list was running low in numbers compared to the senior’s list which I had to raise for with a public account, crazy biography, lots of pictures and unknown friends, sike I even sent requests to my teachers haha and had quite a lot of “friends” from first grade to 12th and of course relatives and homeboys.

    The experience was fun posting daily occurrences at school, reading posts about me, getting likes and requests from seniors and strange people I got addicted I’d even miss school over sleeping late and all it was just crazy I could guess I deactivated my account off and on round about 15 times trying to stay off ’cause I almost got expelled from school in my 10th grade when I posted this teacher’s old picture when she was a teenager or whatever but it was just funny and almost everyone from my school who saw it posted a nasty comment and it reached 250+ comments and somehow she discovered it and snitched on me to fix me over another picture that was an offense to the school and that was shortly after I posted a complaint on the school’s facebook blog and and it was all just crazy and my last year in that school! Also my grades where under C level, stealing credit money became a clever habit and I was just getting distracted and was mature enough to realize it was Facebook obsession.

    So four years later I grew up and considered privacy and abstention a major concern for me but that was after I got bored of it but something pulled or rather grabbed me at it for a little while when I got over 300 likes on a protestation post and from then I was back to where I was but not for long ’cause I had my final test year coming so I had to be at the books!

    Since I prioritized privacy I’ve deactivated my old account not only for that but because I had a lot of flops and just too many pictures and stupid statuses from when I was a kid and also I had lots of unknown “friends” whom I unfriended but it was a waste of time so I decided to completely forget about the account and deactivated it since it couldn’t be deleted!

    But that didn’t stop me from using Facebook because I not only wanted it to keep in touch with people but it was also my window into what was happening in the world, news, sports, sscience everything! So I created a fresh one, which is completely private! With very few people and peace, it’s so boring but it’s what I can have ’cause it’s even better ’cause I don’t have to check on it every time, I use it once or twice a week unlike the old one which I was always online on 24hrs 365 days! It’s so much better now I don’t invest a lot of money and time on Facebook although I have another crazy social media account which I recently disabled, Instagram! It’s also distracting but I’ve had my lessons so it’s on standby! I just guess social media whether it be Facebook, MySpace, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr or whatever serves for the same purpose. After all all we want is to be recognized, to be heard and to be known, just to have a sense of social belonging, it helps really.

    Now Cal! I buy your story but I could surmise you’ve had a Facebook before but it wasn’t interesting enough for you so you deactivated for whatever reason, now you sound like a 30 year old man who can be responsible and abstentious with whatever sets them back, you’re mature enough to restrict stuff that steals your time, I’m only 18 and I realized it when I was 15, now I can control and limit such things for whatever is more important like friends and family and school, my attention span is actually entirely on school and other things like getting a driver’s license and a college application and all, now for a 30 year old to downright straight scoff Facebook for family time really man maybe I wouldn’t know the struggle for a socially inferior reason in comparison to you but from the impression I got it’s applesauce man I don’t mean to be rude, I would say I was younger and immature but having put some sense into it by actually deactivating and disabling accounts for the mean time and not flouting about it would be just the right way of dealing with it pal. You’ve convinced people not to use Facebook on behalf of your weaknesses, responsibility! Facebook is like licence driving, some race, some chauf, some are truckers but all are potential accident victims but some are slick with it, they have their routes or speed limits or what ever that suits each one of them, you Cal are one of the accident victims you hit into a car because of irresponsible driving and road rage ignorance, get your legs broken and then decide to flout! Rather to warn or advise, now potential chauffeurs or chaffeuses or racers or teamsters prefer to be footers! Sounds stupid doesnt it, it’s how it is with this your post man if one has my perspective.

    Reply
  60. Hey, everybody…very timely insights. Have been waffling about getting Facebook and your comments have persuaded me not to. I keep in touch by email with family and friends. If there is an emergency, I do have a phone! and I don’t mean for texting. It’s good to hear peoples’ voices, by the way. Certainly I don’t need dozens of “friends” bothering me, though
    goodness knows who they could possibly be…I have enough to do without being online all day. I don’t know where everyone finds the time for this. Thanks, all.

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  61. I am a person that has experienced Facebook, left the platform and then returned with a different viewpoint. It did not see the benefit of such meaningless socialising and I for one prefer a phone call, a direct message, or better still, an email. However, the Pages service for running websites or businesses for blogging etc does bring benefits. I have clients communicate with me via my Facebook page because it is their choice of platform. I have written about my personal experiences with Facebook and would appreciate you spending the time to read through and leave me a comment. You can find it here:
    https://change4thefuture.co.uk/2016/02/17/why-i-do-not-socialise-on-facebook/

    Reply
  62. I defied using FB for years. A complete naysayer. Despite that, I decided a couple of days ago to sign up, just to experience it for a week. Criticize what you know, not what you think you know, and all that. I promised myself I’d exit permanently after the 7 days, simply because I’d gotten along so well without FB for so long. When I was signing up, I hit a wrong key when entering one of the digits in my phone number. To FB’s credit, it picked up the mismatch between my area code and the first three digits used here in my part of the country. Impressive, I thought. Then FB brought up a link where I could fix my mistake. I have a pretty fast system. After watching the url connection spin endlessly (a couple of minutes), I quit. Error not fixed, therefore not signed up.

    I’m not going to try to sign up again. No, I’m not impatient or totally unforgiving. But clearly I’ve just had a sign. A little typo in a phone number and here I am looking at blue skies again. Life is still great. Yes, a bit of Careless Karma has saved me from a certain FateBook.

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  63. The world survived for hundreds of years without Facebook. And why would anyone want people to know their every move. Try the Telephone or E-mail they both offer the same contacts.

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  64. I left FB in 2013, after about 4 or 5 years of activity. I then had about 30 friends. But I’ve lost any interest to FB. Think about it: I work in IT, I live deep in the woods and as of today, I still don’t own a smartphone! People on the street, in the buses, at stop lights are all face-down to their addictive thing, FB. Take an elevator: once the doors close, let’s say there are five or six folks, 4 of them will reach their device, unlock the screen, and before they can actually ‘interact’ with something, the doors open, and they put the device back in their pockets. Now, that’s addiction.

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  65. Sad to think that people actually use FaceBook. They think they are getting a value added service for free to communicate to someone but in reality they are just pawns in an ever growing list of buying habits and browsing history that can be tracked and plugged into a database to be sold to the highest bidder.

    FaceBook cookies track your habits so they can track your browsing history and data. If Anyone ever thought that FaceBook was about Social Media, they obviously never knew what FaceBook was really about in the first place.

    Adding services and options that require you to opt out rather than opt in to keep your privacy scares me as well. Opt in? That like negative billing. You have plan you are billed for until you decide to not have it? Really?

    I don’t have a FaceBook account, a Twitter account or any other social networking account.

    I do however have a home phone, a cell phone and an email address. You can, if you know me like you think you would on FaceBook, contact me day or night for a personal conversation. Better yet, drop by my house for a pint and a puff and some dinner too. There’s nothing wrong with spending quality time in person. And that’s what my REAL friends do.

    Virtual friends are not my REAL friends.

    Thanks for the blog post. I liked it alot.

    Reply
  66. Haven’t joined facebook yet and never will. Don’t need it, nor do i want it. I consider it an invaluable waste of time. It upsets me to find that I am requested to join Facebook in order to post a comment on a website. Which I will never do.

    Reply
  67. Facebook has alot of people out there who are a bunch of perverts , wanting to be your friend. Married older men who lie and prey on young girls and even boys. Cyberbullying is a huge problem, where individuals take their own lives. People with personality disorders who manipulate individuals who take constant instagrams of themselves, to their breasts along with their bare bottoms.I had a spouse who joined facebook behind my back and who were asking them out on dates when they asked to be his friend? We are separated now due to infidelety,after 39 yrs. What is this world coming to? It is a bloody shame!!!!!!!

    Reply
  68. Facebook is fake. Period. I was on FB for 2 years. Reconnected with old acquaintances? Yes…but only online. Helpful in professional networking? No! I never got inside info, connections nor jobs from FB. I was in a few FB groups but never got PM’d about confidential stuff. FB is all cliques all the time.

    Reply
  69. I want to leave as little as possible foot print on the internet. When I read about facebook gathering user data, I am convinced I did the right to do for not having a facebook account even though I have worked in IT over 18 years, No body could convince me why I have to join facebook.
    It is a waste of time and energy for something that I don’t miss having.
    Then, there is google which is amaasing user data and location, just to sell ads.

    Last month I checked and got a hit about several hundred add co that have adds directed to my webb browser when I am on the internet. It took me a whole day to delete most of them. Some are pressistant and I am not able to delete.
    GW

    Reply
  70. Never had facebook, never will. Just tried to enjoy some halloween pics i recived by text with my husband….his response….yah…i already saw them on facebook…no sharing of thoughts…nothing….HATE FACEBOOK and all that it robs me of…

    Reply
  71. There are certainly numerous particulars like that to take into consideration. That may be a great point to deliver. thanks

    Reply

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