“Way before Watergate, senior administration officials hid behind anonymity.”
– Bob Woodward
At the beginning of April I read Games People Play and was inspired to delete my Facebook account, a move which actually benefited my social life. While I’ve never been a huge Facebooker, I had suspected that the site was affecting me in some vaguely adverse manner. Once I deleted my Facebook account, I realized how much of a drag the site actually was.
- Facebook puts you into an artificial competition with your peers.
In real life have never gone to a social event and gotten into a competition with my friends about who could make more people react to our actions.Yet on Facebook reaction is the name of the game. If you don’t get twenty people to like your check-in, joke, or quote; you’re probably a massive loser who’s one 4Chan post away from blowing up his school. I’ve even started to notice this mentality bleed into the real world, as people at clubs seem more satisfied with posting about their location and evening, rather than socializing.
- Facebook is conformist.
When I’m with my friends I’m a completely different person than when I’m with my parents. Likewise, I’m a completely different person within each of my social circles of friends. Unfortunately, using Facebook deprives me of this ability. Every thing you post has to be generically inoffensive, least it cause one of your entire social circles to collapse. On this site my post about cargo shorts made a bunch of Redditors mad because I said something about asexuality, which I meant as a “you-aren’t-going-to-get-laid” joke. The Redditors then spammed me with angry comments. If one word taken out of context can get you into a troll storm, imagine the damage that a flippant status could cause. I don’t like having to be politically correct or inoffensive, so it’s probably best that I no longer use Facebook.
- The “reward” of using Facebook is worthless.
Here’s the essential formula for how Facebook works: post something, get imaginary accolades, repeat. At the end of the day you have nothing to show for your usage. Your better off deleting Facebook and starting a blog instead, it’s far more rewarding and you have something to show for your time.
- Facebook is nothing more than an affiliate marking site.
Every Facebook page is plastered with ads. Even worse, ad bots scan through your profile and tailor the advertisements to your liking. Essentially your profile page is nothing more than one of those questionnaires that grocery store cashiers always want you to fill out.
- You lose all mystery.
A few weeks back, a girl asked me to add her on Facebook. When I told her that I didn’t have an account, she accused me of being a shadowy drug dealer. Never have I received a better compliment. When I run into old friends we actually get to catch up, like people did in the olden days (read: 1999).
I thoroughly enjoy being Facebook free. It’s nice to have some privacy and not continuously feel like someone is trying to manipulate you into buying something.