Why? This is the question I keep getting asked by those who have a facebook account. I'm not getting asked this question by those who don't have one. Because, they don't know I'm deleting my account. And, they don't care. I look forward to being one of those people.
There is a grand myriad of reasons why I am tossing off the yoke of facebook. I couldn't list them all if I tried, but I can list some of the top reasons that immediately come to mind. They are, in no particular order:
- Lack of security.
- Facebook is a business. They sell your information. They always have. And, they don't hide or apologize for this. It's genius, really. They have created a motive to get people to willingly profile and track themselves. Since this information is so specific, it's very valuable for marketing. Marketing you, that is.
- It's not reality.
- What people post on facebook doesn't usually say much about them at all. I cannot compare the time I have spent with friends with the time I have spent reading those same friends' facebook posts. Time spent with friends is meaningful and I get to know them well. That time is real and so is the content. I can't say the same for facebook.
- It's not a responsible use of my time.
- I am married. I am a father of three children. I am involved in my church. I work 50 hours a week. I have many real friends. I am renovating a house. I am restoring a car. I am coaching a soccer team. Etc. Etc.
- With all that I have going on in my life, I don't have time to maintain a digital profile of myself for others' sake of "knowing" me. Nor, do I have time to browse an endless sea of junk to spot the few tidbits of "knowing" others.
- Define "friends"
- Let's face it. I'm not friends with most of my facebook's friends list. I've even been pretty picky about whose friend requests I've accepted. Still, if not for facebook, I wouldn't know two cents about a lot of people and those people wouldn't know two cents about me. That's not a bad thing.
- I know things that I'd rather not know.
- Some of my facebook "friends" and I have not seen eye to eye on things. And, while it's no requirement of mine that those I associate myself with carry all my same values, I wish there were some others' soapbox speeches I hadn't been exposed to. I wonder if I would be better friends with some people if I weren't subconsciously using my "facebook impression" of them as a screening tool. Don't hate on me. You do it, too. The difference is that I'm admitting it.
- I read that "Facebook Erodes Real Community" and I agree.
- I know that people don't make as much of an effort to visit friends since the introduction of facebook. Why would I see that friend I haven't seen in three years when I've seen every post of his/hers since our last visit. What could I possibly catch up on with them since we're already "caught up". At the very least, it stands as a seemingly valid justification to put off visiting someone.
- What am I teaching my children?
- Do I want my children to be on facebook? Maybe you do and that's fine. Use your own judgement for what's good for your children. But, I don't know that I want mine on there being exposed to an online social world where people say and do things that they wouldn't say or do in person. Or, maybe I would allow them to have a limited profile with some heavy monitoring. I don't know. But, seriously, when I think about it, I think of how heavy of a burden to parenting it will be if or when it comes up. Maybe things like that are better left to adults. Regardless of how I want my children to use or not use it, one thing is for sure: I can't legitimately limit or restrict it's use for my children while I have given myself no limits or restrictions.
- At the end of my life, what total number of hours spent on facebook would satisfy me?
- 1,000? 100? 2? It seems that whatever the number winds up being, it isn't anything to be proud of. I tend to think that the greater the number the greater the shame, actually. I'm glad that I don't know how much time I've burned scrolling, commenting, and liking. It's too late for me to have 0 in that category. But, it's certainly not too late to stop the number dead in its tracks.
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