goodbye facebook!

If I recall correctly, I started using facebook sometime in 2007.  The only reason I had not registered earlier was because my then high-school aged daughter told asked me not to join.  She eventually acquiesced and I registered and started to accumulate all those highly-sought-after friends.  I quickly found long-lost high school friends and acquaintances, college roommates from the 80s, and friends from my time in northern Virginia, yadda yadda yadda.  I soon began to post my pictures and status updates.  Facebook was amazing.  Facebook was fun.  Facebook let me see into the lives of people who were practically strangers.  Facebook was addicting.

Time passed.  I began to realize if I was seeing into the lives of others, then they were seeing into my life.  I began to wonder if I was putting too much “out there”, so I set my preferences to be more private and only allow certain ‘friends’ to see certain posts, pictures, links.  Each time the Facebook team added a new privacy option, I was right on top of it, limiting what my friends saw on their feed from my posts/profile.  At the highest, my friend count was close to 400.  Then, I realized that these were not really my friends.  In fact, there were many people who I accepted friend requests from that I did not even know (like one of my husband’s college roommates).  I had friends who were people I went to high school with in the 70s.  I began to admit to myself that I was not really friends with these people in high school.  I had stayed in touch with exactly ZERO of those people after I graduated from high school (other than the time I attended my 10 year class reunion and was voted “Most Changed”…seriously). Why in the world was I holding on to the idea that we were now friends?  Was I trying to rewrite history?  Was I reliving the glory days?  (Okay, that last one was a joke…it just seemed funny as I really had no glory days in high school.)

So, what did I do?  I began to delete those facebook friends who were really strangers from my past.  I ended up with a little under 200 people left on my friend list, with most of those being people who I currently attend my church (and I actually see on a regular basis).  I did keep a handful of people from high school who I had actually spent time with as friends in high school, many of my relatives, and some local people who’s children are classmates of my children.  I told myself that facebook was a useful tool to keep up with all the important information I needed to know about my family and friends, especially my church friends.  But, in actuality, I just wanted to know what was going on in everyone’s lives.  I was just being nosy, and it was taking up a lot of my time.  It seemed like I could not go into the kitchen (where I keep my laptop) without ‘checking in’ to see what was happening.  I couldn’t return home from shopping without a quick check.  I would sit for hours at night reading through updates, looking at pictures, and clicking on recommended links. 

On March 29, my 20 year old daughter deleted her Facebook account.  She began to share how excited she was to be able to work on having real, face-to-face, talking to people relationships.  She shared that she now felt a freedom that she had not felt in years.  She knew how addicted I was and she encouraged me to join her in this new adventure.  It sounded like the right thing to do, but I kept thinking “but, how can I keep up with what everyone is doing?”.  It hit me how ridiculous that sounded.  I certainly survived without all the minutia of information from facebook before 2007.   I think I can survive without it now.

We are becoming a nation of people who only know how to communicate electronically, who are tied to our cell phones and other electronic media, and are losing opportunities to grow real-life relationships.

As of January 2011, Facebook had more than 600 million active users.  As of April 2010, 41.6% of the United States population had a Facebook account.  That is crazy.

As of April 8, 2011, there is one less Facebook User -- me, and I couldn’t be happier!  The hardest part was making the decision (although, I do have 14 days for it to be final…they really don’t want me to leave!).  Once I made the click, I felt an instanteous feeling of relief and freedom.  I have not regretted my decision at all.  Yes, there are a few people that I forgot to get contact information from before I deleted my account, but I can find them….eventually. (If my dear cousin in Houston sees this, I hope you still have the same email…if not, please email me!)


I dare you to join me.