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Steve Pavlina: 30 days since I quit Facebook

stevepavlina.com

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Re: Steve Pavlina: 30 days since I quit Facebook

#11

Post by toadi »

Don't see what the problem is? Why do you need to quit facebook? Even after reading all these arguments.

I'm on facebook where I occasionally share a picture of my son or a picture from something I enjoy. I don't post often but this way my parents en grandparents can see my son growing up. Don't actually care if my 'friends' see this.

When I'm on the toilet I sometimes take my iphone and check the FB stream. Check it when I don't have much time or feel like investing a lot of effort in reading something.

Just use it like you want to use it. This whole social network hype, like you can only be social online. People have been social even before the phone was invented. It is just another extra tool and doesn't replace normal social interaction. It never will!

Re: Steve Pavlina: 30 days since I quit Facebook

#12

Post by jonpaul »

Twitter is almost the same. Except that with Twitter you can receive useful information/links from those who tweet about a specific niche. I can't stand when some tweet about being drunk, getting a new haircut, etc. Fortunately there is an "Unfollow" button.

Re: Steve Pavlina: 30 days since I quit Facebook

#13

Post by awakeasleep »

toadi wrote: post #11

Don't see what the problem is? Why do you need to quit facebook? Even after reading all these arguments. I'm on facebook where I occasionally share a picture of my son or a picture from something I enjoy. I don't post often but this way my parents en grandparents can see my son growing up. Don't actually care if my 'friends' see this. When I'm on the toilet I sometimes take my iphone and check the FB stream. Check it…

I'm really interested in the difference between your perspective (which I share) and the perspective of Mr Pavlina (which my friends share).

I see people's attitudes towards FB fall into these two distinct camps:

1) People who feel compelled by FB somehow, and end up deleting their profiles or "Quitting" entirely, and

2) People who have a profile, but don't feel compelled to check it or interact- except at their leisure.

I think it has something to do with implied disrespect when you don't get back to people quickly; Ignoring a text or phone call sends a message. Does 'ignoring' a facebook ping send that same message? What about failing to respond to an indirect message on Facebook? There must be some sort of social phenomenon putting uncomfortable pressure on people somewhere in the setup of facebook.

Re: Steve Pavlina: 30 days since I quit Facebook

#14

Post by toadi »

awakeasleep wrote: post #13
toadi wrote: post #11

Don't see what the problem is? Why do you need to quit facebook? Even after reading all these arguments. I'm on facebook where I occasionally share a picture of my son or a picture from something I enjoy. I don't post often but this way my parents en grandparents can see my son growing up. Don't actually care if my 'friends' see this. When I'm on the toilet I sometimes take my iphone and check the FB stream. Check it…

I'm really interested in the difference between your perspective (which I share) and the perspective of Mr Pavlina (which my friends share). I see people's attitudes towards FB fall into these two distinct camps: 1) People who feel compelled by FB somehow, and end up deleting their profiles or "Quitting" entirely, and 2) People who have a profile, but don't feel compelled to check it or interact- except at their leis…

I agree. But I don't see Facebook as a direct communication link. It is just a feed that I consume at my leisure.

If you want to contact me and are in my circle of people that have my cell number that is the best way to directly contact me. But even on my cell I sometimes choose not to pick up immediately and listen to the voicemail. This way I can decide if the message needs my direct interaction.

Anyway people put to high of hopes on tools. Social interaction is about people and not the tools.

Re: Steve Pavlina: 30 days since I quit Facebook

#15

Post by lachyg »

GrooveStomp wrote: post #10
leftnode wrote: post #3

Oh, quit using the site, not quit working there. I would've been more interested in the latter.

My thoughts exactly. I think the headline is misleading.

Maybe for this audience, but I don't think that would be confusing to non technical people (or people in the startup world).

Re: Steve Pavlina: 30 days since I quit Facebook

#16

Post by justinchen »

GrooveStomp wrote: post #10
leftnode wrote: post #3

Oh, quit using the site, not quit working there. I would've been more interested in the latter.

My thoughts exactly. I think the headline is misleading.

I guess it makes sense if you know who Steve Pavlina is. His stuff is very popular amongst the life hacker types.

Re: Steve Pavlina: 30 days since I quit Facebook

#17

Post by ben1040 »

I found that much of the "noise" on Facebook comes from the fact that I had too many "e-friends" at even 100-110 people.

It was still well under the Dunbar[1] threshold, as I knew who they all were and could probably spend an hour on each one of them telling you how I knew them in high school or college, etc. But I simply got no value out of seeing a post from a woman I dated briefly in college 9 years ago talking about what new yoga studio she was teaching at, or from an old high school classmate saying what airport he was currently passing through.

The noise was just too loud and overpowering. I ended up deleting my account.

A few months later I came back under a made-up new email address so those folks wouldn't find me again. My e-friends list now is only about 40 people, cut way down -- specifically people I see every week or two or people I would otherwise invite into my home without any hesitation.

With less noise from people I simply don't care much about anymore, I see useful things. And I feel better about sharing a interesting news article from HN or a picture from a dinner party with my small inner circle, without feeling like I'm spamming dozens of people who just don't care.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbars_number

Re: Steve Pavlina: 30 days since I quit Facebook

#18

Post by DanI-S »

awakeasleep wrote: post #13
toadi wrote: post #11

Don't see what the problem is? Why do you need to quit facebook? Even after reading all these arguments. I'm on facebook where I occasionally share a picture of my son or a picture from something I enjoy. I don't post often but this way my parents en grandparents can see my son growing up. Don't actually care if my 'friends' see this. When I'm on the toilet I sometimes take my iphone and check the FB stream. Check it…

I'm really interested in the difference between your perspective (which I share) and the perspective of Mr Pavlina (which my friends share). I see people's attitudes towards FB fall into these two distinct camps: 1) People who feel compelled by FB somehow, and end up deleting their profiles or "Quitting" entirely, and 2) People who have a profile, but don't feel compelled to check it or interact- except at their leis…

For me, Facebook is a cool address book that lets me contact people I know in a less 'immediate' way to text/phone. I'm not friends with people that I don't know in real life. I look at it once a day to see if anyone has posted anything interesting; from time to time I might post a cool link I've found, or a couple of photos, or something I heard in the news that pissed me off.

This guy, with 5000 friends, strikes me as odd - isn't that more like what Twitter is for? I don't think Facebook was conceived with that kind of usage in mind. It doesn't scale to display such huge amounts of data particularly well.

It's fascinating how people will adapt your product to uses that you didn't intend; it must also be frustrating to hear them moan about it.

Re: Steve Pavlina: 30 days since I quit Facebook

#19

Post by robryan »

zalew wrote: post #9
rw wrote: post #6

If he could learn to care less (for comparison, he should not try to read all of Twitter), then Facebook would not present such a problem.

7 screens of text about quitting using facebook? He seems kind of obsessed by the idea. > My Facebook page was maxed out at 5K friends and was very active. 5000 friends??? No wonder he got tired of it. Before I passed 100 I rarely used the 'hide' button, now I use it more, and I think hiding people and blocking apps (and sometimes turning chat off) is a good way to make fb experience less annoying.

yeah, 5k friends would be a horrible experience unless they were mostly hidden from your stream. You would never see anything you close friends posted.

Re: Steve Pavlina: 30 days since I quit Facebook

#20

Post by runjake »

toadi wrote: post #11

Don't see what the problem is? Why do you need to quit facebook? Even after reading all these arguments. I'm on facebook where I occasionally share a picture of my son or a picture from something I enjoy. I don't post often but this way my parents en grandparents can see my son growing up. Don't actually care if my 'friends' see this. When I'm on the toilet I sometimes take my iphone and check the FB stream. Check it…

I can sympathize. EVERYONE is on Facebook, and it's dead simple to use. I almost solely use it to post pictures of & stories about the kids to relatives. It also allows me to keep in touch with geo distant relatives' lives without them having to write it out on a postcard.

I don't know of anything else that is in the same galaxy of convenience. If Facebook didn't do this, I wouldn't ever have signed up for an account at all.

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