If you’re an active Facebook user, and you go 30 days without it, you’ll gain a much clearer understanding of its role in your life.
From a fairly long piece, I think this is the salient point.
Steve Pavlina: 30 days since I quit Facebook
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Re: Steve Pavlina: 30 days since I quit Facebook
#22Why the hell does he use the "Like" button if he's quit Facebook? (I know it's for others to share, but still. Double messages much?)
I think that actually presents a crux to his argument. I don't personally use Facebook all that much now, but I have certain circles of friends who are easily more reachable via Facebook than say e-mail or phone. While they may not be my main groups of friends I still consider them part of my social circles and would like interaction from time to time.
Re: Steve Pavlina: 30 days since I quit Facebook
#23I quit over a year ago. Out right deleted my profile.
Not a whole lot has changed. I don't get to passively select events and friends to hang out with. So I have to actively maintain a social life. Which is harder, granted, only because managing to stay in touch with more than a dozen or so people in any meaningful way is quite difficult to do. However, the quality of those relationships is quite high.
I also have the added bonus of not showing up in ads or have some creep-o advertiser/marketer snooping on my data stream to sell me more crap I don't want or need.
It took me a long time to jump on the facebook bandwagon. I only opened an account at the behest of friends who had all but forgotten what a phone was. I tried it and I can now honestly say I was right about it in the first place.
Huge. Waste. Of. Time.
Re: Steve Pavlina: 30 days since I quit Facebook
#24I 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 ab…
It's very easy to hide people from your news feed without having to actively avoid them. Click the X next to their posts.
Re: Steve Pavlina: 30 days since I quit Facebook
#25Facebook or any other social network works on our egos. We all want to show off how witty we are and how happy we are.Thats why we always see only the happy side of a persons life on any social network.
And thats the reason you see only a 'like' button on Facebook. Enable a 'dislike' button and you will see many more dropouts.
Actually, we can try one more experiment. The next time we don't like something, we say 'dislike' in the comments.Lets see if we can do that.
Re: Steve Pavlina: 30 days since I quit Facebook
#26Don'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…
I agree that FB is dead simple to use; I just wish it was just dead simple to protect my data.
Re: Steve Pavlina: 30 days since I quit Facebook
#27I quit LinkedIn a couple of days ago. I got a status update of some contact or other, and thought: "What is this? Why do I have this?"
I feel much better not having something that felt so obligatory, yet so unlike me.
These networks seem to leverage social pressure as much as they solve problems.
Re: Steve Pavlina: 30 days since I quit Facebook
#28Don'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 have a similar perspective. I know many people whose only electronic communication is on Facebook - it's essentially an integrated email, chat and twitter client with a custom homepage. I have private message threads going with people, and it's essentially email. I have no problem with this.
FB is also a convenient way to keep in contact with people you no longer live near and see on a regular basis. I feel bad for the people who obsess over status updates and feel compelled to share everything. Because if you don't do that, it can actually be a great way to keep in contact with people you actually care about.
Re: Steve Pavlina: 30 days since I quit Facebook
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
I agree that FB is dead simple to use; I just wish it was just dead simple to protect my data.
It is simple to protect your data. Don't put anything on Facebook that you want protected.
Re: Steve Pavlina: 30 days since I quit Facebook
#30I quit facebook about a month ago. Most of what Steve Pavlina says is quite right and I'm probably better off without it, but there is one feature that I sorely miss: As a young un still at a university, facebook was extremely useful for getting in touch with girls who I meet around campus randomly. "I'll look you up on facebook" is a much lower commitment and casual line than "What's your phone number".