How I Quit Facebook

Chances are, you or someone you know is on facebook.  Heck I have seen pets with their own profiles!  I really didn't realize until lately how unique it was that I am not on it.  Now of course I used to be on it but due to a bet between my husband and I, I no longer partake in that sort of social media.

I had it, my husband had it, and most of our friends and family had it..  it really was sort of fun at first.  I got back in touch with my best friend, talked to old co-workers, friends, classmates, and family I would only see at reunions or funerals.  It wasn't hard to see how it became so popular.  The games were cute and fun and it was hilarious to see what some people posted and gave us a lot of things to talk about. Soon it became a chore to keep up with it, I realized I was wasting a lot of time on facebook and it was pathetic that I would keep refreshing to see what the latest pictures were, or who sent me a gift for my farm.  It was then that my husband gave it up and bet me that I couldn't do the same.

I love a challenge so I took him up on his bet.  Slowly I began deleting people.  I only had about 130 "friends" at the most.  Ten people at a time would get deleted.  Some took it personally and sent me a friend request almost immediately after I deleted them.  Eventually I narrowed my list down to the top 20 or so people that I found it hard to "un-friend".  After I took down all the names, email and physical addresses, and phone numbers from those last people, I sent out a message explaining that I was quitting facebook.   I made sure they had my address as well so if anyone really wanted to contact me, they could.  Then I deleted my account.

Honestly I thought it was going to be harder than it was.  I was a die-hard fan, a daily user and game player.  I used the chat function to talk to people I hadn't seen in years.  Since I moved so far away it allowed me to somehow feel connected to all that I had left behind.  I missed my 10 year high school reunion, I lost touch with some of my closest friends when I left and through facebook I had felt like I belonged in a way.

It has been a while since I deleted my account and not once have I looked back and regretted it.  In fact, being off of it has led me to realize a few things.  Many of those "friends", weren't real friends.  They don't miss me and my virtual profile, they didn't really care about what my kids were up to, or that I had a bad day and was tired of doing laundry. I feel betrayed that I found out about certain events that were going on through a public, online social media site.  Things that I felt should have been told to me over the phone. I realized that I was replacing real relationships with real people, with virtual ones.  I think if used properly, social media sites can be a good means to bring people together, but it scares me how little privacy people have anymore.  I also feel that the fact that some interfaces require you to have a facebook account in order to use their product is discriminatory and unfortunately it seems to be the trend.

I am glad I took my husbands challenge and to know I can lead a normal life without using something that millions, or even billions of people use on a daily basis is gratifying.  I was told the other day that I was someone's hero because I was able to go along in life without a facebook account.  I don't know about being a hero, but I do feel empowered knowing I can control who knows what about me and my life.