I’m Quitting Social Networking

After several months of mulling over the idea, I’ve finally decided that I’m quitting my two social networks – MySpace & Facebook.

I don’t feel that an explanation is necessary, but sort of feel like giving one anyway. There are a lot of reasons that lead me in the direction of leaving and only a few that convince me to stay. The reasons I would stay are really simple – I like talking with and sharing photos with my close friends and family – the ones that are “physically present” in my life now. I like to know what’s going on in their lives in case we have a long stint of not seeing each other. Those are the only reasons I am currently on there.

The reasons that lead me to delete my account are numerous. First of all, surfing Facebook is literally a waste of valuable time – time that I could be spending with the people that are actually IN my life – people I care about and love. It was fun at first to see what all of these people were doing with their lives, but honestly, why do I care? I haven’t seen 200 of the people on my friend list for over 5 years. Really, why do I care what their infatuation is with American Idol? If we were in each other’s lives, we would already know about this sort of stuff.

Privacy is also becoming more of an annoying issue for me and more over, the people that criticize me for not posting pictures or opening up more about my life really annoy me. It feels like, because you’re a “Facebooker,” you’re obligated to share every piece of information (because there is a spot) about your life including your birth date, anniversary, siblings, your entire resume, religious and political views, likes & dislikes – I mean if you’re a “Facebooker” then you know what I’m talking about and it can actually be a little scary if you think about it in the long run. I know most people might be thinking right now that you can control the privacy settings or just not fill in the blanks if you don’t want people to see your info, but I’d just rather not even deal with it anymore. As soon as you start deleting information, the more controversy it will bring with your “so-called” friends. Status updates are also becoming an annoyance for me. Just because I don’t post what I’m doing every hour doesn’t mean I lead a boring life. I don’t feel the need to inform people – especially those who I never see in my life.

Does it feel like the reasoning behind every photo you snap in your normal everyday life is for Facebook? It’s taken so that you can post it and prove how happy you are in your life, or what materialistic things you have in your life, or what friends you have or what trips you’ve taken or to prove you’re not a homebody or to prove you ARE a homebody…. I don’t know about the next guy, but I’m tired of this. The pictures I take are for me, not Facebook. If you are in the picture and you want a copy, YOU can post it to Facebook.

Drama. I’m really done with the drama that occurs over Facebook – drama that wouldn’t occur if you were talking face-to-face with someone. Words can have so much more meaning when typed and people can interpret things many different ways. Basically I feel like arguments arise over thin air and I wonder why people do this to themselves. It doesn’t make sense to me anymore, so I’m done with it.

I don’t know why I hold onto relationships for so long when there is nothing there but a history – nothing current and nothing in common but that history. And I’m tired of the recipient anger that occurs because we don’t keep in touch, when we never did anyway. There is nothing there – nothing compared to the love, respect and happiness I share with the “physically present” people who I share my life with now. They are the ones who mean the most to me, not the 200+ people on my friend list. I’m done wasting my time meandering through their lives through a lifeless machine when I have my own life to live.

So, the last thing for me to do is “Delete” my accounts. I may not do it today, or tomorrow, but I’ll be doing it soon. I’m going to keep my blog because it’s linked to my online portfolio and also because of the Nutts =) I see, hopefully, a long, happy friendship forming between our kids and between us as well.