Bye Bye Facebook
I've deleted my Facebook account. Yes, I feel great! Aside from the ads and privacy conserns, here are my reasons for opting out of Facebook:
Why I Left Facebook
I realised that Facebook wasn't making me feel more connected, instead it was making me feel more disconnected.
I'd rather put my time and efforts into maintaining deep relationships. Quality over quantity.
I'd never "found my voice" for socialising on Facebook. In the context, I felt awkward about sharing anything personal enough to be interesting.
Even if I didn't use Facebook to communicate on a personal level, I would still have a nagging feeling that I ought to check in to make sure I wasn't missing anything. More of an obligation than anything else.
Finding focus and flow, space for creativity and slow life means making conscious decisions for which parts of the internet I want to keep in my daily life and which ones I can leave aside.
Paradox of Our Time
It's a paradox of our time that we are at once hyperconnected, and can conveniently stay in touch with large numbers of people, but at once feel more lonely and lack close friendship. The ability to share everything instantly with a large group of people seems to dilute the personal value, trivialising it, so that broadcasting status updates strips away the intimacy that's generated when sharing in one-to-one communication.
Status update: in the present.
Related Reading
With friends like these ... Tom Hodgkinson on the politics of the people behind Facebook | Technology | The Guardian