I first activated my Facebook account in college, maybe four years ago. Then, when I graduated and traveled alone for several months, I found it really useful to be able to chat with friends back home. We got such a kick out of it in the beginning, coining new verbs as we friended each other and Facebooked and relished the procrastination machine that was Facebook. Petitions to ban this or that movie were met with mild but firm refusal; friends who documented everything they did that day Facebooked way too much; and perhaps most notably, you had the reassurance that your parents weren't going to come poking around on your profile, since it was for college students. Of course, that was before news feed, where each login prompted you to view everyone else's facebook activity, and before general admission made the site an advertising free-for-all and a venue for the odd random acquaintance to peruse your personal photos.
Since then, I have watched Facebook descend into a weirdly political/faction-making/TMI hybrid that induces typically generous, tolerant people to display their worst possible behavior online for all 623 of their friends to see. (shudder)
Now, sure. Facebook, like lots of things in life, is driven by a bottom line. It is what it is: a free social networking site open to the public and supported by hugely annoying advertisements. But that doesn't mean you have to participate. Namely, I don't have to participate.
I know, I know, it will be hard to part with the news feed and live feed from all those friends I haven't spoken to in forever, and all the updates on mafias and virtual farms and petitions. But I'm attempting a brave new world of online experience: life without Facebook.
Wish me luck. As with anything else, blogging could turn out to be a very similar brand of crazy. But I'm fully prepared to chuck this too, if push comes to shove.
To my Facebook friends, I will miss you--not necessarily your virtual mafias or five million photo albums or endless quotes comprising your inside jokes with other people--and wish you all the best. I'd love to hear from you. I'm new to blogging but I gather there's some way to leave comments here. Leave one if you'd like! In other news...
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