I 'deleted my life', and y'know what? Nothing changed. I still have the same friends I talked to before Facebook, still meet up for drinks on their birthdays, still arrange nights out, and still share what's going on in my life.
The best thing about no Facebook? I know what information is out there, and nothing personal that Advertising Inc. can buy.
I'm 47. Because of the network effect, using Facebook I've connected with people I knew and cared about that I haven't seen in 30 years. Dozens of them. I barely remembered person A and B, found them and became friends. Then they knew person C and D. E and F were close behind. Pretty soon I have 200 friends from places scattered all over the world.
Life sneaks up on you, and people stop having the same phone, email, or street address. You wake up one day wondering what happened to Bob, then slowly realize that you'll never see him again. It's a weird feeling.
Yes, if I were 20 and still had a cell phone with all my friends from 4 years ago, it'd be no big deal. But if I lost my FB data now? I'd never find these guys again.
Personal sidebar ahead: by the way, my wife and I are having a competition to see who can get the most friends. As long as you're not selling anything, and I promise not to sell you anything, send me an invite! Right now she has 600 friends and I have something like 250.
But if I lost my FB data now? I'd never find these guys again.
You haven't bothered to copy off important contact data to some personal file? That's crazy.
You wake up one day wondering what happened to Bob, then slowly realize that you'll never see him again. It's a weird feeling.
True. OTOH, when that has happened to me, I realize there's a reason for it.
At 54 I find that a) life is not only short, it's shorter than you think, and b) there's a whole lot going on right now that dwelling on acquaintances lost to the past is probably a waste of time.
[B]y the way, my wife and I are having a competition to see who can get the most friends.
Seems we're very different people, so my anecdotal reflection likely as alien to you as yours is to me.
The purpose of my post was to point out to HN users, some of which may be old cranky guys with too much time on their hands, the way the average Facebook user looks at things.
If you'd like to make it about me, happy to do that. My email is in my profile.
That wasn't my intention, but your post was about you and how you use FB. Just as my response was about me and how I (don't) use FB.
I'm curious to know, though, how anyone can know if they are an average FB user. I know a few people who use FB and they all seem to use it differently. I wonder if each of them think they're an average FB user too.
What's wrong with wanting to interact with strangers? We've built entire startups around that - Meetup, GrubWithUs, Couchsurfing, etc, all come to mind.
God didn't come down and carve the Approved And Valid Contexts of Facebook Friending on a piece of rock.
Personal sidebar ahead: by the way, my wife and I are having a competition to see who can get the most friends. As long as you're not selling anything, and I promise not to sell you anything, send me an invite! Right now she has 600 friends and I have something like 250.
>>Life sneaks up on you, and people stop having the same phone, email, or street address. You wake up one day wondering what happened to Bob, then slowly realize that you'll never see him again. It's a weird feeling.
Unless you're older, you have no idea how true this is. So many people I knew in college and this happened so frequently once I got out college. I suddenly realized people at that age are so nomadic. They move frequently, change addresses and numbers and unless you're best friends with them, you'll never know what happened to them.
Scary and yes, very weird to have known someone one day and then a few days later, they're a ghost to you.
if I were 20 and still had a cell phone with all my friends from 4 years ago
I think that's the key here. Smart phones which you use like a database.
If you had that when you were 20, you might have hundreds of contacts in your smart phone today. People rarely change both emails and phone numbers at the same time.
21 and find that it would be hugely inconvenient to delete my Facebook account.
But this isn't for the social aspect, I don't post status updates or photos or share personal information (not even my Birthday), however Facebook Groups are just so widely used that it's hard to stay in the loop for certain things without them.
I'm 25. One of my friends uses Google+ instead of FB. It's really weird because the only way I can really get in contact with him is via the irc channel we all hang out on.
If you actually care about the photos that your friend is sharing on Google+, what's actually preventing you from seeing them? You don't even have to visit the G+ site, just set up email notifications if he/she shares anything with you.
Let's look at an alternative scenario: What if your friend posted the photos online to Flickr, Shutterfly, Picasa etc. and sent you a link via email? Would you still complain?
My point is not to evangelize Google+ here, I am using it only because you referred to it. My point is that the power that FB has over your online social life is entirely up to you, and you can choose to increase/decrease it at will.
I 'deleted my life', and y'know what? Nothing changed. I still have the same friends I talked to before Facebook, still meet up for drinks on their birthdays, still arrange nights out, and still share what's going on in my life.
The best thing about no Facebook? I know what information is out there, and nothing personal that Advertising Inc. can buy.