As I might have mentioned elsewhere, I've been really, really busy this summer. It reached a crescendo the past couple of weeks when I was working until well into the evening. When I wasn't working in the evening, I was at City Hall. I decided that I needed to trim out some distractions so I elected to conduct a bit of an experiment in time saving. I decided to deactivate my Facebook account.
See, I at least pretend to be honest with myself. I'm moderately succesful in the undertaking. From time to time. After 47 years on the planet, there is one truth about me that has been obvious all along: I'm a terrible task-switcher. Women are generally accepted to be good multi-taskers while men are not so good. I'm so bad that I drag the male average down. I don't have any problem switching tasks, it's just that, if in the process of switching to a different task I'm at all distracted, it's over with. And returning to task? yeah. So in my version of reality I saw facebook as just another distraction that needed to be cut out.
My other thought about Facebook is that the longer you are on it, the less useful it becomes. It's boring. People don't chronicle their lives on Facebook once they've had an account for 6 months or so. Oh sure, you get the usual 3 kinds of updates:
1. Politics: "the president is an idiot", "I hate lib-tards", "ken-kookanelli is an idiot", "Terry is a carpet-bagger", etc.
2. News analysis: "the guy that held those women as slaves should be shot".
3. Personal: "my kid graduated high-school", "I dropped a wine bottle on my foot", some other significant event.
I really, really don't need 1 or 2. I know you hate lib-tards. You have a Gadsden flag as your profile picture. Yes, that animal who held the women as slaves should be shot. thanks. Indeed, it's number 3 that makes Facebook interesting and as time goes by people do less and less of that stuff. I'm guilty of it too. I do less of it as well.
However, when I travel by myself, I facebook everything. It's alot of fun and people seem to enjoy it. I get many comments and even emails about my experiences as I travel. The other thing is that once you deactivate your facebook account and you have more than about 2 friends, all hell breaks loose. Everyone think you de-friended them! So, safe to say I turned my account back on and faced the music but I'll tell you this: I didn't really miss it that much when I was off FB. The first day or so was a bit different but after that it was just gone. I lalso don't know that it rectified my task switching woes but it did remove a distraction.
August 9, 2013 at 4:31 pm
Just depends on how you work Facebook, same as a Chamber membership. I find out more about the City from it's various Facebook (and Flickr) accounts than any other source now. I friend all the local media sites and get real news in the news feed. I communicate with members of seven different groups from Write by the Rails (details of the Hannover Book Festival tomorrow) to Grassroots Manassas (meet and greet with the OHS principal Cathy Benner on Monday night). My church shares information in Trinity's The Chill (report of youth group mission trip to Belize) and in a closed Facebook group, Prince William Living communicates with all its contributing writers and photographers.
August 10, 2013 at 7:25 am
Facebook grows, AOL's Patch is perhaps dying. Don't know the status of the four local Patches yet. http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/09/armstrong-confirms-hundreds-of-layoffs-at-patch-400-sites-shuttered-or-partnered-off-and-a-new-ceo/
August 13, 2013 at 11:55 pm
Amen, Andy. I simply attempt to hide all posts on my facebook wall, whether from the political left or right, that are manufactured provocations (meaning repostings of senselessly provocative items, political diatribes lacking the incorporation of objective information/facts, or mean-spirited or personal attacks of any kind). I enjoy Facebook for the exact same reasons you seem too… primarily as a resource to hear from my friends about their lives, which is of genuine interest to me and a beautiful capacity of this platform. If one wishes to use Facebook to advance any agenda other than friendship, such as business or politics, then I think establishing a separate facebook page dedicated to such efforts is the appropriate way to go.
August 14, 2013 at 9:52 pm
Amen to that. I tend to post family pix and news, garden and food stuff. And I like to vent when things like my A/C and water heater go bad as they BOTH did this week. FB is terrific simply for keeping up with family and friends. I go elsewhere for political discussions.
August 19, 2013 at 9:56 am
I deactivated mine in June, and I don't miss it one bit. Really.