Facebook: Good, Evil, or Neither. I'm on a Mission.

I finally did it.

I deactivated my Facebook. My friends have my phone number. My e-mail address. My real address. I have no idea why it took me so freaking long to do that. It's almost liberating. I can have an actual social life, get my school work done, and figure out who's talking to me because they're just bored, and who's talking to me because they actually want to. Maybe I'll be on here more, actually learning something and taking part in real conversations. I'm by no means saying it's staying deactivated forever, but the goal is for at least a couple months. The Facebook addiction has to stop. I'm 21 years old, I'm in nursing school, I have a pretty good network of friends. I don't need this.

This whole Facebook phenomenon has bothered me from day one. The fact that literally, LITERALLY 50% of people have one, is ridiculous. I will admit, Mark Zuckerburg is brilliant on many levels, but he's created such an easy mask for everyone. People I know in person portray themselves on Facebook exactly how they want others to perceive them, that doesn't mirror how they actually are. It encourages the mask, when in other instances it can actually help people take the mask off. I've seen awesome things happen through Facebook... thousands of people coming together for one cause, praying for someone they don't even know, that they wouldn't have heard of unless Facebook was there. I've gotten to know acquaintances, friends that I 'knew,' but never would have truly gotten to know if it weren't for Facebook. And for that, I'm very grateful. I've obtained precious friendships that I would hate to lose.

On the other hand, I can't get anything done. I'm creeping on people I don't even care about, let alone am "friends" with, looking through their pictures for heaven knows why, wasting hours of my time doing absolutely nothing productive. People were not meant to know absolutely everything about each other's lives. Period. I don't need to know where everyone works, where everyone lives, when everyone is working, how everyone feels, who everyone is dating.  It's not healthy.  Especially in the girlfriend/boyfriend department. Ex-gf/bf's are not supposed to be able to creep the snot out of each other, having to see their next boyfriend or girlfriend, when in most circumstances, before MySpace/Facebook, you both move on with your life and go your separate ways, often not ever hearing about each other at all. It makes the drama that much more frequent, and the obsession that much worse.  Now there is "Facebook Official," a term that has pretty much been coined as "dating."  Your'e literally not dating until it's "Facebook Official."  Then once it's Facebook official it's out for everyone to see, then you end up realizing this person isn't all who they're cracked up to be, and you break up a month later.  Obviously, after you've both posted "I love you xoxoxo BABE" all over each others wall (which by the way, makes me want to vomit).  Doesn't that just look fantastic on your profile. Week long relationships followed by a solemn status that could be compared to something a Jr. High girl writes in her diary.  That's just slightly embarrassing. If you're not embarrassed by that, I'm embarrassed FOR you.

Then we get the point where Facebook changes something and people act like Mark Zuckerburg is a homewrecker. Oh, heaven forbid, he changed the layout of YOUR Facebook. It goes past opinions on the new layout. It goes to a point that is absolutely pathetic. Get over it people, change happens. It's human nature to like routine. Remember when you hated the last update 6 months ago? Yeah. You hated it until you adapted to it. Now they want to change the one you used to hate with one you'll hate for about 2 weeks. Then you'll get used to it, forget it was ever different, and we'll hear nothing more about it. Wow, grow up.

Facebook also makes it incredibly easy to see what kind of person someone is; almost too easy sometimes. Heck, all you have to do is look at their slideshow of profile pictures. It's almost comical how narcissistic some people are. A fine, shining example is the young adults sporting the stereotypical-teenager-half-naked-bathroom-mirror-pictures where the camera phone flash is bouncing off the glass next to their almost-kind-of-not-really-might-be-ribs-ripped-abs. You can also tell when a man has no guts at all, when instead of talking to you in person, regardless of seeing you every day, he sends you messages on Facebook instead, giving you his phone number and telling you to text him rather than asking for yours and having that chance of being declined. I can understand not asking face to face sometimes, even I will sometimes prefer that men do that, but there are better ways than handing her your phone number and saying "text me." I mean seriously. You're not 12. Which by the way, 12 year olds shouldn't have cell phones. But that's a different rant for a different day. Anyways.

Speaking of phones. People have their faces buried in their smart phones all freaking day (I am no exception by any means) and they miss what's going on around them. It's like living in The Sims world. I never knew the point of that game, yet it was addicting. It was like living without having to live. That's exactly what we're doing to ourselves. We're putting our entire life online; school, work, social, business, advertising, music, everything. On one end of the spectrum, its making us thrive, on the other its absolutely destroying us. Its a win-lose situation all in one, and obviously nothing is perfect. I've been on Facebook for a really long time, for years now. I want to see the other side of it.


My mission, that I will report back on in the coming months:

1) Find out really, how hard is it to stay off Facebook; really, how bad is my addiction to the social network?...more importantly..can I actually stay off of it?

2) Am I really missing out, being 21 years old, in college, and not being on Facebook, like EVERY single one of my friends/family?

3) Does getting rid of Facebook get my face out of my phone...or at least help get my face out of my phone.

4) Find out how much society relies on this one site for general communication.

5) Will my quality of life change even slightly if I do or do not have it?

6) Facebook: A terrible means of distraction and masked relationships, or just a harmless means of communication that brings society together? Or the answer that I hate the most, but I know I will most likely arrive at: Both.


I'm curious. So I'm going to try it.

I'm a procrastinator, and if I don't have the one thing that has helped me procrastinate for the last 4 years, who knows what I might accomplish.


I'll update in the next month or two on this, we shall see.


POST-EDIT: I wanted to share this with you as well, this guy has some great points!