5 Reasons Why I Don’t Need Facebook

We are officially in Day 1 of a Facebook fast.  No checking Facebook at home, at work, on the phone (even if my phone won’t let me delete it).

Naturally, I spent a moment reflecting on all the time I’ve wasted on Facebook and realized I really don’t need it for five very good reasons.

1. I don’t have any friends on it – Well, to be technical, I have 76 friends.  But nearly all of them are people I know from work.  That means I see them every day, so I really don’t need constant updates as to what they are doing when they are not at work.
2. I am “that guy” – You know that guy who forwards links and comments on them, often lamely.  I am that guy.  My not being on Facebook means that I am not sending links to it, along with the (not so) pithy comment, “I so agree!”
3. Everyone I know has better lives than me – Ever have that one friend on Facebook who is posting things like, “Ugh, back to work after two weeks in the Riviera”?  All 76 of my friends are like that.  And for someone who’s crowning achievement is “I survived the weekend without stubbing my toe on anything,” it is really depressing.  Really, really depressing.
4. Facebook thinks it knows me better than me – People on Facebook who have not completely tuned me out know about my struggles with keeping my home page set to Most Recent rather than the Facebook preferred Top Stories.  At least, I think Facebook prefers it, it keeps changing my settings to that.  But, it goes beyond that.  I have had several ads pushed to my home page.  Nearly all of them are for things I will never use.  A gizmo that allows me to take credit card payments on my phone, which I apparently need because I am not selling anything anywhere.  And then there are all the dating sites, most of which are not for me.  You know, sites like SixthToeMate.com, and CoolPeople.net.
5. I really have wasted a lot of time on there – It just boils down to it.  I have wasted a lot of productive time on Facebook, time I could be spending on my writing, or my blog, or just wasting it on World of Warcraft.

Of course, I do recognize the irony that this post will automatically post on Facebook once I file it.

Related articles

• Facebook and its Discontents (hagiographic.com)
• If you “can’t” leave Facebook… (paulbernal.wordpress.com)
• 10 Reasons Why Facebook Sucks (jaaliangrez.wordpress.com)