The other day I made a decision to end my social relationship with facebook. I changed my facebook status to "I am leaving facebook on the 26th of march". What happened next was strange. My friends begun first to ask me to stay and then to begin to virtually miss me. This further reinforced my desire to leave. My reasons are varied. The first being mainly for productivity reasons. You can waste alot of time on Facebook. My brother once said that "If the first thing you do in the morning is check your facebook, your fucked". I have to agree with him somewhat. I can't deny the pervasiveness and convienience of Facebook, it has totally revolutionised low touch, loose tie comunication. The culmination being the privitisation of the UK post office.
Facebook has and is all pervasive, this alone worries me and is my second reason for leaving. I can't complain about privacy, I put my stuff up on their servers. I guess my worry is where it will be in 5 years time. I think the story of man, the horse and the wolf can act as a good metaphor for my feelings.
"Imagine a forest in which there are humans, horses and wolves. The wolves attack and kill horses and are scared of humans. The horse is strong and easily scared and the human is weak and intellectually capable.
The human witnessing the horses plight, recognises the symbiotic opportunity. The horse would endow the human with strength and speed whilst the human protected from the horse from the wolves. They strike a deal to stick together until the threat of the wolf has disappeared. The relationship works perfectly for a hundred years or more. The human uses the horse and his strength to build a greater society. Eventually, the wolf, unable to attack and kill the horses dies out from hunger. Witnessing the demise of the wolf, the horse looks to the human and asks for him to climb down from his back. The human looks at the horse and shouts 'Gidde up nag!'"
I guess you can see the relevance of this story. The horse is us, the users, the rider is Facebook and the wolf is either inconvienience or fear of exclusion. It may not happen. I may be incorrect. According to the news just today that the government wants to take the contact details of users of the site. it can only be a matter of time before, well, it serves its ultimate purpose. Okay, so you may say....your so paranoid. Chill out! I quote Kurt cobain “Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you”.
But seriously guys - We are trading our privacy and ultimately ourselves for convienience and the ability to talk bollocks at a moments notice. I bid thee farewell facebook from friday 26th of March you have 1 less member!
I approve baby, it's a revolution not having to check which schmuck you've been poked by.
We be grown ass men now as well homes, time to get busy. Boom.
Posted by: Sam | March 25, 2009 at 12:33 PM
Very interesting post Richard. As you know I called you about this and through losing my Twitter account I've realized that the subject of engagement saturation is well worth a post at some point although I too rarely stick my head into FB these days and there's too much going on. It's not a relaxing poke I mind. It's the pneumatic drill of synapse connections going of that I am trying to avoid. I will keep my account if only because it's a contact book of sorts although Windows live is pretty good and a lot more relaxed.
Either way I never spent that much time in there so I wont miss it but thanks for the key thoughts I've managed to glean about it through your decision.
Posted by: charles | March 26, 2009 at 08:52 AM
You lost your twitter account. No way! Thats serious man. What happpen?
I strategically made my decision to leave after my birthday. As much as I hate the other side of facebook - I love birthday wishes.
I will miss it for sure. I agree with you one hundred percent on the drill in the head. Its only when you lose it, through no thought of your own that you realise how intense it was.
Facebook in my opinion has become the ultimate mediocre festival. People like me who are easily distracted by shiny shiny. I call us magpies don't need facebook. :) Everyones different, who knows maybe it won't be used for measuring peoples minds.
Posted by: Richard Buchanan | March 26, 2009 at 11:38 AM
I salute you, sir.
Posted by: Adam | April 02, 2009 at 11:08 PM