So I did it. I deactivated my facebook account today. Why? Because I was sick and tired of feeling like it was such a big part of my life - like walking the dog, cooking dinner, going to work. My interaction with Facebook had become almost like a normal part of my everyday routine. Enough already!!
I grew so attached to it, at first I did'nt think that it was that much of an issue and laughed it off. It was only until recently when I would log on and see friends checking in wherever they went, taking photos of what they had eaten and updating statuses every day (sometimes more than once) that I realised that there are people out there who get seriously addicted to Facebook and feel the need to check in wherever they go and tell all of their online friends what they are doing because they are looking for approval from their peers.
Five years ago, when I first signed up for Facebook, I actually enjoyed the ability to reconnect with people who I hadn't seen in a while. Then it snowballed, and all of a sudden there was the ability for people who you didn't really want to re connect with to find you. Take the girl who ended up marrying my ex. She found me on facebook I did the 'right' thing by speaking to her but then when it all started to get a little too much and I found myself feeling like she was rubbing all that they had in my face I put an end to it. With that came the barrage of abusive inbox messages and abuse which I can now laugh off but at the time I was left to wonder why I was being treated this way. Especially when any sane person would have done the same thing that I did.
Then there are the people who think they can just add you and delete you like your friendship means nothing. I mean seriously, what is social networking doing to society? You wouldn't treat friends like that in reality- would you? I sure as hell wouldn't! Furthermore, the people who bitch about others in status updates make social media at times remind me of high school!!
So I am done, I don't need facebook to interact with people, or to see which one of my friends has posted countless photos of food, children or simly mundane posts asking "what should we have for dinner tonight?" Quite honestly, if you can't make decisions as simple as that, maybe you should take a long hard look at yourself.
Bec :)
