Recently, I deactivated my Facebook account. The main reason for the move away from Facebook was their controversial privacy settings.  When a vendor of a product makes changes to their bread-and-butter items, it tends to cause a bit of a stir.  Facebook has seen many changes in its history, from the user experience, site design, application integration, and privacy settings.  Sometimes it feels as though these changes come with little or no warning.  The privacy/advertising changes are the only ones that really bug me.  I understand the service is free, so there is little room for complaint.  However, when it comes to personal data, even free service providers need to closely regard users’ security/privacy.

Social networking extends beyond the main hub of each site, though.  Facebook users often post links, share articles, or direct you to their newest pictures and blog posts.  Nothing is wrong with any of these activities, but it is difficult to not click on at least some of these items.  Every time you click into a user’s profile, write on a wall, or simply view your main feed, there you find all kinds of links to follow. 

It makes little sense to have an account on Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace if you’re not going to participate in any of these extra links that take you beyond the hub of each site.  It stands to reason if you like your friends and you want to know more about their lives, you’ll end up clicking some of those links (any you probably should – after all, this is one of the reasons you joined, right?).

Problem:  Even the smallest distraction is still a distraction that can potentially use valuable time.  Time, I believe, is a highly under-valued resource.  You’ve heard the sayings before, “You can never go back in time,” or, “The past is prologue,” or, “He who hesitates is lost.”  These and more witty reminders exist to beat it into our heads that time is precious.  In my life, I found that time spent on Facebook typically fell into one of two main categories:

1. Lost time in a reality that was not available before Facebook.
This is actually, I believe, the main reason people join Facebook.  Through Facebook, moreso than any other social site, people get the chance to really connect with other peoples’ lives in ways they could never do if Facebook didn’t exist.  It would be impossible to keep tabs on your friends and family “Facebook style,” if you were not part of the social network.

You would rarely see everyone’s photos, hear about their children, read up on their vacation excursion, or exchange loving notes, catch up with a quick chat, or even just know what is on their mind.  Facebook completely changes the social landscape of a person’s life.  Vast amounts of information are instantly available when you have an account.  This information, prior to Facebook, was only rarely available, mostly from people who live really close to you, or go to church with you.  This information was available to poeple in your physical social network.

This shift is the social landscape of my life was becoming “too much” in some way for me.  It is way too easy to become addicted to information, and to use Facebook as the primary means of social interaction in a person’s life.  While I don’t think Facebook is evil, bad, or anything else like that, I do think it somehow distorts reality.  It brings us closer in touch with those who had been absent from our lives for years. 

We follow links, chat, view photos (again, good things when taken by themselves), and read about life ideas from friends or family that we had rarely, if at all, been in touch with before we had a tool like this at our disposal.  While those connections are fun, they bear little resemblance to our everyday physical lives, and therefore have a tendency to make us long for the online social interaction as a replacement to person-to-person interaction.  That, in my mind, is where the danger lies.  It might take another blog post to get all the thoughts out on that idea.

2. Time spent that ended up being value-less in nature
I don’t think anyone intentionally sets out to look back on their time and say, “Wow, that was a waste.”  Facebook time, though, can soooo easily be devoid of value, or even meaning.  In part, the idea that Facebook time can lack value is hitched to my previous point.  Is it really valuable to engage in relationships that are loosely based on a false reality?  Beyond that, the interaction that occurs on Facebook can mean so little because there exists neither closure to the activities (as in debating politics and social issues, a common activity on Facebook), nor meaningful connection to the people, places, or ideas discussed in the process.

Look, my time is running out, and so is my battery.  Boarding for Cleveland!  Gotta run. (EDIT: I actually wrote most of the lower part of this post before I wrote this portion.  Now I’m in the process of cleaning up the post.)

Other Distractions

While the lack of Facebook in my life has been quite refreshing, it is by no means the only potential distraction in life.  Yes, my inbox has far fewer emails per day, since I had email notifications turned on for certain items.  The reduced clutter in my inbox has allowed me more time to focus on other, more important things throughout the day.  For some reason, when I see a new email, I feel the need to respond quickly.  Do you feel that same urgency?  I think it is largely a perception/expectations problem.  People never used to expect a written response to their letters the same day the letter was sent.  It took days, weeks or months to get written responses back for “snail mail” pieces.

That brings me close to some concluding thoughts on the matter.  Anything can be a distraction.  One does not need to participate in social networking to avail himself of numerous daily diversions.  The Internet can be a time-waster in other ways, too.  Browsing stories, reading reviews, blogging, poring over the “news,” lingering on sports sites… all of these have a lure of their own. 

Non-web related stuff can certainly pull us away from more important things in life, too.  Maybe we turn aside too often for TV, or books, or phone calls, or shopping… everyone has his or her weaknesses.  None of these things is by itself an evil thing.  None of these things, though, should replace the real relationships in our lives.  That is the danger.  When time with a thing or activity begins to substitute for time with the people in our lives, we have missed the mark.  People are, by far, the most important physical resou
rce in our lives. 

Those are some of my thoughts on the Facebook thing.  I’d like to hear what’s going through your head as you think about these things.  Am I off base?  Am I missing something?  What do you agree with or disagree with? 

Cheers
– Chad