The Pros and Cons of Deleting Your Facebook

I deleted my facebook just days ago, and boy does it make you feel morally superior.

I found a happy medium by purging my friends list of all the people on my Facebook who I have no desire to associate with IRL.

Deleting 150 people was VERY cathartic.

I think deleting the people you don't actually talk to/care about is a more productive option. Facebook chat has taken over the role of AIM (which apparently people don't use anymore? I'm not one of them) but basically, it's become the only way to get in touch with those people you don't necessarily call, but want/need to get in touch with on occasion. Ex: if my brother doesn't answer his phone and doesn't use AIM, leaving him a message/wall post is a much more productive option. JUST SAYIN' that's basically the only reason I keep mine.

I think the answer is not to delete Facebook altogether, but to go through your friends every so often and purge all the people who are annoying you or who you never talk to. I couldn't imagine deleting my Facebook, but that might change once I'm no longer in college. Right now, Facebook is a priceless tool for my social life.

“Pro: I will have an air of mystery about me.

Con: People might forget that I exist.”

This is, in fact, the underlying tension behind every form of social media. It reminds me of that guy (a professor? or somebody similar) who created an email auto-response letting people know that he longer uses email. It's a bold move that signals high status IF you're high status enough to pull it off; going off FB is similar.

I just deleted my account this morning. Anyway, the way I see it is that those who are close to me will keep in touch and those who aren't will whittle away.

I deleted my profile for four months last year, and my social life took such a dive. I quite liked being able to resist creeping on exes and wasting time and stuff like that, but not being invited to parties felt pretty shitty after a while.
(Somehow it's only people I'm kind-of-sort-of acquainted with that have parties. My close friends and I spend too much time studying and never really have time to plan fun shit.)

http://twitter.com/#!/dominicd…

I deleted 3 months ago. It's really good. I love it. That's how I discovered TC- looking for other nooks and crannies in the internet. I started a blog, started writing more of my own stuff, subscribing to other people's blogs. My RSS replaced my News Feed, and now instead of updates about how “ObAmAz a KeNyIn TeRrOrIsT kOmMuNeSt” I get well-thought-out, well-written, intelligent updates from TC and others.

I say do it. Purging friends is fine, but the problem isn't just who, it's wasting your time on a website that sells your info.

As for people forgetting you, if they only remember you via FB, do you really want to know them? I remember a friend of mine texted me to see if I was OK; she thought I had been “wiped” by the government or something like that. That's a friend I want to keep.

Hahahaha, Ryan, this was great.

My ex boyfriend used to shame me for having a Facebook. He is one of those rare creatures who never had one, and always used the airtight reasoning of,

“I have a cellphone, a landline, an email address, a mailbox, and a front door. If people want me, they can find me.”

It's very true, but he was also kind of a sociopath, so I'm still on the fence.

I have less than a 100 friends on Facebook. Out of that number, there are still a handful that made the list, not because I actually talk to them, but because deleting them would just be too much drama. The chances of running into these people are high, and who wants to deal with the awkwardness of face-to-face conversation with a person that is no longer on your Facebook? How on earth will they validate their encounter with you?

I hate half the people I know and where I live. Grah.

Holy shit. Dilemma of the moment. Ryan are you psychic. I was one moment of indecisiveness away from clicking the “deactivate” button yesterday. I was able to get past the “Friend 241 & 589 will miss you” and the accompanying guilt-pics. Then I had second thoughts: I'd miss out on all the unproductive online fun. Realize that there's IRL bonding, and then there are the wallposts, tags, likes–the whole package of online validation–and that one can't substitute for the other. IRL experiences are relived online, and online interaction is strengthened by IRL bonding. If you miss out on one, you'll miss out on parts of the conversation. It's a system you can't escape, especially if 95% of your relationships are in it.

I ended up clicking the Profile tab instead.

Well, I have at many times considered deleting my account, but quite unable to do so not because I am addicted to Facebook; quite the contrary- that I actually use it to catch up and keep in touch with my school and university friends who are now in different countries. Of course FB is no alternative to a good old fashioned lunch at the local cafe, but that option isn't available to me. And strangely enough, people hesitate to call you on the phone or even on VOIP, citing every excuse from different time zones, mobile on the fritz and so forth. If I trusted my friends to email, call, write letters and send postcards, I would have long ago deleted my FB account. The fact that they don't hold, me and my personal data ransom online.

A good post by the way!!

Cheers!

Um, I'd really like to be facebook friends with you now.

Don't know how you do it Ryan but you get it!! Only go on Fb on Monday for half an hour. That way I get my fix, reply to stuff and still remain productive and relatively unfucked over.

I think Facebook (and social networks in general) is good, with also a good potential to cause damage. It's all about the right way of (ab)using it.

The thought that we no longer exist into people's lives just because we aren't on Facebook anymore is an overall wrong idea.

However, if one needs a refreshing break, delete that goddamned account

just to come back later.

sheer brilliance:

Pro: I will now have to field invitations from some event promoter about his party.

Ryan O'Connell you are a Visionary

Triteness alert: But really, after collecting lots of people who I like in college and grad school and living in lots of places, it's a great way to keep up with people. Because we all have those friends that aren't the A-team, and you maybe haven't talked to for a year, but you're in their city visiting and you go to the bar, and you pick up where things left off with no problem.

But honestly, calling someone I haven't talked to in months is a lot of work, plus I hate phone calls (yes I'm one of those). Posting youtube vids on their wall is a lot easier way of saying “I like you and miss you, but don't worry I wont call you and ask you 'so what's been happening…for the last 8 months, quick summary, go!'”

It's like you read my mind. I agree with every word and my experience has been the same.

You've described perfectly the dilemma.
I actually deleted my FB account last year, because I was sick of it, and frankly just kept wondering why would I want to see updates from people I don't even like or hang out with irl.
A couple of months ago, I came to Germany to study and made another FB account following a request from a couple of friends so that they could see what I was up to, and share pictures etc, and only added my irl group of friends.
Which amounts to about 9 people. Still, the sheer amount of acquaintances that have requested to 'friend' me is mind numbing. Hello? I only saw you in French class twice a week for a couple months, leave me alone. And no, I don't want to be reminded that you have moved on and are dating a 'great gal', asshole.
As soon as I get back home I'm deleting this account. FB just stresses me out.

I feel like Facebook just provides the means to amplify the neuroses we already have. The internet lets us explore our insanity with ease! :)

I deleted my facebook almost a year ago. Immediately a cool feeling of relief swept over me. When I sat down at my computer I could think straight again. I was more productive and less worried about silliness. I didn't wake up dreading that I would dislike someone for their weird political views which they've chosen to loudly voice on my wall. I won't have some obnoxious coworker coming up to me and demanding to know why I didn't accept their facebook request (umm probably because you pull shit like this). If you're thinking of deleting it, do it. You won't regret it because the good friends stay in your life, no matter what.

The only thing I do miss are the photo albums. People tell me often that they miss my photos (which is a really nice thing to hear) but when I left, they went with me!

agree to ALL of this. i deleted mine 2 months ago and haven't looked back. i'm really enjoying using my time discovering new sites and procrastinating in other ways, just as you are HipsterFriend.

but most of all, it's refreshing to run into someone and not have that fake conversation where you ask how they're doing when really you're totally already aware that they just got back from thailand, their dog had diarrhea last week, they were late for work this morning, and starbucks screwed up their coffee.

Delete it. I frequently see people on FB in cafes or libraries and think “suckas! I'm more free than you!”

Also, my social life increased 100% after I deleted FB. It meant I had to *actually* try to make friends.

The only downside is you won't have a shrine that is 100% Ryan O'Connell themed. Sometimes I flirt with the idea of getting FB so I could creep myself. But in the end, the social anxiety of a thing like FB is not worth it.

Facebook and Real Life are now equal. If something happens in Real Life, there must be a Facebook event for it and a subsequent photo album OR ELSE THE EQUILIBRIUM OF THE UNIVERSE WILL BE THROWN OFF BALANCE!!!!

I mean, you kinda hit the nail on the head dude. It's that weird ingrained paranoia about losing our relevance to hundreds of people who don't give a fuck whether we're happy, sad, passed out in our own vomit, whatever. But they still look at pictures of use passed out in our own vomit, and we look at theirs, and somehow everyone comes out feeling validated, important, and just… not so alone, even though no actual human interaction has occurred. It's this weird narcissistic but simultaneously isolating none-space that everyone feels absolutely obliged to (and so freakishly pleased about this obligation) but that really doesn't bring ANY quantifiable gain to anybody's life.

It's really pretty gross. I deleted mine and I'm a-ok. You will be too, brotha. We all will be.

I've definitely become unhealthily obsessed with you, Ryan O'Connell. Perhaps you should delete for both our sakes…

i have deleted mine 3x. you can never really delete it. facebook owns all your shit when you put it on there. i hate it when it becomes a market place, or self promotion via my Wall. wtf. (wall?)
i have since disabled that feature yesterday.its lame, like that club you used to hang out at, but now a bunch of dooshes are there and you dont like it anymore.. i am thinking of going FB free already permanently. i never go to the invites, and its just a big site to judge other people. fuck that

yes this is perfect! i just went through and deleted mine for good the other day! i'm so excited about it! and, yes, i am slightly more bored, but i can tumble and stumble and watch movies and play music. things that are way more fun than facebook anyway! :)

Yea, and I have certain close friends who I never interact with on FB, because like, that's what gchat and texts are for with them. So I know way more about my work acquaintances' or high school classmates' trips to Thailand than I do about theirs.

It became more even important for me (3 years) after college.

I like to think of the people who don't exist on the internet as the global elite, like a mysterious community of wise, humble  sasquatches  living among us, above us – beyond us *stares at moon, mystified*

For me the biggest problem was always that Facebook made it too difficult for friendships to fade naturally. That may sound cold but I've had one too many friendships that just linger on and on and on and Facebook just feeds into that (pun intended). I mean it's hard enough to stop being friends with someone as it is but when they can “like” your status or post videos on your wall and then take no notice that you don't really want to be friends with them even though you never write back on their wall or give them any attention, it's like as long as they can write on your wall you remain friends. And deleting them seems too harsh. So I got rid of my Facebook awhile ago and yeah sometimes I think about things I'm missing out on but it feels a lot better to only keep in touch with the people that I truly want to keep in touch with. Facebook just never seemed genuine. Plus I never liked the sort of invasion of privacy that came along with having a Facebook, practical strangers or acquaintances being able to see conversations between you and friends and looking at pictures and all. Just too weird for me.

Someone needs a friend cull!

facebook is a narcissistic “diary” of your life. with that being said- people do use it for different things (staying in touch with people, posting/viewing photos,  stalking, getting updates on things they like and care about…). it is also creepy as fuck sometimes, but that continues to be socially accepted when not having a facebook is frowned upon.

i've deleted mine for a month when i had a lot to get done and didnt need to be worried about who those girls were that my bf is now friends with. it was hard at first to not be able to check it on my phone whenever a situation occurred where i was alone and waiting on something. i felt awkward and after only being able to text so many people, i was forced to look up at my surroundings and deal with people – in real life. over the course of the month it became easier and less habitual to refresh my homepage and find out what people i could honestly care less about were doing, thinking or feeling. and damn it felt liberating. but old habits die hard.

now i mix it up some- facebook then thought catalog before i fall asleep, where i play my favorite game: “which article did ryan o'connell write?!” my judgement is based purely on the photo, topic and headline. i've been doing this for about 2 months now and am dead-on 98% of the time. ryan, your writing is as addicting as facebook, sort of.

Initially social networking for me was all about keeping in touch with friends and family I no longer see as I live far away from them. That was great then you added colleagues from work and things began to get personal, far more than I wanted them to, I'm not a nasty person, I don't ask you to be nasty to me, I have to listen to you moan all year round, why then do you don't allow me on comment on MY  page!

Therefore the time came to create a new page where my family and real friends were transferred over to, leaving these wanna be's to continue their meagre existance of uploading the next photo of their toenails etc and giving them the false idea that I was still there somewhere lol.

My page isn't about what the author of this page is about, I've met tons of individuals that share comments about real things in life, whats happening in our world, complaining about how much slaves we have become in society and yes, bring together solutions to combat them.

I would have deleted facebook a long time ago but I still need to be in touch with my friends, family and people who give a shit about this world.

Additionally did you know facebook, google, twitter etc are controlled by those who have federal law to access all your details, so by doing so you are telling them who your family is, where they live and what activities good or bad you are getting up to… 

Just thought you might want to know ;-)

Lol! That's great! That being said, it's JUST FACEBOOK! I have an account and it doesn't run my life. If I deleted it, nothing would change. But we all know that deleting an account doesn't mean anything: once you're out there, you ARE out there on the internet, floating around like a ghooost.

I've deleted my Facebook two times and I've managed to stay without it for about 10 days both times.

I did feel better and more calmful and I also had more time. But I had to activate it for the same reasons: I was cut out from some of my school information (silly, but yes, as we have the examination period now, we don't get together in classes anymore and I completely missed out on all the information about graduation, okay, well, thanks, I won't be attending to my own graduation then) and I also found out about all of the events and concerts days later than I would've with Facebook.

And as I'm too lazy and passive and introverted for communicating with people all the times and asking: IS THERE ANY INFORMATION THAT I NEED TO KNOW NOW?, I had to activate it. and the occasional moments of good old boredom.

one day I'll be strong enough (oh wow, what a dramatic sentence inspired by a website, what is my life)

so. fucking. accurate. i've deactivated my facebook twice for months at a time. much better. after i post this comment i'm going to go delete it for good. thanks gurl.

this post (as well as most of your others, but especially this one) made me want to friend you on facebook ha

You manage to hit the nail on the head. Every. Time.

I temporarily suspended my account and a week later I received an email from a close friend asking if I was “alright”.  It was a statement that warmed my heart because of his concern and made my head explode simultaneously because only someone very silly would associate FB withdrawal with suicide in the real world.
People,jeez…

this couldn't be truer. i recently  deactivated my fb account and a number of people thought i had simply deleted them as friends. and these are “real” friends and family that have my cell phone number, email address, etc. instead of contacting me outside of FB world to see what the deal was, they just got upset, reacted and/or told other about how i had defriended them, without communicating about it first. funny how i was silently accused of “not communicating” or defriending, when all it couldve taken was an email/text msg/phone call to check in/clarify. 

facebook is the genesis of isaac asimov's legendary sci-f story “the last question” coming true.

I need better/more friends/superior beings at the height of their intellect.

I deactivated it August of last year and just recently deleted it for good. I've been facebook free for about a year. feels really good. do it :)

Never had a facebook, and never will

I deleted my Facebook account about 7 months ago. It was the best decision I’ve ever made.

I deleted mine, reactivated mine, re-deleted it, re-reactivated it… I’m about ready to just close my eyes, type in a random password, and log out forever. It’s the only way. Curiosity always gets me after a few months and I have to log in to see what I missed. It’s never worth it.

ive temporarily deleted my account today after a rather snotty message from facebook telling me that im not allowed to make friends with people i dont know actually who do happen to be friends of friends ..its a social networking site  for goodness sake  anyway they asked me to cancel any of my friend requests which ive happily done .. i went on to timeline thinking everybody would have to change at the same time but they didnt … anyway  eventually im going to permanently delete my account …

ive got to the point of realising that if anyone does miss me from fb and messages me then it will be genuine because they care facebook is a very cold place to be  its not real  at least this way i can finally move on away from my exes and  friends that maybe arent real friends  a social networking site where your told off for being sociable and making friends .. so im really fed up with facebook its boring .. goodbye facebook i know i,ll be better off without you xx

I’ve done the Facebook Sabbatical thing before, once for a month and another time for four months. Both were great experiences! So, I’ve decided it was time for me to delete my Facebook. Facebook has recently made it somewhat easier to permanently delete your account instead of deactivating it. I think the key to successfully getting off of it, though, is to prepare yourself appropriately so that temptation doesn’t lead you back on!

Facebook is a joke. Some of these people are acting like a 16 year old girl who got her first phone. They are NEVER off of it. They never leave it alone. I cant believe that facebook can even be an addiction. That’s extremely sad.
Get out in the woods!!

James likes your post.

hahaha,,, once i did the same as u,,, closed my eyes and type random password, but later on i couldn’t be away from it i reseted my new passwoed nd again it was logged on..
nw i have deleted my account permanatly. only that is worth way to get rid of fb forever.