At the same time as I recognize how easy Facebook makes it to keep up with people, I can't help but think it cheapens the communication. It takes very nominally more effort than blinking to click "like" on a post, and it seems like that's enough for people to feel connected. Well, I have a problem with that because it is NOT enough for me.
I realize it's counter intuitive to say "This minimal social interaction is not good enough for me, and so I will rebuff that in place of no social interaction. That will show them!"
(Side note: WHO thinks it's appropriate to have a conversation on speaker phone in a crowded cafe at 8 in the morning? And where are we at on my death gaze? I have more and more uses for it each day)
Where was I? Ah, yes, justifying that which has yet to be criticized by anyone - my favorite past time.
The reason I feel that this is an appropriate reaction is because it allows me some clarity about who's important to me. I don't know that it's normal for humans to have 100+ friends, which Facebook handily allows. We're descended from apes that live in fairly large social groups (at least comparatively to other similarly complex mammals), but they're still not 100s of members in size. If you haven't read the stuff on the theory of "monkeysphere", it's certainly interesting and applicable to my point, here.
It's normal to lose touch with people. It's a healthy social process. We just don't allow it anymore. I left work at Target back in 2005 or 2006. The people that I met there, with some rare exceptions, didn't become my friends. In any previous era, it would have been completely normal to say "So long!" and really mean it. Maybe encounter them if I'm ever at the store again and they still work there, or in one of those random "small world" moments, but in general, I wouldn't be involved as much in their lives as Facebook makes me.
I think that's what's missing from Facebook, is the tools to refine it better and make sure you're prioritizing those who really matter.
Enter another point: that Facebook introduces a ton more awkward social interactions and situations than normal everyday life. What if I decide I no longer care what one of these 6-years-past coworkers had for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? I can't just un-friend them! That would be rude! What a scandal! Perhaps to others, unfriending isn't such a big deal but I just fear the repercussions. I don't want to have the conversation. So they stay on the list, clogging up my feed, making sure that those who are still relevant are clogged in a bunch of cyber garbage.
Cyber garbage is my last big and truly biggest reason for the hiatus. Facebook bombards you with a growing number of ads week by week. Truly unacceptable amounts of ads, and increasing version by version. Not only is quantity increasing, but invasiveness and persistence. It's more than I care to deal with in a day. Scrolling through an already vast amount of information and now having to mentally filter out a bunch of crap attempting to be sold to me is just plain exhausting. Exhausting and demoralizing.
Say what you will about the film Idiocracy but I think their point about rampant advertising was incredibly on-point. The world is one big ad already. At all times you're being sold something. Why make that worse with things you can truly easily avoid?
This brings me to the end of my rant. Please forgive any errors in accuracy, spelling, grammar, or failed attempts at making sense. This document is unedited. It is the first purge of my thoughts and shall remain true in its raw Erinness. Through this activity I will improve myself.
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