The Observer, September 7, 2007
Volume XL, Issue 2
Top 10... Reasons to leave Facebook
I officially deleted my Facebook account six months ago. It took me a while to realize it was time for me to leave, but like all junkies, the first step to recovery is to admit there is a problem. After one emotional breakdown, I took the plunge. It was the best thing I ever did for my emotional life. Now, I present to the Case population the top ten reasons to leave Facebook.
10. Endless distractions. When a paper is due in two hours, or a test is the next morning, no one wants to buckle down and do his or her work. In the good old days, one would watch TV or make a snack. Now, Facebook is the distraction of choice, and since it's online, so much worse than the old-school modes of distraction. You can be logged in while typing that paper, making it impossible to do anything productive. Unless your computer doesn't have Internet (which in most cases is not an option), Facebook will always be looming in the background.
9. Embarrassing moments. OK. It's Friday night, you've had a few drinks, and the next thing you know, you are waking up Saturday morning to photos of yourself in a toga, passed out on your friend's couch with drool dripping from the corner of your mouth. You can un-tag those puppies, but everyone has already seen them.
8. Trouble with authorities. Take those same pictures of you in the toga. Now not only have your friends seen them, so has your fraternity/sorority, future employer, and maybe, somehow, your parents. That's just a nightmare waiting to happen.
7. The end of privacy. What type of world do we live in where every action we do is documented for everyone to see? I don't want people to see whom I have friended, who has posted on my wall, or the worst of the worst: whom I have ended a relationship with.
6. False friendships. "Hey man, let's hang out later" – B. "Yeah, I'll call you!"-A. These meaningless wall posts will never come to fruition; it's just a way of sadly attempting to keep in touch with former acquaintances.
5. Etiquette. There are some intense rules of Facebook. It is offensive if you un-friend someone or delete photos of you two. Considering that everyone else is on Facebook a million times a day, if you don't respond to someone's post right away, you may come off badly without even meaning to.
4. Open network. You can see anyone's (well, non-private) Facebook. If you can look at someone's Facebook and judge how lame they are, people can do the same to you.
3. Hurt feelings. You break up with your significant other. He or she deletes the album titled "Me and My Baby" with every photo he or she has of you. It is physical proof of any relationship – romantic or platonic – that goes south.
2. Drama. Your friend who said they were sick was really out partying last night. You saw the Facebook photos! Some serious drama is about to go down!
1. Addiction. This one really drivesit home for me. I would log onto Facebook, not planning on spending a ton of time on it. Three hours later, I had seen every photo of some random person I don't even know, along with every single wall-to-wall post of my friends, and I had even browsed my own photos a million times. I knew I had gone too far, so here we are. In my new life without Facebook, I find the people who really care about me don't need Facebook to communicate. They call me. I spend much less time on the Internet and much more time living my real life, without pictures to remind me of my past.
