Consider Leaving Facebook

> They said: When we chat, I feel like we don’t have much to talk about because I follow you on Facebook and I know about your various adventures.

> Poof! That sucked the air right out of my lungs. Facebook was robbing me of the privilege of sharing my news with my friend – and the other way around.

It seems like we have gone full circle. People argued social networks let’s them connect with others apart. Now, people have nothing to talk about with their friends because they are so connected.

The only argument for Facebook being beneficial seems to be dissolving.

I'm not going to be travelling around the world with my cousins who live 1000+ miles away, but it is nice to see when they happen to visit someplace I've been, etc.

My Mom and Dad called my Grandparents and my Uncle fairly often when I was a kid, it's my understanding that my Mom keeps up the tradition now that it's only Her and her Step Brother left.

I use FaceBook to keep in touch with my cousins. We've only met a few times in person, so there's nothing to short circuit either way. Especially with Epidemic round 2 coming this winter.

I agree with most of what the author has to say, and it's a thoughtful article. That said, calls to "leave Facebook" have been frequent for years now, maybe even a decade, and nothing ever changes. Nothing CAN change, because Facebook, Twitter, and whatever fad-of-the-week-before-facebook-buys-it site is hot now have monopolized the social space of our culture. They've sucked all the air out of the room.

Look, it's all very well to talk about leaving, but the reality is if you have a product to sell, a business to promote, if you want to keep up with what's going on in your communities, physical and virtual, if you want to connect with people at all, you've got to do it through the hellscape of social media. There are no other options. Everyone's locked in. If you want to do something involving people, you've got to go where the people are.

It's a catch-22. Social media won't die until all the people leave, but all the people won't leave until social media dies.

I have yet to make the final push towards leaving, but have thought about it many, many times. Still, there were some new things here that I didn’t realize as a ’con’. Thanks and consider me still considering, but harder…

Facebook has some issues but it remains the best way to share my underwater photography with friends and family. Nothing else comes close in terms of reach and ease of use.

tl;dr, parasociality masquerades as real friendship. Author advocates for leaving Facebook so it can't substitute for the real thing.

So in short author left Facebook because he didn't have anything to talk about with friends because they followed him on Facebook, so already knew what he was up to.

Okay. Maybe one should look for a more interesting life than the one that can be reduced to few posts on FB? I do many other things than I share.

I think the reason why someone could consider leaving is ethical one. FB is just a bunch of scummy salespeople. Judging by how much money they have, they certainly don't even pay workers properly (market rate doesn't reflect the value workers bring in)