Deactivate Facebook to become human again

[Ktperry]

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/r...=NYDN+Facebook


Thoughts?
For me personally, he just cant handle the Internet.

[Kujako]

I'd have to get a facebook account first... seems like a lot of work. And being a real human sounds too Frankie Goes To Hollywood for my tastes.

[wowaccounttom]

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/r...=NYDN+Facebook


Thoughts?
For me personally, he just cant handle the Internet.

sounds more like someone that actually commits to something... i guess it depends how you look at it

[the game]

sounds like the guy doesn't have alot of self control

[Amerrol]

Facebook is and has been awful for a while now anyway. It's an endless stream of Buzzfeed articles mixed in with pointless updates from people I hardly know. It was much better when you needed a .edu email address.

[transorD]

sounds like the guy doesn't have alot of self control

Pretty much I was going to say. I don't think I've ever checked my Facebook account more than once a week.

[Pull My Finger]

Facebook people don't realize how twisted they are. Common thing.

[Deleted]

sounds like the guy doesn't have alot of self control

Oh please, I don't know a single person who has self control when it comes to facebook...99% of all people use it to spam bullshit on what they eat or how cute their kid was doing something really common.

I have a facebook, but I only use it for work (trading shifts :P)

[Dole4011]

I dgaf about the shares and likes and w/e. I do it to keep up with friends and family who are out-of-state. Totally worth it.

Re: the stupid shares and posts, I just unfollow people who consistently post things that aren't worthwhile.

[Jester Joe]

sounds like the guy doesn't have alot of self control

Exactly what I'm seeing.

I have a facebook, the most I do is let it run in the background web browser in case someone needs to contact me or send me something. It's no different than having a phone nearby. Hell, I even turned off automatic updating on my phone so it stops going off when I'm out and about.

For a psychiatrist, they don't sound very smart.

Oh please, I don't know a single person who has self control when it comes to facebook...99% of all people use it to spam bullshit on what they eat or how cute their kid was doing something really common.

I have a facebook, but I only use it for work (trading shifts :P)

Then you know a single person, yourself.

Granted, posting a status or two isn't going to suddenly stop you from appreciating the outdoors like this article is somehow implying...

Instead of checking my smartphone for notifications, I am paying more attention to the world around me.

Like, seriously, that's all on the person if you're so glued to facebook.

[Revi]

Use private groups on Facebook daily, haven't touched the public sections in years. Just a big group-chat service to me, and excellent for arranging stuff with friends and keeping in touch with people. Facebook isn't the problem here..

[WskyDK]

Deleted mine back in August.
I spend so little time online (out of games) now

[Jester Joe]

Hell, this article is making me facepalm more than almost anything has this entire year so far.

Deactivating my MMO champion would affect me more than my Facebook.

[openair]

Facebook is and has been awful for a while now anyway. It's an endless stream of Buzzfeed articles mixed in with pointless updates from people I hardly know. It was much better when you needed a .edu email address.

That's easy to fix. Stop calling your acquaintances friends and a lot of those people you hardly know won't be on your 'friends' list anymore.

Facebook: redefining 'friend' for an entire generation!

[Deleted]

I have facebook but limit the information I put on it, my place of birth is fake and my real pic is not up. PERSEC is a very real thing.

[Nachturnal]

I've had mine deactivated for about 4 years now. Am I like powerful now? How human am I? Is there a scale?

[Deleted]

Don't buy it. These kinds of things have been coming up for decades in one form or another. The problem with them all tends to be they rely on extremes. They seem to suggest you can either have a real life, OR an online life, and there can be no inbetween, no middle ground.

This seems to me to be a ridiculous notion except in a few rare cases. He has some valid points, people tend to act a certain way online that they would not in real life, however when it comes to things like facebook, if the people you are talking to on there also are the people you have to go to work with, the people you will eat dinner with later, the people you go for drinks at your local with, then there is no anonymity, no internet persona, none of that. You are still held accountable for the things you do and say online.

The other argument is a "it makes people start caring more about fake online interactions - "how many likes can my selfie get?" or "how can I amass more friends so that I look popular?" "How can I get photos to make it look like I'm having a good time?" and so on. That's a failing on his part, not facebook's or the internet's. Don't blame tools for your own poor character. Are the people who are obsessed with how many likes their selfie gets, or how many facebook friends they have, really turning into lovely people when they get rid of facebook and enter the real world? No, of course not. They are still vain and self obsessed. it just takes on different forms online compared to in real life. If you are a terrible person, that's going to carry over no matter how you choose to conduct your social interactions. Meanwhile, people who genuinely just want to see what their friends have been up to, how their lives are going, are they having a good time, how their children are doing and so on, or the people who genuinely just want an opportunity to talk to friends they would otherwise not be able to talk to, or friends they otherwise would not have even met, get tarred with the same brush as the people who just want likes and shares on their bathroom-mirror photos.

Overgeneralisations like this are common and always have been, but have never been useful. "Videogame players are lonley shut-ins who have no friends" - Of course, some are, but for others it's always been a very social activity. "Sports players are brainless thugs who only know how to kick a ball" - Of course, some are, but there are plenty who are not. Hell, even go back to the middle ages and you have churches making accusations about people who enjoy art being godless heathens who are only fixated on worldly things and manmade beauty, or the overzealous religious folk who make the same claim of all scientists nowadays. It's always been nonsense, it always will be nonsense.

[Jester Joe]

I've had mine deactivated for about 4 years now. Am I like powerful now? How human am I? Is there a scale?

Not nearly Wizard status.

Also I will throw in my support of Erin's post, I'm way too lazy to ever go that far into why I think something is wrong.

[user531345]

I quit facebook al together, i never used it to message people but i used the news feed, i gave up on that because some of the facebook comments i see make me go insane.

[Conspicuous Cultist]

I just say the most positive, boring shit on my facebook so it can't be used as leverage at a job interview.

If there's one thing I regret during my teens is opening a social media account at all with my real name on it.