I am one of those freaks of nature without a Facebook account. I deactivated it October last year.
This decision is quite a big deal for me; this is the only connection I have with many people. This is where I get updates about my social affiliations. This is where I chat my distant relatives and friends. And this is where I greet people on their birthdays.
Heck, my dad even joined Facebook after I deactivated mine. I haven’t added him as a friend yet.
For personal reasons, I decided to quit it for a while. But as time went by, other practical reasons for not maintaining an FB account began to surface. I started to enjoy its benefits. And TBH, it can be tempting to never activate it again.
Ignorance is bliss. Without a Facebook account, I stopped being updated on what my friends do. But do I really need to know what food they ate, what they wore to work, what beach they traveled to, or what someone said to someone? I honestly have better things to do.
I know that I’m missing on a lot of major news, like announcements of engagements, break-ups, passings, pregnancies, or epiphanic life changes; but there is also an up-side to that. Each time a friend tells me news about other friends that I hadn’t known yet, I’m so thrilled to hear it. And it makes me glad that the news is told to me personally, and not through the Facebook wall. Screw it if I’m the last to know! When it comes to hearing news like this, having a friend tell it to your face is way better.
There’s something about personal human interaction that no amount of social media usage can achieve. Without a Facebook account I feel closer to a number of friends, who kept connected to me using other means of communication. And those friendships are stronger than ever.
Before, I spent a great deal of time checking my Facebook account. I could go on hours just scrolling. But without Facebook, I can do more worthwhile things with my time. I also got to manage other accounts like Twitter, and discover other places in the Internet such as Buzzfeed, Thought Catalog, The Soshal Network, and israelmekaniko’s Tumblr account (I don’t agree with everything the guy says, but his posts are funny).
On Facebook, everyone knows what’s up with everyone. In a weird way, without an FB account I got to enjoy my privacy on a whole new level (feeling artista? charot!). I find comfort knowing that no nosy person can stalk me (at least on Facebook). I do not feel the need, nor do I feel obligated to tell the world everything about my life anyway.
However, if there’s one sad thing about this, it’s defying my natural urge to communicate, and to communicate through a powerful venue like Facebook. Though I like to keep most of my life private lately, sometimes I have stuff I am eager to share too, like when I have realizations about certain things. In these times I miss Facebook terribly, so I post it in other sites like Twitter and my blog. But at the back of my head, I know it’d have reached more people if it were posted on Facebook. It’s sad, I know, but it makes me learn to snoop around other places in the Internet. Because as we know, Facebook is not everything. Okay?
Some close friends continue asking me to go back. They keep telling me news and events I miss. One even had a hashtag #MichBumalikKaNaSaFBPlease (lol haha). I keep telling them I would come back soon.
I would, but probably not now.
Because so far, life is good without Facebook.
This decision is quite a big deal for me; this is the only connection I have with many people. This is where I get updates about my social affiliations. This is where I chat my distant relatives and friends. And this is where I greet people on their birthdays.
Heck, my dad even joined Facebook after I deactivated mine. I haven’t added him as a friend yet.
For personal reasons, I decided to quit it for a while. But as time went by, other practical reasons for not maintaining an FB account began to surface. I started to enjoy its benefits. And TBH, it can be tempting to never activate it again.
Ignorance is bliss. Without a Facebook account, I stopped being updated on what my friends do. But do I really need to know what food they ate, what they wore to work, what beach they traveled to, or what someone said to someone? I honestly have better things to do.
I know that I’m missing on a lot of major news, like announcements of engagements, break-ups, passings, pregnancies, or epiphanic life changes; but there is also an up-side to that. Each time a friend tells me news about other friends that I hadn’t known yet, I’m so thrilled to hear it. And it makes me glad that the news is told to me personally, and not through the Facebook wall. Screw it if I’m the last to know! When it comes to hearing news like this, having a friend tell it to your face is way better.
There’s something about personal human interaction that no amount of social media usage can achieve. Without a Facebook account I feel closer to a number of friends, who kept connected to me using other means of communication. And those friendships are stronger than ever.
Before, I spent a great deal of time checking my Facebook account. I could go on hours just scrolling. But without Facebook, I can do more worthwhile things with my time. I also got to manage other accounts like Twitter, and discover other places in the Internet such as Buzzfeed, Thought Catalog, The Soshal Network, and israelmekaniko’s Tumblr account (I don’t agree with everything the guy says, but his posts are funny).
On Facebook, everyone knows what’s up with everyone. In a weird way, without an FB account I got to enjoy my privacy on a whole new level (feeling artista? charot!). I find comfort knowing that no nosy person can stalk me (at least on Facebook). I do not feel the need, nor do I feel obligated to tell the world everything about my life anyway.
However, if there’s one sad thing about this, it’s defying my natural urge to communicate, and to communicate through a powerful venue like Facebook. Though I like to keep most of my life private lately, sometimes I have stuff I am eager to share too, like when I have realizations about certain things. In these times I miss Facebook terribly, so I post it in other sites like Twitter and my blog. But at the back of my head, I know it’d have reached more people if it were posted on Facebook. It’s sad, I know, but it makes me learn to snoop around other places in the Internet. Because as we know, Facebook is not everything. Okay?
Some close friends continue asking me to go back. They keep telling me news and events I miss. One even had a hashtag #MichBumalikKaNaSaFBPlease (lol haha). I keep telling them I would come back soon.
I would, but probably not now.
Because so far, life is good without Facebook.
0 comments:
Post a Comment