More Social Less Media

After years of going back and forth debating the pros and cons and always landing on “just leave it as it is” – I’ve finally decided that after 8 years it’s time to say goodbye to Facebook.  It’s not an easy decision, there’s a lot I love about Facebook.  It’s a great way to see pictures from family and friends, share news and of course to discover through a Buzz Feed Quiz which font type I am.  But I’m convinced I can manage to live without those benefits (and I’ve already discovered that my font type is Futura).

There’s a lot I can go into but here are a few reasons why I am leaving Facebook.

Facebook sucks time from my life.  Do a quick search on the topic “Facebook wastes time” and you will find enough articles to waste a week of your time.  The truth is (and studies keep backing this up) there is an addictive quality to Facebook and it takes time away that I could be using to do something far more beneficial.  

Most of my Facebook friends aren’t (actually friends).  As of this moment I have 1,511 “friends” (more than my sister but far less than an average college freshman).   A quick scroll through those names and it’s amazing how many I don’t even recognize.

There are other options for photo sharing.  Instagram really is a much better option if all you want to do is share a photo (plus I can play around with the filters).  Photo Stream is a great way to share albums and I can find the photos without having to sift through my Candy Crush and Farmville invitations.

I get better information from Twitter.  I mostly just follow news, weather and sports feeds (plus a few bloggers that I like) and find it a great way to get current news that I care about (47 seconds ago I learned that Brandon Marshall called out Jay Cutler in the Bears locker room). At times it seems that half the posts I read on Facebook are political rants, cynical observations or warnings about the dangers of Ebola, ISIS and milk; and the other half are a mix of inspirational sayings, funny videos and ads.  On Twitter the 140 character limit means that at least the political rants are short.

I don’t really need another way to communicate.   At times I’ve found myself overwhelmed when I receive a long Facebook message sharing a thought or asking for prayer.  It’s enough of a challenge keeping up with email without adding another “mailbox” to check.

Less is more.  Is a lesson we learned in our first year of architectural history (I even blogged about it Less is More).  The simple fact is the less amount of time I spend on Facebook is more time spent in real life – and there’s a lot of great stuff happening in real that’s way more interesting than anything on my timeline news feed.

Leaving Facebook doesn’t mean I am giving up on Social Media.  I love using Twitter (@TDoug) and Instagram (tdoug84) and even my sporadic blog posts (A Wandering Aramean) and I will continue to do so (plus I will probably try whatever new new thing gets created next year).  But right it’s time for more social and less media and so with this post I am logging off Facebook one last time.