Why I Left Facebook

I woke on Monday, still possessed of the same drive for subtle yet effective lifestyle change that has piqued my interest of late.

In the car, as I'm fighting my way down the M27, it occurred to me in a moment of personal disgust that I had already checked Facebook twice that morning - and it was only 08:45. As if another kick in the gonads of realisation were necessary, it followed that this was not unusual, or indeed different from any other day.

It was probably a privately held moment of self-contempt. I can't imagine any of the other drivers suddenly accepting that they were crack-heads, and wailing into their palms in lament of their addiction. But in truth, I just don't think they're 'there yet'. Many never will be, for the opiate of Facebook is truly its most devastating weapon - attention. Those so hopelessly fed and plugged into to the framework of What Other People Think will never realise what a dreadful form of malnourishment their minds are suffering from.

I suddenly accepted what Facebook has become, for so many legion souls - identity construction. And let me tell you, I've seen some truly spectacular feats of social engineering during my tenure there. It actually disturbed me to realise I'd been doing it myself - a 'sultry' posed picture here, a status update designed to remind people who I am and what I do there....it felt so utterly hollow, untruthful, and....slutty.

I had to make an emergency admission to myself - I was too into it. Not addicted; but too concerned with it. I started to list the reasons I didn't want anything to do with that place anymore, and despite the magnetic lure to resist, stay, and maintain an unhappy status quo, I came up with the following.

1. The whole place is a giant ego-stroking platform. Personally, I don't feel the need to post up piffle worded / engineered to make you hold me in a certain esteem.
2. You're hungover. Brilliant. No-one else has ever been in this state, and we officially know now that you're a fun person, and that no-one parties quite like you. Cool. You must have lots of friends and be incredibly popular.
3. The constant feed of 'apps' - you know, the malevolent code nuggets from shady 'developers' that you have entrusted copious amounts of your own and my personal data to, in the weak, tragic, and desperate hope of finding out who wants to hump you. Try a dating site.
4. Having to put up with atrocious standards of written English and 'txt spk', no doubt bolstered by the ADD sugar-rush of Facebook.
5. Realising there's a reason you never kept in contact with people in the first place. The past truly is our ultimate delusion.
6. Being utterly, completely, resoundingly happy with my life and feeling a complete dearth of caring with regard to impressing anyone on a' social networking' platform. Real apathy in that respect, and it's too bad we can't attempt to relate to each other with as much zeal in the 'real' world.
7. Seeing as I don't need to forsake my privacy, the rights to my data, or sell myself to advertisers in exchange for an attention-fix, what am I doing here?
8. Some people joined Facebook for one reason - to bolster their ego and meet girls/guys. I'm rather happily settled, and so I sort of feel like a digital peeping tom with a pair of binoculars, enjoying myself rather too much in a virtual bush. The last saving vestiges of Facebook have been connecting me to far away family. Not having that will be a bitter pill to swallow, but one that I'm going to have to chow down on.
9. This blurring of the work/home divide is inappropriate and just spells t-r-o-u-b-l-e. I'm sorry, but balls to the convergence of 'modern living'. There's a line, and it shouldn't be crossed. Work discussions do not belong 'on the outside', let alone on public platforms belonging to organisations to whom you have granted IP rights.
10. I am not interested in offering you a 'my life is better than yours', 'didn't he/she get fat/thin/sexy' comparison. What does that mean in the scheme of life?
11. Forget the General Election - there's a more insidious manifesto to concern yourself with. That of 'Facebook Politics'. It's ruined people (no, really). I, for one, will not concern myself with it.
12. Facebook has, bizarrely, become an entity into which people place inordinate trust, as if it were a public service bestowed upon us by fairies. It ain't. Nothing they do is for you - a healthy dose of cynicism and a read of your terms of service will avail you the truth.

If you're using Facebook, for whatever reason, I'm not beating up on you. Quite the opposite, if this is what you need in life, or you're using it for entirely different reasons, then great. Knock yourself out. I made my decision to get out.

Perhaps I'm alone here, but I found that it clouded my mind. I was more concerned with the Peacock-strutting of others that my own mental energies were sapped and dampened by concerning myself with the trivialities of other's lives.

I look forward to a renewed focus, and how this will creatively affect my writing. I remain as enamoured with Twitter as I ever was; the proof was in the pudding when I found myself connected to genuinely like-minded individuals - the sort I would happily share a drink with. The sort that prove the value of true social networking - connecting people that should be connected in the spirit of mutual interest, and not voyeurism.

If you want to, you can read my previous posts relating to Facebook here, here, here and here. Oh yeah, I musn't forget about here, either.