Earlier this year, I remember myself commenting to someone (partially because of his age, I guess) that I was pretty surprised that he didn't have Facebook.
A few months later, I found that I was slowly blocking everyone's (read: "friends") posts from showing up on the home page, and only using Facebook as basically a feed to keep up with products and businesses. I made the profile as private as I could (unfortunately the bulk Greasemonkey scrips I found for this were buggy, so i did most of it by hand...).
It was a pain, because of Facebook's stupid phone authentication thing, but I managed to set up basically a fake account for linkage and following companies. In this way, I haven't stopped using Facebook. But I don't use it how it's "intended" to be used, and I can sign up for whatever bogus app I want without worrying about my privacy being leaked. It has been fantastic, and I haven't looked back, nor do I want to.
What stood out in the article is what he said about being oversensitive. I think social networking is a deathtrap for those who have problems like that - myself being one of them. There are some webcomic artists that I follow who I've seen go down a pretty dangerous path getting overly involved in Twitter - petty comments and stuff made against them, things like that. I see a lot of people spiraling in self destructive behavior using social networks as a medium, and it is so healthy and wonderful for people with those tendencies to stop using them.
Another side effect is that it really showed me who my true friends were. I figured that if people "couldn't" communicate with me if I left Facebook (apparently texting or emailing is too "old school"), they weren't worth having as friends. It's really funny that most people I talk to say, "Oh well, you know, I wouldn't be on it, but there are these people that I, like, can't contact any other way." Because apparently these people just have one big Facebook app, with no phone or email attached. Right.
My web presence now is basically nothing, and it's a huge sigh of relief. My only complaint is that Facebook has its claws stuck into everything, and making a new account was a real pain. I just marked my old Twitter account private, but will probably have to migrate to a new account at some point in order to use @ replies to clarify things (businesses etc. that I'm following, no personal things). There really needs to be a better way to do this.
Earlier this year, I remember myself commenting to someone (partially because of his age, I guess) that I was pretty surprised that he didn't have Facebook.
A few months later, I found that I was slowly blocking everyone's (read: "friends") posts from showing up on the home page, and only using Facebook as basically a feed to keep up with products and businesses. I made the profile as private as I could (unfortunately the bulk Greasemonkey scrips I found for this were buggy, so i did most of it by hand...).
It was a pain, because of Facebook's stupid phone authentication thing, but I managed to set up basically a fake account for linkage and following companies. In this way, I haven't stopped using Facebook. But I don't use it how it's "intended" to be used, and I can sign up for whatever bogus app I want without worrying about my privacy being leaked. It has been fantastic, and I haven't looked back, nor do I want to.
What stood out in the article is what he said about being oversensitive. I think social networking is a deathtrap for those who have problems like that - myself being one of them. There are some webcomic artists that I follow who I've seen go down a pretty dangerous path getting overly involved in Twitter - petty comments and stuff made against them, things like that. I see a lot of people spiraling in self destructive behavior using social networks as a medium, and it is so healthy and wonderful for people with those tendencies to stop using them.
Another side effect is that it really showed me who my true friends were. I figured that if people "couldn't" communicate with me if I left Facebook (apparently texting or emailing is too "old school"), they weren't worth having as friends. It's really funny that most people I talk to say, "Oh well, you know, I wouldn't be on it, but there are these people that I, like, can't contact any other way." Because apparently these people just have one big Facebook app, with no phone or email attached. Right.
My web presence now is basically nothing, and it's a huge sigh of relief. My only complaint is that Facebook has its claws stuck into everything, and making a new account was a real pain. I just marked my old Twitter account private, but will probably have to migrate to a new account at some point in order to use @ replies to clarify things (businesses etc. that I'm following, no personal things). There really needs to be a better way to do this.