Have You Quit Facebook Yet?

Wow, what a concise video, thanks for sharing

I personally think that Facebook is just an interactive rolodex. I use it mainly to add people that I met somewhere, which means that by now my friend base is so diluted, that I don't even read my feed anymore. I don't agree with the entire being more lonely aspect, because even though I have more connections on facebook then people I see regularly in real life, I can easily just post where I may be traveling or what event I may attend and there is usually someone around or at least some 2nd or 3rd degree connection, which makes meeting people easier in general.

On a related note: I really like the graphics in this video.

I quit Facebook last month. In between lame-ass statuses like "Happy Birthday, Mom -- I love you forever", depressing ones like "RIP so-and-so, never forget", cheesy engagement photos and the awful self-promotion ("Read my terrible guest Oped piece in podunk paper"), I just couldn't take it anymore. It was adding nothing to my life -- I haven't actually talked to 95pct of my facebook friends in years.

I've had a FB account for almost 3 years, but it is just too high maintenance for me. I haven't posted anything in almost a year, so am thinking of shutting it down. I'd rather just focus on LinkedIn. I am amazed at how some of my finance peers can regularly post pics, articles, etc on FB & have the time for it. Then, you have the housewives who need to post every 3 minutes on the new ice cream flavor they discovered or their kid's new pajamas.

great video. couldn't agree more. I used FB sometimes during my study times for organising parties but i found it annoying as hell to use for every day use because of all the utter trash that is posted on there. Maybe 1% of the posts is actually something that I reply to and I maybe post once a year at most...

When I actually start to work full time in september I will delete my FB account as it gives me nothing but bad emotions everytime i see another retarded post about "how fantastic it is to walk the dog through the park" ...

I need to. I never do anything on it, but it can be useful to get in contact with people I haven't seen in awhile.

Matrick:

I personally think that Facebook is just an interactive rolodex. I use it mainly to add people that I met somewhere, which means that by now my friend base is so diluted, that I don't even read my feed anymore. I don't agree with the entire being more lonely aspect, because even though I have more connections on facebook then people I see regularly in real life, I can easily just post where I may be traveling or what event I may attend and there is usually someone around or at least some 2nd or 3rd degree connection, which makes meeting people easier in general.

Matrick:

On a related note: I really like the graphics in this video.

Personally, I use fb as a chat/messenger mostly. I don't really agree with all of the video though. Saying that facebook/social media is one of the causes or can lead to loneliness is just bs, in my opinion. I 'manage' my close friends and family via personal contact, i.e. visiting them, calling, texting (and whatsapp), just like I did before social media.

However, for less familiar friends and acquaintances, I find facebook a very decent platform. I can message people I haven't spoken to in a while far less direct, indeed shaping the message exactly how I want it to be delivered and perceived. I can look up their recent activities, see who's posting to their wall and what keeps them busy, etc. Very useful for 'keeping in touch' with more distant 'friends', if you ask me. After all, like the video says, it's about 'managing your social network'

In summary: 1. Who the hell uses ONLY social media to interact with people? 2. Who the hell regards all their 200-2000 facebook friends as real, close friends?

@bocconi33

I very much agree with the usefulness for keeping in touch with long distance friends. It has helped me reconnect with old friends from college (California), which probably would not have been possible without social media. Other than that, there's just too much clutter to sift through. Chicks dig it, though...

I think FB is an absolute waste of time. The only thing it was ever worth for me was talking to people over long distance easily and seeing pics from friends and family.

Also, all of the above points are very good, but I'll point out that I'm sure the majority of WSO community is much more grounded and realistic about FB than the majority of the population.

This whole facebook thing kind of reminds me of a Southpark episode...

Very good video though Eddie.

The feed is representative of my real life connections. I have: - very interesting news articles representing what I want to read but wouldn't have discovered myself - very interesting articles representing the opposite POV to mine (e.g. literally communist propaganda/view on modern events) that I would never in a million years have sought out, but turned out to be a fascinating insight into how the other side thinks, and in 5% of cases might even have had a point; I really want to un-add these people (who I friended in their better days) but part of me sees value in the experience - cultural stuff I would, again, never have discovered by myself, for example from professional theatre/music/opera folks I knew from college posting amazing performances of not so known people - photo samples of other people's lives, which I think is quite interesting, particularly travel photos; even the middle aged folks on my contacts are fairly good and don't post things that are too private; quite a few times saw friends with very famous people (Buffett, Blankfein, etc.) which led to interesting conversations - absolutely hilarious samples of how some formerly promising people's lives have just gone down the drain as they snapped and went hippie (e.g. Ivy-trained former BB banker turned vegan yogist in SF, selling bamboo fibre t shirts and waxing lyrical about incense) - and about 20% is the usual crap, food photos, selfies (very few), and comments so retarded they make me laugh, from some of my friends' female friends who are shall we say not friended for their brilliant intellect.

It remains the best sharing platform out of all the ones I follow. LinkedIn for example, is filled with crap, because the only people who post stuff on there are the kind of people who read 20 empty management articles a day to avoid having to think hard about to get things done.

I rarely use it for talking to people because most people I know use gchat or Skype, which are much more convenient. Maybe 10 people are Facebook chat addicts and force me to use that really badly designed, slow and buggy product. There should be a Skype plugin :P

Thankfully avoided it. I use LinkedIn (really as nothing more than an automatically updating rolodex) and Twitter. And I'm far from a power user on Twitter.

This is coincidentally why I am so skeptical of Facebook stock. I don't really care that their revenues were up last quarter. I think their user base and usage statistics are massively inflated, and should decline in the near future. It is just a matter of time until companies realize that FB does not offer a compelling return on their marginal advertising dollar.

What is this facebook you speak of?

I use facebook primarily to scrape and repost funny/random content from around the net while I'm commuting. I've got a ridiculously huge and far flung family, so facebook has done wonders for things like organizing parties and such....but we already know each other in real life. I don't know that I've ever made a 'real' friend through facebook, I see it as just an adjunct to in person communication, not unlike texting.

At this point, I use facebook and Linkedin in about the same way: sometimes I do meet new people on there and these platforms let me keep in touch with people I'd otherwise lose contact with completely.

If the day comes where I'm not getting work done or I'm sitting home using facebook on a Friday night, yeah, then it goes.

I keep in touch with certain groups of people on facebook so it's useful. I'm not about to individually text or call my entire extended family or everyone I was in my fraternity with or various groups of friends that do things together and honestly group texts are the most annoying thing in the world.

If I want a pickup soccer or football game? Facebook. Tell my aunts and uncles what I'm doing with my life? Facebook. Catch up with a group of friends I know who are in law school (we all studied together. I ended up changing my mind)? Facebook.

It is useful, but twitter is far more useful and linkedin is better for contacts. Facebook is pictures and keeping in touch

I think twitter is a much better social network than Facebook because unlike Facebook, twitter encourages you to tweet to and talk to people you don't know. Which is what social NETWORKING is all about.

Facebook conversations are basically small cliques and very rarely does an outsider get into the discussion.

still use fb a lot, very helpful when traveling / staying in touch with friends afar

Lets see, time to look at my wall. Political meme, Jesus meme, atheist meme, more politics, second cousin I don't know talking about her medicinal marijuana and getting beat by bf, Tebow meme, other distant family talking about relationship problems, Marine buddy posts a funny video... Meh, why do I still have FB?

Mainly switched to Google+ and LinkedIn at this point

I'm disappointed at the lack of Facebook Ass Exchange references in this thread.

How are you guys going to diligence girls you meet and check out their lewd pictures? I just hide posts from people that annoy me. FB sucks, but it has a purpose.

On FB I follow a lot of social media companies, news sources, and random entertainers to read their latest content/stories (WSJ, Washington Post, Tosh.0, Colbert Report, Inc Magazine, Mashable, Bloomberg, etc.). But, I suppose twitter could be used for the exact same thing. I also do this on linkedin to follow certain companies. I could mostly care less what friends post, although it is useful for keeping in touch with people abroad.

To think of it, I really need a portal I can somehow get all the same content in one feed...

Re. the point that we have too many "friends" on Facebook and so our news-feed content has been diluted:

Facebook actually picked up on this a long time ago. As you may have noticed, you won't see everyone's posts in your news feed, and this is because Facebook tracks who you interact with most and only displays their content. Meaning, our "real" friends on Facebook are a lot less than our actual number of Facebook friends. This feature is also constantly adapting to our activity, so as we go through different phases in our life and interact with different people, Facebook will drop older "friends" and display content of new friends.

This is great for two reasons. Firstly, you don't have to manage hundreds of friends, rather only ones you are close with right now. Secondly, while you're only exposed to a limited number of people, you're still "friends" with everyone else, so you can easily re-connect with them.

I have never understood why people are against Facebook and even think of deleting it. If used correctly, it is a very powerful tool.

@Username100001

Agree that it can be used as a very powerful tool, but the amount of personal spam (at least for me) more than offsets it. Examples: "OMG, I just met the coolest guy last night! - check him out" or "here's a bunch of pics of my nephew smashing up the pinata at his b-day party". It's nice to hear that people had a good time, but I can't control these feeds being pumped out. Maybe I should take the above advice & start deleting some friends from the list.

i am old enuff to have had a friendster account, a myspace account, and a Facebook account...and i have deleted them all. Facebook is good for girls except that you then have to put effort into making your page look good...the second girls started looking me up on Facebook while we were actually talking i knew it was time to get off it. if one wants to get laid off the internet it is very easy and Facebook is not the way to do it....tinder is way better for this i have found.

I deleted my Facebook account a little over a year ago. All I see is that the level of bull shit in my life, overall, is noticeably down. This is a little difficult to articulate, but there's just more "shock value" to my life; I no longer am aware of someone's 2nd year anniversary, that they changed schools, who they're going out with, and generally I don't know about any of the unimportant aspects of the lives of people who - outside Facebook - are basically strangers.

I now have to keep up with people who I want to keep up with, and it's been great. I actually make phone calls to catch up and talk with people, and they really appreciate that. I'm also slower to make friends; that said, my friendships are a lot stronger than before. I'd say that I, without a shadow of a doubt, am far better off without social media than with it.

The only network I kind of liked was Google+, but my problem there is that A. I don't like Google's mess of "products" and B. few people who I know actually use it. At this point, I think FB won the online profile war. It's time to come up with a new concept.

@Matrick : I've wanted to try small world for probably a year, but don't know anybody who can invite me! It seems interesting.

i just use Whatsapp to keep up with overseas peeps. For news/info, Twitter

Eff the Book mutha Effaz

Deleted my FB a while back and don't miss it at all. I hear friends whine about it but they sound like addicts that know they need to quit, but can't force themselves to do it so they go through their daily routine of birthday greetings, baby photos, and stupid stories.

One of my primary goals in life is to have a FB account with a "like" instead of a "friend" button. When that happens I will go on more publicity stunts than Richard Branson & Miley Cyrus combined.

I still have my FB, but it's absolutely barebones. I use it only to grab contact info from old friends.

Now that I think about it, I should really delete it.

FB is like your inbox, its a mess when disorganized.

I might have maybe 5-10 people that shown up in my feed and the rest are unsubscribed. Those 5-10 only get pic posts and status, no liking or bs.

When I have a random memory, I'll check a FB page. I rarely post or do much on it but I do check it because it is singlehandedly the best aggregation tool for news streams like Bloom, WSJ, FT, NPR, etc.

Most importantly, I've lived in many places and its a good way for people to contact me.

I filed for divorce from FB about four years ago and have not looked back.

One thing I will say, if I were single I would still be using it as a tool to get laid. Isn't that what it was intended for in the first place?