There are the potential issues that I see
- Privacy- FB's privacy issues are well known and I have nothing to add about them.
- Communication issues (primarily as a replacement for email)
- FB Bullying
- Attention fragmentation
- Virtual friendships vs. real ones
I want to own my emails- to be able to reply to them in the editor that I choose. For a long time I've been disappointed that FB forces me to use their system but not enough to do anything about it. In the time I have been away from FB my feeling towards my communication has felt "cleaner". It's an odd feeling to have in relation to technology but I think it's apt. It feels better to have one process for replying to people and to have everything in one place.
It seems to me that FB would like as much as possible to replace my regular emailing with their own system. They haven't made it inconvenient because they aren't good with technology but because they want me using their website. I respect their desire to earn a profit but it does make me feel bullied.
FB Bullying
When I attempted to deactivate my account FB showed me 6 (?) large profile pictures of my friends and below each it said that they would miss me- "David Charles will miss you" and "Stanley Salazar will miss you" etc. The approach worked well and did what it was supposed to do: it made me feel like I was abandoning my friends.
The problem is that it's not true and that all of my friends have my email. I'm not cutting my friends out. What I am doing is losing the communication that they don't direct specifically toward me. I don't believe that anybody will stop messaging me because I am not on FB but I will stop recieving many messages that people broadcast to the world.
Broadcast messages
There are the main types of FB posts
- Ordinary snark and cool links- what I post and like to read
- Reaction to world events
- Events in people's lives
It may not be rational to think that remembering a public post is weird but I think that even if isn't weird it is unnatural. It interrupts the normal flow of conversation. Now instead of either The Bourne Ultimatum being discussed or not discussed it's in this half-discussed state until we get to it.
Virtual friendships vs. real ones
I think the main appeal for me about Facebook was the idea of reconnecting with old friends in a non-virtual manner. A few weeks ago I decided to think about how well that has worked out and realized that I had only met in real life one person who I had lost touch with that I had found again on Facebook.
(My results may be reflections of my own circumstances and are certainly affected by the fact that many of my old friends live far away.)
Attention Fragmentation
I've already discussed how knowing events from people's live can fragment a real life conversation. To some degree I think it also fragments my general concentration. When I write I try to isolate myself from other people's thoughts.
A final thought
Last week I went to a book reading where I knew one of the authors. His short story was good and we talked for a few minutes after. The conversation stalled a bit and he asked me if I was on a Facebook. I told him no and it felt right. He was an interesting guy and I will by happy to talk to him whenever I run into him. If we end up having a real life friendship that could be cool too but in no way did I feel that I wanted a FB friendship with him. I don't want to know what he's reading or if he's had a bad day. It's not that I'm not interested in that information- it's that I don't want to get it through FB.
