I used to spend a lot of time thinking carefully when I got a friend request: do I really want this person to be a friend on facebook? Are they really a friend?

It took too long. Now I just accept all of them, and hide anyone that says boring stuff in my timeline. This is easy, time-saving and effective. If I do log-on, I almost always see something funny or thought-provoking.

This post rang very true with me. I recently cut my list of ‘friends’ from over 400 to just under 200. It felt so good to get rid of the people who I was ‘friends’ with just because I’d met them once, or I went to school with them but never actually spoke to them at the time. I asked myself a question for each person: If I saw you in the street, would I say hello to you? Believe it or not, there were lots of people on my old list who I didn’t think I’d say hello to in the street, yet they were privy to some of my personal thoughts and information online.

Now I just need to pluck up the courage to ask another question for each person on my list: If I saw you in the street, would I stop to have a conversation with you?

Too late.

Couldn’t agree more with the larger truth, though.

So funny that you post this today as I have plans to close my account later today (and have been ‘preparing’ for this by gathering phone numbers and emails of certain people I still want to be in touch with.

I do agree with you that Facebook is a much better tool when you sift though your list and keep people who create intelligent dialogue. I also agree that the company you keep determines how you use your time. In that respect, most of the people I am close with either do not use Facebook, or do not use it in an intelligent way and have no benefit to our friendship online. I find that I interact with people better when I’m not on Facebook.

That said, I’ll be one of those people without a Facebook (again) soon!

Every single one of my friends who deactivated their facebook page has reactivated it except for one.

I’m with you. I like facebook and it’s not facebook who is the enemy its the friends and our own doing that makes it turn EVIL.

I mainly use it to keep up with true friends and my family who are all in Quebec and other misc people i actually care about. On the flip side i do accept friendships from acquaintances but if i find that they are just clogging up my news feed i suppress them and just concentrate on the friends i care about.

My husband is very discriminating and he only accepts true friend requests. He doesn’t except a friend request just because someone worked with him. He even refused my friend request. His reasoning was “why should i, we are married and i can get an update from you face to face. ” i threatened divorce and said it just didn’t look good and he finally succumbed to my wishes.

Good points as always David. i have no idea how you got so wise at such a young age.

Oh Facebook. We have a love-hate relationship. I just went through and deleted people that I don’t really talk too. I figure if we don’t talk… Do I really need to know what you are doing on your free time? I think Facebook has become an obsession for a lot of people, including me at times. I see it ruining relationships around me and I just hope down the road it does not have these negative effects on me. I have deactived my facebook, reactived it, deactivated it. It’s like having another boyfriend. Ha!

I want to figure out the best way to use it but there is such a large Internet outlet that I think it creates a challenge on how to manage the Internet life.

Time will tell how the Internet will change our generation….

[...] Why You Shouldn’t Deactivate Your Facebook – Excellent points about Facebook that can be applied to social media and relationships in general. [...]

I deleted my account back in September and haven’t missed. I do see your point about chosing friends carefully, which is why I slowly paired down my friends from about 330 to about 20. But the 20 who were left were people I interacted in other ways on a regular basis. So I left facebook. It wasn’t an easy move, but I have no regrets.

I used to have two accounts, one for my blog and the other as a personal acct. I actually deleted the personal page not too long ago simply because I didn’t use it. When I first started it was mainly to catch up with what old high school friends had been up to that last 20 years. Once that catching up was done I realized there wasn’t much interest in any of their daily activities. I’m glad I deleted my personal acct I haven’t missed it at all.

Yes, I hide people who waste my news feed. That’s how simple it is.

i was actually thinking of not deactivating, but majorly majorly cutting down my friend’s list. decluttering. i think i tend to be less engaged and post less if i have more followers because i don’t REALLY know them. my 450+ friends more than half of them i haven’t even met. it’s so annoying! people just keep adding me though and most the contacts are from my boyfriend.. bleh. i’m such a recluse with no social life..

Just to be clear, I meant “too late, we already deactivated our Facebook account.”

Hope you had a wonderful holiday season!

[...] down and surrounding yourselves with other creative folks will help you. Remember, show me your friends and I’ll show you your [...]