OK, I really don't like Facebook.

[buddhabelly]

I joined Facebook quite a while ago to see someone's page. I really can't remember who or why, but I was probably just being nosy. So it was all fine and dandy because I just left it there for probably a year or so. No activity.

 

So recently my high school graduating class representative decided to use Facebook to organize our 30th annual reunion. Aaaaagh, 30 years??! But I digress...

 

So she somehow "found" me and has been inundating me with friend suggestions. I befriended about five classmates with whom I was close in high school, but stopped short of befriending the whole durn class. (To be fair, the whole durn class was fewer than 70 people). Oh, and before all this, one person "found" me and requested friendship, which I accepted. She and I used to be close about five years ago and lost touch because we live in separate towns.

 

But I really, really dislike the whole format and how CONNECTED it is. How I can just link from one person to another and do they really know I can do this? Can I bow out? Should I tell my "friends" first and apologize?

 

And to others who were wondering about FB, the main reason I want to bow out completely is that if I were to respond to every "calendar request" and look at everything my friends are asking me to look at, I would be even further behind in my own work than I already am. I prefer this board as my major time-waster.....don't need another one!

 

Julie

Edited February 4, 2009 by buddhabelly

[Tutor]

Yeah, I hear ya. I've blocked about 90% of the applications and made my page uber private.

 

If you want to bail, I would let your "friends" know if they are people you would like to keep in touch with outside of Facebook. Otherwise, if you bow out, you will just disappear form their friends lists, etc (no notification or anything) and that will be that. If the getting linked to new "friends" is the big problem for you, I would also contact those you would like to keep in contact with and let them know that you don't want them to forward names and email addys to your email address once you are off of Facebook.

[StaceyinLA]

and it's a big however, I ignore anyone I don't REALLY want to be in contact with, I NEVER respond to all those silly little gifts and requests to do things, and I get on sparingly just to keep in touch with a few friends (that I am SO glad I have found again).

 

So, I think it is a useful tool for what I wanted - I am just careful not to let it suck me in!

[Guest Virginia Dawn]

I got pulled into face book. After a few weeks of enjoying the connected feeling, I am coming to my senses. :-)

I've cleaned up my profile and applications to make them much more private. I've started ignoring most of the application requests and from the beginning I was cautious about who I accepted as a friend.

 

I enjoy the word games and have found an old friend who loves to play Scrabble as much as I do. I still enjoy feeling connected because I'm pretty isolated most of the time. But now I have adapted facebook to my own needs, publicity not being one of them.