After searching the net and doing my research, I felt it was in my best interest to deactivate my facebook account. I do not like how facebook takes people away from human interaction. Plus, even though I had a few hundred friends on the site, how many of them did I actually see? Maybe 3. And so why do I need a social network site with people I'm never going to see? Why do people write their whole lives online for everyone to see?

Facebook has become an addicting place to store your pictures, thoughts, friends, and whatever. Nowadays some people think it's weird to not facebook. I think it's a strange world we live in. I look at facebook as a distraction, or an annoyance. It's not exactly a convenience. I mean I was connected to a few hundred old acquaintances. But was I really connected to them other than digitally? Was I connected to them on a personal level? Not at all. And by the way, with facebook I start to realize hoe boring and lame people are.

Remember the popular kids back in high school that seemed like everything went right for them? Now you see them and they post pics of their foods, beg for likes, friend everyone they used to know including people they don't know, and it just looks like they are dying for attention. Once I realized people had to check in everywhere they went, check out, and post their foods, people were going way too far. It's almost like you have to live 2 lives now. You live your facebook life, or your social network life, and then you live your real life, but only to take photos and facilitate your facebook life.

But it doesn't end there. The apps on the phone have officially made people addicted 24-7. The way I see it, this is not a good step for humanity. I have friends who don't even realize that they are addicted. I go out with them for dinner sometimes and before the food comes they would be looking at their phones and laughing at different posts from facebook, from people they don't even keep in contact with anymore. ''Hmmm, let's see what so and so wrote today..''

And I even tell them they are ignoring me. They think I'm crazy and tell me to chill out and let them relax for a minute. It's always, ''Let me just look at it minute. Oh hey look at all these pics I can view from this chick. Check her out. Oh she said she's working at so and so.''

And so I decided that I didn't want this kind of life. I mean let's be honest. 99 percent, or at least 90 percent of the people that we normally have on social network sites are not even part of our lives anymore. You'll never see them. So why have information about a person you knew years ago when he/she has no interest in ever seeing you?

Facebook gives you the false sense, the illusion of friendship. This is very sci fi for me and it's very powerful. I'm actually experience with drawal symptoms. But I know that I have to let it pass. I wasn't even hardly talking to anyone on facebook. I was just used to logging in and checking the feed, maybe pressing thumps up. But if we can't even get off facebook, how our we going to even function in the future? This is why I had to cut it off. You might think FB is not a big deal, but people don't get it. Just look around. Go out and what do you see people doing? Walking while looking at their phone. Putting their phone over their food while they eat. Ignoring the people their with inadvertently. This is sad, but it's what people think social is. It's the start of something that looks very ominous. People were not meant to live like this. It's very strange.

So I quit. And I need to figure out how to beat the symptoms. I'm so used to logging in. But I know that if I do, I'll never get the urge again to go out and meet people in real life. I need to be cut off from it. I know it's for the best. But sometimes I hope I don't miss out. For instance if it wasn't for facebook, I wouldn't have found the group for my highschool reunion. So sometimes I wonder if there are consequences to quitting.

Welcome to NH!

I completely agree with everything you said! I'm so glad you were able to deactivate. It'll be hard, but trust me, it'll pay off. I've been clean for the past 3 weeks now. Here's actually my Quitting-FB thread: https://newhorizons.forumotion.com/t8969-craig-and-i-are-free-men

I personally have a group that my colleagues post in to update me about whats going on at college. However, I have found that it makes me more dependent on them.

There are no real consequences to quitting. Always think "What did people do before FB?"

Tt's all in your head. It's the withdrawal symptoms. What you want to do right now, is replace the FB habit with something else. Post on this site if you need to. Consider it a less-addictive version of FB. Kind of like a vaccine.

Welcome to the forums!

And for the record, he logged on on to Facebook a few times within the last couple of weeks. I saw his name go blue a couple of times.

It was only once, for 15 minutes, had to contact someone for school. It was regarding a test and was an emergency.

El Qahira wrote:Welcome to NH!

I completely agree with everything you said! I'm so glad you were able to deactivate. It'll be hard, but trust me, it'll pay off. I've been clean for the past 3 weeks now. Here's actually my Quitting-FB thread: https://newhorizons.forumotion.com/t8969-craig-and-i-are-free-men

I personally have a group that my colleagues post in to update me about whats going on at college. However, I have found that it makes me more dependent on them.

There are no real consequences to quitting. Always think "What did people do before FB?"

Tt's all in your head. It's the withdrawal symptoms. What you want to do right now, is replace the FB habit with something else. Post on this site if you need to. Consider it a less-addictive version of FB. Kind of like a vaccine.

You're right. What did we do before facebook? We had more than enough technology to keep in touch with someone who was relevant to our life. I mean I'm not even talking about letters. We had email, we had cell phones, home phones, text messaging, skype, AOL, msn, I mean the list goes on and on. There are dozens of ways to contact someone. I mean think about it, if a regular cell phone or an email is not enough to keep in touch with someone, what makes people think that a facebook will draw that person any closer to them? It's just being lazy and using the thumps up as a way to validate that u care or the illusion that you care.

We were fine before facebook. Even if facebook does keep ''some'' people in touch more, the fact that you need an addiction to keep in touch is not good in itself. Because that means that without facebook, you wouldn't get the same attention and if that's the case, these people are not real to begin with. Often times people press like only to get ''liked'' back. I mean 20 years ago if people knew about how we communicated, and the internet terminology we use, they would look at us like we were crazy. And what's sad is that these same people 20 years ago, some of them are the same people who are now on the site 20 years later, who have forgotten what being real was, and they just ''rolled'' with the times.

I don't think facebook is a good thing. I think people only make a big deal about it because it's something that has only been around for the last several of years. Most of us grew up without facebook and we still lived. In fact we were much more alive and alert without it. We weren't digital zombies. I mean before facebook, we had more than enough technology to keep us entertained. Facebook is not even entertaining, it just feels like a manufactured need, a cult, a way to get brainwashed. It is technology overkill.

People from the past would have thought we were nuts to post pics of where we were or what foods we were eating. And I think it is too. What a big distraction it is to check in everywhere you are and check out and let your mood depend on how many people liked it. What a strange world we live in. I can understand that if you went on a really really exotic and cool trip, you might want to email some pictures to your family. That's understandable. But doing it on facebook makes you look like you're trying to show off. You have 350 friends and are just craving for more ''likes'' and comments. Worst of all, the comments you get are not even real language, it's all internet language.

People on facebook are not even entertaining to say the least. They come across as pretentious douches who all use the same internet words such as, LOL, OMG, or YOLO.

Maybe there will be 100 people on facebook and only 5 in the real world. I need to go where the real people are and engage, even if there are less of them out there. Maybe I'm going overboard, but I'm starting to feel like all these iphone zombies are not even human anymore. They are walking digital zombies that have fell out of the real world. The reason other people think they're normal is because they are like that themselves. So with all that said, I realized that I don't want to be like these people in 10 years. I don't want to live my life on facebook. People don't get it. They are actually living their whole life on facebook. It's kind of like the Truman Show. And it's sad. I don't want to be part of it, no matter how addicting it will become or advance in the next decade. I will not.

Good luck mate! I'm here to ecnourage you. BTW have you ever seen this video?



It's another great video.

So there are people that have classes that require a facebook?

Actually, believe it or not, but I had a friend who had to make a FB for a class in his university (New York University). He never used FB in the first place, so once he was done with the class he closed the account.

I had to contact my friend at the time because it was an emergency and I had no other way to contact him.

El Qahira wrote:Actually, believe it or not, but I had a friend who had to make a FB for a class in his university (New York University). He never used FB in the first place, so once he was done with the class he closed the account.

I had to contact my friend at the time because it was an emergency and I had no other way to contact him.

shame though how it was all through fb. I hope one day that the government doesn't force everyone on it. I mean some of us are asking for that.

I rarely make actual posts on FB, and most of those are just shared links to any news articles or websites I'm interested in. I mostly use that site to follow any pages of people/groups so I can get some news from them.

I should probably start to block news posts from people I barely know... It's annoying to see that same goddamn profile picture everyday just because they keep changing it.

Welcome to the forum!

Hope you have fun here!

day 2, feeling better. Woke up this morning and did feel some withdrawals but now am starting to realize how ridiculous and unnecessary the site is. I still had a friend email me, but he didn't even notice my facebook absence. So in a sense, in the big scheme of things, nothing is going to change. Even in the small scheme of things, nothing really has changed.

If you're addicted to facebook, delete your account and then you'll find out who your real friends are. The average man has 7 real friends and the average women 10. That was a study I heard. So in reality why have 500 fb friends when in the end only 7 or less count (for the average)?

I think in a world where we already have tools such as email, phones, and texting, facebook just makes communication, real communication much more complicated. We already have more than enough ways to communicate and I realized that today because nothing has changed except for the fact I'm not able read stupid news feed that has no relevance.

John Social wrote:day 2, feeling better

Good to hear

BTW If you want, I could give you your own blog on this forum.

day 3 and I feel better. I feel sorry for the people living in that augmented reality. I hope I'm not contradicting myself by writing on this forum, which is still writing online. But this is a less addictive version of facebook. I saw kids today just on their smartphones walking fast by me on the streets. What a weird world we live in. I miss the days when it was common to go out to arcades, have a need to rent Blockbuster movies in real stores, actually get a girls number rather than her facebook. oh well. I feel sorry for them because they'll never know what it's like. I'm glad I'm not on facebook and hoping to get thumps up and comments, that type of thing. I mean that kind of reality is corny, lame, and sad. I do however feel like I'm different from others and not the norm, worried people might judge me for not rolling with the times.

Hey, I live in the past most of the time myself, it's nice to break away from it all and watch from the outside from time to time.