Facebook-less
Recently, on an impulse, I deactivated my Facebook account.
I have many reasons for quitting Facebook, like time management and because everything people write about there seems shallow and vain, and how even our offline activities seem to be motivated by the need to post something on their walls. The main reason was that I found it annoying to receive messages about extracurricular activities while I'm on a break . So I endorsed everything related to school to the people-in-charge ("Didn't I tell you that I quit already?!"), took note of deadlines involving enrollment (I wonder why they couldn't use email for these important stuff instead), and headed for the Account Settings page.
The whole process of deactivating it was very tedious. On the page, there were pictures of friends, each one saying that they will miss me, and that I may send a message to them before I temporarily leave. I read somewhere that this page actually discouraged a lot of people from deactivating their accounts. Delaying tactics; the longer I dawdle, the more likely I'll come back.
Then I'm required to pick a reason why I'm leaving Facebook. If I say that I get too many messages from people, there's a message at the bottom saying that I could change message settings, and a link to that page. Same thing happens if I say that I'm spending too much time there. There are lots of other options, and each one of them has a link to change some sort of setting. If you answer "Other", you're required to explain why you're leaving. Again, delaying tactics.
There was a dialogue where I had to enter my password. When I thought everything was done, there was a verification code that I had to type before deactivation. Delaying tactics once more.
Finally, I was logged out of my account. There was a message saying that if ever I wanted to reactivate my account, I just have to log in like I normally do and everything is back in place. If I had known this, I would have just abandoned my account instead of going through all those dialogues delaying me from quitting. Then again, people would just assume that I check my account if I just left it there and yell at me if I don't check them.
From this experience, I've realized that Facebook is good at manipulating people to stay. And I've become more aware of how much Facebook has changed the way we relate with people nowadays. I may be immature, ignoring the unwritten law saying that maintaining an account and my contacts is essential for anyone who is serious about finding their way in society. But right now, I don't care, at least not after all the trouble I went through deactivating that account.
(I just deactivated my account; I know I'll be coming back because Facebook is now the foremost way of getting news about school. I bet the process of deleting an account was made to be more difficult.)
I have many reasons for quitting Facebook, like time management and because everything people write about there seems shallow and vain, and how even our offline activities seem to be motivated by the need to post something on their walls. The main reason was that I found it annoying to receive messages about extracurricular activities while I'm on a break . So I endorsed everything related to school to the people-in-charge ("Didn't I tell you that I quit already?!"), took note of deadlines involving enrollment (I wonder why they couldn't use email for these important stuff instead), and headed for the Account Settings page.
The whole process of deactivating it was very tedious. On the page, there were pictures of friends, each one saying that they will miss me, and that I may send a message to them before I temporarily leave. I read somewhere that this page actually discouraged a lot of people from deactivating their accounts. Delaying tactics; the longer I dawdle, the more likely I'll come back.
Then I'm required to pick a reason why I'm leaving Facebook. If I say that I get too many messages from people, there's a message at the bottom saying that I could change message settings, and a link to that page. Same thing happens if I say that I'm spending too much time there. There are lots of other options, and each one of them has a link to change some sort of setting. If you answer "Other", you're required to explain why you're leaving. Again, delaying tactics.
There was a dialogue where I had to enter my password. When I thought everything was done, there was a verification code that I had to type before deactivation. Delaying tactics once more.
Finally, I was logged out of my account. There was a message saying that if ever I wanted to reactivate my account, I just have to log in like I normally do and everything is back in place. If I had known this, I would have just abandoned my account instead of going through all those dialogues delaying me from quitting. Then again, people would just assume that I check my account if I just left it there and yell at me if I don't check them.
From this experience, I've realized that Facebook is good at manipulating people to stay. And I've become more aware of how much Facebook has changed the way we relate with people nowadays. I may be immature, ignoring the unwritten law saying that maintaining an account and my contacts is essential for anyone who is serious about finding their way in society. But right now, I don't care, at least not after all the trouble I went through deactivating that account.
(I just deactivated my account; I know I'll be coming back because Facebook is now the foremost way of getting news about school. I bet the process of deleting an account was made to be more difficult.)