Not Facebookless, but less Facebook
I deleted the FB app from my phone at the end of May. I've still got the app on my iPad and I still go to the site on the computer, but I need a break from that place. I've discovered that a lot of the posts I make are 1) just looking to create interaction with others [which is fine and practically the main reason the site was created], 2) relatively short snippets that are probably better suited to twitter, or 3) pictures.
My discomfort with Facebook these days has less to with what I'm posting, however, and a lot more to do with all the sides and facets I see of others. On the one hand, I LOVE some of the relationships Facebook helps me to create and build. The interactions I'm having with my brother and sister-in-law, for instance. I don't get to see them often, and we don't know each other well enough to spend time talking on the phone, so FB affords us a way to become friends again. It helps keep me connected to them.
But there are also some down sides to FB. I've had interactions with people I thought I knew fairly well that turned into your basic "anonymous internet troll" interaction. Every time this happens, I'm blindsided. We KNOW each other! Why would you attack someone, especially someone you know in person and with whom you don't have an antagonistic relationship, with so much anger on a relatively public site? This definitely makes additional face-to-face interactions uncomfortable.
Facebook also brings home that as time passes, people change. Sometimes a little. Sometimes a lot. Sometimes so much that it's hard to recognize some friends or family members anymore. Sometimes people change enough that they're no longer compatible with you. Maybe you change, too. You probably do, but it's a lot harder to tell with yourself, of course.
At first, I was still looking at Facebook on my phone's browser. But for the past week or so, I've found that I have no interest in looking at Facebook. Even on the iPad or the computer. I still want to keep up with friends, but I don't know that I want to do it there. This, of course, puts me at a disadvantage, since everyone pretty much uses FB for communicating with each other.
I'm working on the balance. Do any of you avoid FB? Or use it too much? How have you found a middle ground?