Why YOU Should Take A Break From Facebook
March 24, 2015
By: Michael DeFiore
While I was growing up my mother would occasionally say to me, “Son, there are three things you don’t discuss in polite conversation: religion, politics, and sex.”
I joined Facebook not long after I graduated from high school. Let’s call it 2008. Like most teenagers at the time, the majority of my social networking had previously been done on MySpace. By the time Facebook was waxing in popularity, MySpace had become passé. At first, it seemed like a good way to keep in touch with friends and former classmates with whom I might otherwise lose contact. While MySpace offered a more tailored experience complete with embedded music players and changeable profile layouts, Facebook boasted streamlined simplicity. Status updates let me know who was doing what and with whom. It blurred the geographic distance between us and made telephone calls obsolete. Who would bother calling someone and asking what they were doing over the weekend when a quick message could simultaneously reach dozens of people? Writing letters? Dead and gone. If you couldn’t find someone on Facebook, they didn’t want to be found. And odds were, you weren’t very good friends anyway.
Earlier this year I decided to abandon Facebook. While I lacked the conviction to delete my account altogether and commend to the annals of history hundreds of photos, thousands of posts and a timeline of my social media adventures, I found the idea of “deactivating” my account more palatable. You might ask why, in the age of social media, a twenty-six year old undergraduate might forsake something like Facebook. My decision was influenced by two facts. First, I was spending an unnecessary amount of time reading articles and videos that my friends were sharing. Second, Facebook isn’t about keeping in touch with old friends anymore.
Even so recently as five years ago Facebook “feed” was populated with posts written by my friends for their friends. It was how we all let each other know that we got a promotion or were going on a date. We shared the ins and outs of our daily lives; every update, no matter how insignificant, was a glimpse into the lives of someone who was a friend. Flash forward to today and my Facebook feed is littered with re-broadcasted articles about trending political matters or links to personality tests. “Video Shows Obama Hates America” was popular amongst some of my friends for a while. “Dad Sings the Cutest ‘Frozen’ Cover Ever” was another Youtube hit. Not only do these things annoy me, but on occasion one or two upset me. Everyone is entitled to their opinions, but after a while I started to get tired of the endless socio-political slant. Discussions led to debates which often ended in arguments. Feelings got hurt in the name of spreading awareness. And the truth is that none of it seemed to matter. My opinions were rarely swayed in the course of these dialogues, theirs typically less so, and all involved parties were left feeling bitter and resentful toward the other, even if only slightly.
Friendship is more important than political standing or views on cultural norms. More and more, however, it seems that young people are identifying themselves by who they voted for in the last election; preferring only to associate with people who share the same views on religion, music, gender, etc. Peaceful disagreements are less and less common, name-calling and public shaming more and more so. We are slowly losing real friends over petty differences. And what’s the point of social media if you don’t have any?
Contributor's Note: Michael is the Co Editor-In-Chief of Red Skies and this semester is his last at SSU.