The title of this post is a direct follow-up to the previous one, ‘Facebook: Why I feel the need to delete half of my so-called friends’, and the third piece in a series of five short articles questioning the pros and cons of the Facebook social networking site. Many people would like me to believe quitting Facebook or deleting my friends is a disastrous decision inevitably leading me to a life of a hermit/isolation.
Facebook is dominating recent News (in the areas of technology and human interaction) and recently I read some people believe if you don’t join Facebook when your friends ask you to, you are then classified as ’needy’ by those within their Facebook clique. By not joining you are deemed as being a person who desires more interaction than normal people these days should require. You are in essence inferring your need to be the centre of attention. I don’t believe it; this has always been the mentality of the sheep-like people who chastise the one who is different (the ‘black sheep’), or who fear the wolf, the one who could eat them.
I’ve also read a psychologist’s theory that says every new friend you get on Facebook the more happy you’ll be, because you feel more connected to society and the community. Another article entitled, ‘Friends with benefits: Do Facebook friends provide the same support as those in real life?‘ also questions this idea. I’ve read from a ‘business expert’ in an era of networking one should never delete contacts from their Facebook, mobile phone or email. The result will be lost opportunities. I’m sorry, but I’m doing it anyway.
As inferred in my previous post, I’ve now stopped being friends with those people on Facebook who I don’t really like, who never speak to me, who I’ve tried to talk to, but who ignored me, who I don’t actually know well, or who are from a past I desire to leave in the past. Note: I will also delete more of my current ‘friends’ when in future they are no longer in my immediate vicinity or everyday interactions. I’ve now dropped from eighty down to around forty friends. Admittedly some friends are still only there because they are associated with someone I know; I’m being polite, they are nice, but I’ll probably rarely communicate with them. They too might completely disappear from my list one day, and then again, maybe I’ll drop the whole Facebook idea altogether.
