"Don't think you're superior to me because you're not on Facebook"

[smirkymonkey]

Disclaimer: I am not on Facebook, this is the title of an opinion piece from the UK Guardian. Thought it would be an interesting "chat".

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/11/dont-think-youre-superior-to-me-because-youre-not-on-facebook

"...(snip) If I want “real life” I pull back from Twitter – increasingly a circle-jerk of men arguing about the Labour party or people engaged in bland self-promotion – and I go on Facebook. As Twitter’s growth stalls, Facebook’s continues. I can’t say I am surprised. There, I find it possible to disagree without anyone threatening to kill me or my children. I find this reassuring. As I don’t work in an office, I like the mundane chats, the silly jokes, the music. Sure, I will never get over the amount of cats and babies; though I have had both, I find them essentially boring. But I am not a fascist and accept this is something people do. Though I would no more photograph my cat than sext Philip Hammond.

Mostly I show off or moan. Both are pleasurable. But increasingly I find the moral superiority about quitting social media in favour of real life somewhat grating. What does this even mean? The idea of “really sharing” as opposed to larking about online? This is usually accompanied by a parental rant about kids living on their phones, their lives mediated and somehow unlived. It is as if my generation spent their childhoods climbing trees instead of being passively plonked on the sofa watching godawful telly presented by paedophiles.

(snip)

Yet we have this stupid anxiety because we cannot admit that social media is not the binary opposite of real life. It is real life. This is why studies such as the latest one from Denmark somehow just perpetuate this smugness. Half the participants were given access to Facebook, the other half went cold turkey for a week. Those who had a break felt “55% less stressed”. Comparing ourselves with our peers causes unhappiness, you see. May I just add here that the Danes, though materially well off, have high rates of depression. The study showed those who quit Facebook felt less lonely and more connected to real people.

These sorts of studies strike me as self-satisfied. Sure, take a break. A social media detox. Drink your Nutribullet green gunge instead of photographing it. Help the old lady next door. Have some spiritual connection instead of joking with friends who aren’t even “real” online. After all, you have free choice over these free apps. If you are “addicted” and can no longer function, work or have relationships, then there is a problem. But this addiction model is questionable. Are we addicted to televison, reading, music? Why is chatting so bad? Why is having so much access to so much information dangerous? I can sit with the same old friend and have the same old conversation, or I can play with new people who tell me new things. Both are real. Both can be brilliant....(more)"

I am not on Facebook, because frankly, I couldn't keep up with it, nor did I want to. I just found it tedious to try to maintain "relationships" or even "aquaintance-ships" (is that a word?) with people that I haven't seen in years and probably wouldn't ever see, or not in the near future anyway. It's kind of like texting for me. If all I am doing is having a "text relationship" with someone, I get bored with it. if there is no human interaction, I just lose interest in keeping it up. It feels like work to me.

What do you think?

[leftofcool]

1. If I want company I visit with my husband. If I want others, I get a good book

If I want family, I pick up the phone. I don't need social media.

[phleshdef]

2. Facebook is great. I've been able to consistently keep in touch with many old friends all over the..

...country, many of them I may never have been able to contact again otherwise.

[Ex Lurker]

3. All things in moderation NT

[Iggo]

4. YOU THINK YOU CAN TELL ME WHAT TO THINK? YOU THINK YOU'RE BETTER THAN ME?

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

5. My being superior has nothing to do with the fact that I've never used Facebook. :-P

[LanternWaste]

6. I enjoy Facebook. I also enjoy people who dislike it.

I enjoy Facebook. I also enjoy people who dislike it.

I don't however, enjoy when anyone maintains the pretense that because they use one or another operating system, social media site, grocery store or book-binding style, they are more (or less as the case may be) evolved/progressive/more intelligent/etc than those who take another approach.

It's as vainglorious as the beer-snob, the food snob or the type-face snob. We get it, snobs-- you're in love with yourself and more clever than us. Just get the damned t-shirt and shut the hell up (uff-da... censorship!).

[Brickbat]

7. Like many things, you get out of it what you put into it.

[B2G]

8. Or watch TV, or eat fast food, or or or

The list goes on and on.

Live and let live and quit judging others for their choices. Easy.

[Electric Monk]

9. To Facebook, you are not their customer, you are the product. They sell you to advertisers. nt