10/14/10

I quit facebook!

I'm back! Sorry for the delay. With the move back to Pennsylvania (yes back, I lived in Pittsburgh from May 2006 to April 2007), all my free time got zapped away. So no writing about classic gaming, although I should have more time to do it now that my room has no cable or Wii (my future bride has that). It's just the internet, satellite radio (The Catholic Channel, Sirius 159 and XM 117, is much better than most TV shows anyways), a Gamecube, N64 and Sega Genesis/CD (the bride got my NES as well).

Roughing it indeed.

Actually, this post is a break from gaming to tell you about something crazy I did. I quit Facebook this week! I had quit it once before when I lived in Pittsburgh, but back then it was much easier to do so, as I had less friends and family on it (my pre-Catholic Channel days) then as I do now. Four years ago, it was just me, some college friends, and random people with my last name Faber.

Last week, it was 390 people. Those same friends I had in 2006, plus so many people I met through The Catholic Channel. I was the admin of a group in honor of Lino Rulli that tied back to my catholicguyshow.com Web site, and it was REALLY cool to see my relationship status say "Engaged to Allicia Jensen."

This time, it was a lot harder to do.

I wanted to quit for a variety of reasons. One, I spend too much time on it. It seemed like I'd check it every minute of every hour. And for no reason at all: I wasn't expecting a message from anyone, I knew I wouldn't find anything new in the seven minutes that passed. It just had a sick hold on my life, making me feel like Stone Cold Steve Austin at Wrestlemania 13 when Hart locked him into the sharpshooter.




It's that sick dependance that made me ask myself how I could let any one corporation have that much of a hold on my life. Is that really healthy, to be so dependent on a Web site that you actually feel guilt and sickness for wanting to quit? There's no way that's good for you.

There were other issues as well, such as having my information shared with advertisers, Facebook owning the rights to every photo I post, feeling like a bad person when I unfriended someone. One person actually wrote me demanding why I defriended them, as if they had no idea. News flash bud: When you never reach out to offer any kind of condolences after I get fired from a job, or any congratulations on getting engaged, you slip into the expendable zone. Try that out in real life and see how many people still wanna be your friend

Personal rant aside, it was mostly the control thing that pushed me over the edge.

I debated it. I tossed and turned over the decision, even setting dates that ultimately fizzled out. Bob K. commented that my decision was up there with Lino Rulli's contract negotiations as far as drama was concerned.

So on Monday, I finally made the decision to quit. I spent an hour going through all the friends I cared about and talked to, gathering all their contact information they had listed. And then, I chose to delete my account.

I was so happy. Literally giggling with joy. I'm still not used to it though: I'll mindlessly start typing 'www.face' into my address bar before I realize that hey, we don't do that anymore.

Could this hurt me down the road? I like to think that it won't: My baby said she was concerned professionally about how this might affect me, but I like to think that in five years, when Facebook starts losing popularity with the teens and mid-20s crowd (who will not want to be a part of a network that their grandparents, parents, and parent's friends use), being able to say that I quit before quitting became trendy should be an asset to me.

And if those friends I had on Facebook, all 390 of them, want to keep in contact with me, they'll find a way if I mean that much to them. After all, I have their email addresses: hopefully they took the time at some point to write down mine.

So yes, if you try to find me on Facebook, good luck.

I'll start sticking with face-to-face friend requests instead.

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    About This Blog

    A blog for the masses, if by masses you mean myself and family members who probably read this out of pity.

    I'm dustin Faber, the 16-bit Catholic. This blog is an amusing, sometimes thought-provoking look at my life and the world around me. Poetry, cooking recipes, gaming, faith, things that make me go awww, things that make me go grrr, and my obsession with a good glass of root beer can be found here.

    If you're looking for gaming-centered posts, check out catholicvideogamers.blogspot.com. If you seek the blog I keep with my fiance, check out thecatholiclovebirds.blogspot.com

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