

Facebook keeps you alive  - refaelos
http://www.refaelos.com/post/14760568754/facebook-keeps-you-alive
New post i wrote about how people need to feel alive!
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richardburton
_"When you upload a photo to Facebook from your last trip to NYC, you get
excited ... you know that people will see your photo and acknowledge your
existence you feel alive."_

This is absolutely crazy! That feeling of excitement is often nervous
insecurity bubbling up. I used to be desperate for digital validation on
Facebook and it made me miserable. Since leaving Facebook and focussing on
email, Skype, Twitter and HN I feel a lot more relaxed. I enjoy those forms of
social networking. Every now and then I still catch myself thinking: 'I wonder
how this will look on Facebook'. But not often. Facebook invaded my mind and
made me feel naked in front of a thousand strangers. On Twitter I know I am
public. I shape my tweets accordingly. I do not seek validation. I seek
connection and a desire to share interesting things with those who take the
time to follow me. On Skype I connect deeply and privately with real people in
sync. On Facebook the privacy slider was always moving and I was communicating
with the people I love in an asynchronous, abstract way. On HN I enjoy the
concept of karma but I am far more interested in connecting with people I have
never met. I love reading the comments and reactions. I love creating content.

I could not agree more with this statement though:

 _"We see people come and go from our world. Some of them leave their mark and
some of them just enjoy the ride."_

I have started hanging out more on HN because it is filled with people who
want to leave their mark. They want to change things. Facebook encourages us
to consume, not create. That is fine if you want to enjoy the ride. I felt
passive and insecure on Facebook. I feel energised and excited connecting with
people on Twitter, chatting with people on Skype and writing this comment on
HN. This is my social network. This makes me feel alive.

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wyclif
Started out promising, with a good observation about human motivation. Ended
badly though, with one-sided and biased commentary about Google+ streams being
"dull as dishwater."

Well, now. That's entirely dependent upon the stream of the user in question,
isn't it? Someone like _moi_ who has been circled by over 5k other users on
Google+, but has 650+ friends on Facebook, clearly doesn't fit that
stereotype. In fact, Google+ is far more "active" for me, in terms of
interactions and posting, than my Facebook wall is.

Not only that, but Google+ has about 150 million _active_ users now. So
generalised "Google+ is dead" riffing doesn't impress me much:

[http://www.webpronews.com/google-hits-150-million-active-
use...](http://www.webpronews.com/google-hits-150-million-active-
users-2011-12)

I can't vote this story up since it's ridiculously distorted.

~~~
grovulent
Agreed...

It was a pretty thin article - but the G+ criticism was just completely
irrelevant to it and add nothing to the idea being explored...

Also - in general I find the g+ bashing is weird generally... My stream is
full - my conversations endless and awesome.

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ISloop
I may sound asocial saying this, but I couldn't care less if other people
acknowledge my cyber existence. What does it matter if someone commented on my
new photos or wrote on my Wall? It doesn't add any value to my life, and
fortunately I don't need people's validation to feel good about myself. I'll
log in once every few days to see if I need to reply to someone, but other
than that it's just another website. It kinda scares me how Facebook is now
such a central aspect of people's lives. I know a lot of people who obsess
over not having enough "likes" on their profile or whatever and they start
questioning their personalities, friendships, etc. It just seems silly to me.

------
elii
Very well written! (Unfortunately I don't know if you look amazing)

