
Goodbye Facebook - nicholalexander
http://theaboutness.com/good-bye-facebook
======
kunjaan
Does anyone else avoid Facebook because they themselves suck as person? I
don't use FB because the activities on it are things I am better off not
doing.

I felt strange doing anything on it because I felt people were judging me. It
was like I had developed this persona of an educated and successful and fun
person when I was on it because I hadn't made any new "friends" since
beginning grad school and I was so stressed out, miserable and broke that I
was never brave enough to admit it on my own.

After surfing through the countless photos of my friend's girlfriend or my ex
gf, I honestly used to feel guilty with the voyeurism. I use to feel hurt
seeing my ex gf happy, lonely seeing old friends enjoying themselves, smirk
seeing my friend do something stupid. I hated when people tagged me for the
same reasons.

I wasted tons of time friending people I would not even wish birthday. I spent
countless awkward chat conversations that never went beyond "I had a great
day". I spent useless time tweaking my photos and wall so that my family
wouldn't see the language that I or my friends were using. I tried to post
Go's result on my wall. It became less of enjoying the game than to acquire
certain points so that I could post them on my wall.

I logged into Facebook when I didnt have anything to do, which happened a lot.
I used to open Facebook like I opened my email and reddit. After a while I
just felt too shitty.

I deleted the account. I share photos through Flickr. Not all my friends are
there but those who are have taught me a lot about taking photographs. I
joined Blip.fm. Not all my friends are there but those who are truly share the
passion I have for music. I deleted all my contacts in the messenger and added
only those that I truly feel comfortable talking to.

My girlfriend calls me anti social. But she too has come to accept that
Facebook is prone to our weakest traits as humans. We love attentions. We love
to think of ourselves as something we want to be. We trade our true feelings
to be included. We want to be popular. We want our taste in music and art to
be value. We crave for external success. It was like high school all over
again.

~~~
sudont
Ok, so I did the same thing as you (delete facebook), but you're wrong in
thinking that you're not anti-social by avoiding Facebook.

Antisocial behavior is defined as " _behaviour that lacks consideration for
others and that may cause damage to society_ "

Because literally _everyone_ else in your social circle is on Facebook, you're
actually forcing them to go out of their way to interact with you, something
that fits the definition to a T. Facebook is the preferred method of
communication for most people, and if you're ignoring this and forcing people
to conform, they'll resent it. Every interaction with you, therefore, has to
be on _your_ terms, instead of the agreed-upon social norms (therefore, not
considering others).

~~~
Sandman
Ok, I don't have a Facebook account nor have I ever had one. I never felt that
I need it. My friends (those that I truly consider to be my friends) have my
phone number and they can call me any time, either to ask me to meet them in
person, discuss something they want to discuss with me, or just chat. So,
what, I'm forcing my poor friends to, heaven forbid, go through _all_ that
trouble of dialing my number just to get in touch with me when I should, like
any other sensible person, save them the horror of pressing a couple of keys
and create a Facebook account? Even though I neither want nor need one?

I don't need Facebook. I frequently meet with my friends. We go to football
matches, concerts, or just to a bar to have a glass of beer or two. Even if we
don't meet in person we can chat over phone or through msn, skype etc.

So, sorry, no, I don't buy into this 'you're anti-social because you're not on
Facebook' BS.

~~~
adrianwaj
Facebook befriending = please don't forget about me.

Real friending: Facebook befriending agnostic.

Conclusion: without FB you know who your friends are. With FB, you know who
your friends are, or are not: because you are reminded every time you look.
And who needs that?

Why people resent Facebook: it has mangled the definition of friend and warped
the ground of relating.

My way of relating to Facebook: give it as little energy as possible (have a
minimal presence.) I'm not on it to make new friends, or improve
relationships: mainly to keep the status quo. It's for sharing photos, sending
messages and basic interaction. It's not for deep communion.

------
rewind
I find it humorous that there is such a need to DEFINE Facebook. It's
different things to different people. We really don't need one definition of
what it is or a nice tidy list of the ways people use it, what the benefits
are, what the drawbacks are, etc. Every time I read about somebody complaining
about Facebook, I usually just end up thinking "I don't use it (exactly) that
way, so this doesn't (completely) apply to me."

I have a lot of friends that I don't see more than once every year or two, but
I will be close to them until the day I die. I like seeing their status
updates, their vacation photos, their kids, etc. Facebook makes our connection
stronger, not weaker. It doesn't replace the need to see them and talk to
them; it makes those infrequent visits/conversations better when they happen
because it feels like we haven't really been out of touch for so long.

~~~
jbondeson
Oddly enough I have the exact opposite take on it. My wife and I both don't
have Facebook accounts, and while most of my friends also do not have
accounts, many of my wife's friends do. These friends live in the same state
as us, and while we don't live in the same city we still manage to get
together frequently. In the last few years we have noticed quite the trend:
everyone of these people on Facebook would do a double-take whenever we didn't
hear about some large event in their life. They assume that because it was on
their Wall, that everyone knew about it. They didn't think to _call_ all their
friends to talk about the great news, they simply threw it up on their Wall
without thought.

No longer do you have to think about your friends as individuals and how
you're going to break news to them, or how they are going to react -- now you
can simply throw up a general message and lose the individuality in a flood of
responses.

The depersonalization of communication has been exacerbated by a number of
different technologies (such as email), however Facebook has allowed us to
perfect the art communication without soul.

~~~
philwelch
Personally, it gets tiresome to have the exact same conversation,
individually, with a dozen different friends. There's no "soul", for me, in
repeating virtually the same scripted interaction over and over again when I
can just inform everyone all at once and get it over with.

If I'm talking to you, I want to have a conversation that actually pertains to
our unique set of mutual interests. I honestly think of things during the day
that I know one particular friend of mine would be interested in discussing,
and I remember to discuss it with them later. And it's easier, not harder, to
have those kinds of personal talks when I don't have to waste time on scripted
boilerplate about what just happened in my life.

~~~
jbondeson
If you're repeating the exact same thing to a dozen different friends I'm
going to assume that you (or they) are not engaged by the news -- which is
what I call "life trivia."

Most of what I see on twitter is this trivia, "I refinished my floors," "I
bought an iPad." Would you normally go out of your way to talk about this to
anyone who didn't ask "What did you do this weekend?" Probably not, so why do
you feel the need to broadcast it to the world via Twitter/Facebook/<Insert
Lifeless Tech Here>?

Now take something you have a passion for. I personally am an avid homebrewer
and love to talk about beer. I'll talk to a half dozen different friends about
the latest batch of beer I made and have completely different conversations
and get insights into what they like. I have friends that are huge into
climbing, now I have no big interest in it myself, but their passion draws me
into the conversations and over the past decade I've learned more about
climbing than I ever would have if it were just some posts.

It takes an amazing writer to really evoke the emotions that most of our daily
conversations have, and let's face it, the world isn't exactly filled with
amazing writers.

~~~
philwelch
From personal experience, "I just graduated, got a new job, and moved to
Seattle" and "my mom died" both count as "life trivia". Haven't really heard
anyone come up with a new take on either of those subjects yet.

~~~
kissickas
I still think new information can be created through conversations regarding
those subjects better than it can be through facebook. Speaking with someone
about your mom dying is bound to be more consoling than having someone comment
"My condolences! What a great person" and- hopefully not- "4 people liked
this."

Likewise, people will ask interesting questions if you tell them you're moving
to a new place, maybe helpful things you wouldn't think of yourself, or just
an outside perspective which would be impossible in a change as large as a
career change + move. What would your facebook friends contribute? "~Seahawks,
represent!~"?

~~~
philwelch
_Speaking with someone about your mom dying is bound to be more consoling than
having someone comment "My condolences! What a great person" and- hopefully
not- "4 people liked this."_

Not really. It's just tiresome and awkward. Unrelatedly, I've also had fairly
intelligent (even HN-caliber) discussions on Facebook. It all depends on who
your friends are.

Plus, posting something on Facebook doesn't preclude anyone from talking with
me about it in person on the rare chafe they have something to say.

------
motters
There is perhaps some chance that I could be wrong due to the substantial
inertia which Facebook has now accumulated, but I expect that it's just
another fad which seems to be peaking if my spider-senses are correct.
Facebook is not a particularly brilliant application and the amount of value
it delivers is also not that great. If you're a Facebook user or addict, just
pause for a moment and ask yourself how much actual value you're getting out
of it relative to the time invested.

~~~
Wilduck
I don't know how recently you've been a college student, but Facebook still
offers a large ammount of value to that demographic. I would hate to make 100+
phone calls to invite people to a party, or to spend the money/time making and
posting flyers.

Sure I'd jump ship if another platform provided more value, but that's
(somewhat) different then a fad.

~~~
_fool
i haven't been in college for 10 years now and i still use facebook (and
twitter, and livejournal) to broadcast party invites. there are about 5 people
whom i like, and see in person regularly who do not get their news that way,
and they get an email about those events.

funny enough, i never set facebook status updates or read anyone else's. i
guess creating an event posts it in your stream, but the direct-invite and
invited-by-friends feature is the extent of my use of facebook (people do
message me on there and i reply via email).

my parties generally have a good mix of highschoolers to 60 somethings. i'll
grant you that 2/3 of the sixty somethings are my neighbors and they get the
email invite, but a lot of the 50-plus social crowd in portland, OR is on
facebook.

the other benefit to using a tool like facebook to do (open) party invites is
that people can invite their friends. most of my parties are open; i trust my
friends' judgment not to bring/invite assholes. and it works out remarkably
well. i've hosted thousands of people at around a hundred parties (some are
smaller dinner parties, but still open invite) since i started this strategy,
at least half of whom i did not know at all, and only 2 things have ever been
broken/stolen. total value lost: $80. total connectedness gained & fun had?
incalculable (but huge).

WORKSFORME, without being my only or even main method of socialization (which
is decidedly in real life).

------
seanalltogether
I don't believe that facebook is the technological fad that tech pundits want
them to be. They have infected the infrastructure of the web in ways that
livejournal and myspace never could.

~~~
rapind
I agree, but I would add that they're overhyped as well. I think Facebook's
value is somewhere in the middle between current expectations / valuations and
a fad. So yes it's big, it will continue to be big, but it's not and never
will be Google big.

I could be completely wrong though considering the engineers who've left
google for facebook, but then again, maybe that was just for a massive payout?

------
yuvadam
This is a _very_ important article. An eye opener.

My takeaway is this - Facebook is the first web application that showed us how
easy it is to connect to the people we love, as well as those we know, but do
not care about.

Facebook is the mere beginning of the way we will communicate in the future.
It has its gripes, and people are starting to get bored with it ("ok so I
friended her, now what?").

 _Nothing happens on Facebook._

Facebook, in my opinion, will eventually fade, and make room for new models of
human communication, ones which do give us an added benefit instead of
_poking_ and secretly stalking our ex-girlfriend.

~~~
Tichy
"how easy it is to connect to the people we love"

I think connecting to someone used to mean something different, although I am
not sure what it was.

~~~
yeahsure
Leaving a "happy birthday" used to mean you actually remember the date, not
that you had a message _requesting_ you to wish someone a happy birthday. The
people I really care about get a phone call, not a dummy "wall post".

Maybe I'm a bit of an antisocial, but I really liked the days before social
networks. My friends where on my IM contact list, colleagues on forums or
mailing lists.

~~~
pyre

      > Leaving a "happy birthday" used to mean you
      > actually remember the date
    

Really? I'm sure there are plenty of people that put those things into
calendars. How is the Facebook reminder+wallpost that much different than
using Google Calendar + Gmail to get reminded to send a happy birthday email?

~~~
yeahsure
Maybe I didn't express myself correctly (My English is not that good) I meant
picking up a phone and calling, establishing a connection, a bond - ie:
Something not automated.

------
dusklight
This article is illogical.

Saying that facebook connects people only in ways limited by the imagination
if its creators is true. But still, it CONNECTS PEOPLE. By deleting facebook
without finding a replacement that is better than facebook, you are losing
this new way of connecting people. Stuff like skype works for connecting with
a relatively small social circle. Facebook allows a looser but also much
larger circle. Presumably a better means of communication will come along
sooner or later. The telephone replaced the telegraph, myspace replaced
friendster, but until it comes along facebook(twitter?) is still the best
means for this new large scale high volume asynchronous communication that we
have.

------
igravious
Zadie Smith is one of my favorite authors. She has a jaw-droppingly gorgeous
prose style. It would be nice (for someone) to link to her article (so I will)
that prompted this dude to delete his account.
[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/nov/25/generat...](http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/nov/25/generation-
why/)

Her insights and arguments really needs to be read by everyone of our
generation in full, and I mean that in all sincerity. It articulates all the
misgivings and worries I have about this phenomenon that has always left a
slightly bad taste in my mouth and felt vaguely repellent.

In addendum: I pray for the day I can convert my thoughts into words as
judiciously and compellingly, verily I would sell my soul for that knack.

------
smoyer
Wow ... that makes me want to sign up with Facebook just so I can join the
"delete my account" club.

~~~
muppetman
Thank you!

Why is it suddenly such a big thing to delete your Facebook account. Every
week it seems like there's another one of these on the frontpage and that
means people are voting them there. I'd really like to understand why that is?
Everyone commenting here and on the blog post make out like it's such a huge
deal.

Really? Is it? Imagine if I wrote up a big "I closed my MySpace account" post.
I'd be laughed out of town. Why's closing a Facebook account such a big deal?
Just because it has more users?

Good on the person for doing so, but do we all need to hold hands with them
and pray? Because that what it seems like we're doing here.

Google's got just as much, probably more, info on you. Everyone uses Gmail
(why, I don't know) but you don't see people writing up big "I closed my Gmail
account here's why" posts. Why not? Why is everyone so comfortable with Google
knowing everything about their lives in email format?

So I'm really curious: Why do these posts get voted up? Do people really think
closing your Facebook account is THAT big of a deal?

~~~
smoyer
I always warn my kids that sarcasm (our family's primary humor) doesn't
translate to the Internet, but you obviously heard it in my voice.

I'm not a Facebook hater or a Facebook fan ... plenty of my friends are there,
but there are hundreds of other ways to keep in touch with them (Jabber is
everywhere). In any case, Facebook and to a large degree GMail are just not
relevant for me. If they weren't there, or I felt compelled to abandon them
for some reason, I wouldn't have a problem finding another way to contact
them.

So let's recognize that Facebook, Google and even Microsoft are young in
comparisons to the average human's life-span. And when the next big thing
comes along, we'll embrace it until temporarily too.

One big caveat ... these companies build up customer good-will over longer or
shorter periods of time and can persist until that reservoir is run dry. With
a little care, that good-will can last a long time, so I'm not saying that
Microsoft is in any danger as a company. But I do think they're past their
heyday and will have to reduce their margins to keep business.

Anyway, we're so conditioned to sign-up for a service at the drop of a hat
that these services become "cheap" to us. They didn't cost us anything and
they don't cost much to throw away. Look at the number of people who signed up
for Hipster without knowing what it is. I think everything you've written is
true EXCEPT, I suspect it's more common for users to simply abandon an account
without closing it. I'd love to know what Facebook's churn is.

------
chriseidhof
I quit Facebook about half a year ago and I find it very refreshing. It's too
bad I miss some events, but it is so relaxing. No longer do I have to think
with every picture: this would be good for Facebook. No longer do I spend
hours looking at pictures of people I don't know. No longer is my private
information shared. Finally: when I meet people, I can tell a story without
having to hear: "yeah, I read it on Facebook".

------
flurie
Few people seem to entertain options between Facebook addiction and account
deletion. I have a simple practical use for it: easy access to acquaintances.
Here's a recent story I can share.

I was on vacation in DC with friends, and I walked right past a girl I was
certain was a friend of mine from college. I found her number on Facebook,
sent her a text, and found out that it was her. We met up for drinks the next
evening. Do we chat regularly as a result of having met up? No, but we enjoyed
reminiscing and sharing our stories.

------
idm
Not a single comment on that great blog post. Where is the discussion? In a
vibrant community like Hacker News.

Facebook has something valuable... we've already logged in, so there's no
barrier to making a comment that is voiced from our own identity. Fewer
clicks, no barriers, and boom - the comment is public.

But Hacker News does that for me, since I have a long-lasting cookie that I
don't clear... hence this comment... and nothing "social" happening on that
blog. Interesting.

~~~
nicholalexander
My fault, I just approved all the comments I received, even the ones that
disagree with me. I'm so happy to have had such a response to this!

~~~
idm
Doh! :)

Nice article!

------
dstein
What is starting to really irk me about Facebook is how birthdays are handled.
It's like the site is basically one big happy birthday wish site. Each day
it's somebody else's birthday and all their friends take turns trying to write
a somewhat unique birthday wish, like:

Friend #1: Happy Birthday!

Friend #2: HAPPY BIRTHDAY DUDE!!

Friend #3: happy b-day!

Friend #4: Have a wonderful birthday!

And it goes on and on down the list. Some unfortunate people feel the need to
individually reply to each and every birthday wish. Each day it's like this
for a different person, until once a year when it's your birthday and then
everyone's doing it to you.

It's really, really stupid. And I wish there was just a way for me to
automatically generate and deliver my friends a birthday wish on the right
date. But the Facebook API prevents you from being able to post to your
friends wall.

Tear down those garden walls Mr. Zuckerberg!!

~~~
maxawaytoolong
To each his own. Personally, the birthday reminders are the only reason I use
Facebook. Also, each year, every attractive woman I've met in the past 4 years
wishes me happy birthday, which is a nice ego boost.

------
sudonim
Facebook is an amazing product. However, the more facebook unravels their
plans for the future, and the more we learn about their past, the less I trust
them.

We can write to hacker news with our articles, bitching and moaning about
facebook, or quietly build an alternative social network with the values we
want.

~~~
bad_user

         Jacob: I'm kinda right in the middle of a thing 
                    right now, but can I text you later? 
         Girl at Club: Can you what? 
         Jacob: Are you online at all? 
         Girl at Club: I have no idea what you're talking about. 
         Jacob: How do I get a hold of you? 
         Girl at Club: You come find me. 
         Jacob: That sounds... exhausting.

------
wildmXranat
I tweeted the fact that my blog about quitting Facebook has been published. So
meta that it hurts.

This article amounts to a wisp of air amongst a wind of change. It's a tad
late, but better late than never. Some users of Facebook will never quit. It's
a realization that permeated Facebook's offices for a long time and these are
the users that just don't care period. With blinders on, they will obey the
rules, and let their online privacy erode.

What's more important, and the conversation that we should be having: where to
go next? What's our collective need that an online network can fulfill ? Maybe
it's not online and in fact, going backwards is the new cool. Who knows?

------
ojbyrne
My girlfriend also deleted her account immediately after watching the movie.
If there's 2 people, there must be more.

~~~
jbhelms
alas, for every person that delete their profiles there is another 2-3 that
sign up. I am not saying that is sustainable, but they are growing. This is
especially true in Asia where in the last 2 years has quadrupled.

~~~
beoba
It's easy to grow in percentage terms when you're starting from nothing.

~~~
dualogy
Um, still only for _some_ values of "easy".

------
tarkin2
I don't know. The author seems to think we'll become Zuckerberg's zombie army
due to extended Facebook use. So was the same true of the time UseNet? MSN
Messenger? And all those others when they were highly popular? Weren't we
trapped in their creators' worlds? With before, when new tech comes along,
with an interface, or "world" we prefer to use, then we'll move on. We'll
interface with people on the web in a different way. Habits come and go.

~~~
limmeau
Usenet is at least a decentralized thing owned by nobody and governed by a
mixture of elected representatives and popular vote. Or was, back in the day.
Therefore, usenet users weren't anybody's zombie army.

------
scotch_drinker
I wonder if there isn't a correlation amongst Facebook users that falls along
introvert-extrovert lines. Specifically, I wonder if introverts aren't more
likely to be disappointed with their experiences with Facebook because they
crave deep, interpersonal relationships with fewer people while extroverts are
satisfied with Facebook because it allows them to keep up to date with
hundreds of people.

I find that I regularly check Facebook and am regularly disappointed with what
I encounter there both as it relates to the activities of my friends and their
responses to my activities. I tend to want deeper feedback and discussion
which clearly isn't the model for Facebook. Whereas I know plenty of extrovert
friends who love Facebook, are constantly checking in and because they have
hundreds of friends, are constantly validated.

Certainly this is all anecdotal and biased given that I'm strongly introverted
but every time I see someone say they are giving up Facebook or are
disappointed in it (including myself), it seems to me that person is most
likely introverted and thus not well served by the end goals of Facebook.

------
wippler
Why do these facebook account deletion articles always have to be either
"addiction" or "deletion". Regarding the article, its kinda stupid to
generalize that we are all living in the world with rules set by Mark, if I
take that generalization much further we are living in the real world with
rules set by people higher up in the chain. But thats not true as you can see
that lot of people around you behave/act differently to these things.

Biggest takeaway for me from the article is that enormous amount of time,
thought spent on yet another communication medium in evolving world. I have to
wonder how scared people were when they first saw email!!

------
alsocasey
The far more substantial commentary by Zaddie Smith
([http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/nov/25/generat...](http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/nov/25/generation-
why/?pagination=false&printpage=true)), which the author refers to a few times
should really have been the article linked. The author's entire point is much
more eloquently made by the original.

------
gabea
I too struggle with the idea of what Facebook has become and currently is,
just like many others. However, I cannot help but feel that anyone who speaks
against Facebook is simply jealous that they could not fit 500 million+ users
into their own representation of social interactions taken online. Facebook
just like many of it's predecessors (hotOrNot.com,addictinggames.com, forumns,
aol instant messenger) has combined the best features of these already
existent sites into a single trustworthy one. You no longer have to scour the
internet to obtain the pleasure that these type of sites produced.

It is this concept of entertainment that makes Facebook what it is today. A
single source of entertainment, and a place to peak deeper into the lives of
those around you with or without participating in those lives. As with many
different forms of entertainment if you indulge too deeply you are consumed by
your indulgence.

For the time being Facebook has a place on the internet. Will it be a main
stay for years to come? Well that is very hard to predict. I truly believe
Facebook's biggest internet value add will come in the form of an online
digital pass. I feel those leading Facebook's directions also believe that
too. If they can satisfy the majority of its users basic desire for
entertainment, continue to build out the graph API, and keep giving more
reasons for businesses to utilize the graph API then soon enough Facebook will
will realize what Microsoft never was able to with the Microsoft Passport from
the Internets early days.

------
nhangen
Strange, I was a FB hater until I watched the movie, at which point I wanted
to find more reasons to like it (though the releasing of phone #'s and address
data didn't help).

My wife, on the other hand, liked Zuck less by the end of the movie, even
though she knew it was mostly sensationalized. It still hasn't changed her FB
behavior.

------
al3x
I found it funny that the author quoted the bit in the Zadie Smith piece about
the absurdity of the Facebook format right before you reach the end of his
post, complete with tags and permalinks.

I'm not a Facebook fan, but I don't know that is does worse than most
technology at being humane.

------
pkuhad
The circulation of current generation after two or three years, who is more
into facebook right now, will come to know it is sucking them, there is
nothing which adds something into them apart from being cluttered forcefully
in so called 'social' stuffs.

------
narrator
I only post stuff to Facebook that I would tell any random stranger, like I
had a good trip somewhere or I read a good book or I saw a movie. Even if I
was convinced of the privacy of that site, I still want there to be a bit of
mystery.

------
AppDev054
Interesting that the comments so far (69) are mostly a comparison of value vs
risk.

If you get enough value out of Facebook, it is worth the risk, otherwise it is
quickly discarded.

------
stcredzero
The degree to which China is _not_ connected in the visualization at the
bottom, I find worrisome. Why? Because connection and commerce are the true
foundations of peace. By that thinking, visualization is not a good omen.
(Maybe we should just chalk it up to language?)

~~~
anonymoushn
Facebook lost in China and Russia because other similar products were already
established (and in Russia the product is pretty much better >_>). The regions
aren't actually less connected socially, or if they are you can't tell by
looking at Facebook's data.

~~~
kia
If you are talking about VKontakte in Russia, you are wrong. VKontakte
(launched 2006) is a clone of Facebook (even the design is copied from FB).
It's criticized in Russia for the same reasons as FB here.

FB lost because VK was specifically targeted at Russian audience from the
beginning.

~~~
naa42
Well, I can say that they've copied older version of facebook and it seems
more convenient for some people. Also do not forget audio and video sharing
applications. It is like Napster since it allows users to exchange their
collections.

------
phwd
It is great that he has come to his conclusion on whether he should delete or
not. Though... I see the movie for what it is ... just a movie intended to
inspire or incite dislike , how much of it is in line with facts who knows (
e.g. where was Adam D’Angelo ?) . To use it as any part of the deletion
decision making process does not seem right and seems that maybe the
approach/reason for joining the social network was not the correct one. For me
this means losing years worth of photos, messages, events that I went to ... I
lived my life through facebook and I didn't have to write a single word in a
journal. With the new messaging platform
<http://www.facebook.com/about/messages/> and personal email address contact
with friends and acquaintances are now possible without wall posts.

In 2005-2006 (I just started at McGill) when it was still within campuses it
was like wild fire and when I watched the movie , I completely related and
recalled sitting down with room-mates and class-mates browsing dozens of girls
in the school. There were no games just mainly wall posts and photos. You
cannot relate that to now ... it is just not equivalent. Privacy was the same
back then as it is now... people are just more aware of it or they grew older
and understood the effects it wil have with their jobs, lives etc.

> What we actually want to do is the bare minimum, just like any nineteen-
> year-old college boy who’d rather be doing something else, or nothing.

Yes Zadie Smith is right ... this was never meant for the old folks (no
offense), when it started those are the only people there were 18-22 year old
college students looking for the bare minimum.

Times are changing though and these kids start to grow up, thus changes to try
to satisfy all. But to me it seems harder and harder to define.

Russia has Vkontakte Japan has Mixi

So hopefully the author finds what he is looking for. I would start by just
picking up the phone and calling someone. That is my Dad's way of keeping up
with his social network. After he finishes work everyday, he has a 5-10 convo
with his old friends and co-workers. Sometimes he even visits... (It is a no-
brainer but somehow these days people find this hard to do)

> 500 million sentient people entrapped in the recent careless thoughts of a
> Harvard sophomore

Is a 26 year old billionaire in charge of a 500 M network something someone
would want to fail ? Are the 2000 or so employees that work there doing it for
the vision of Zuckerburg? Is jealousy that strong ? I dont want it to fail. I
want to be some percentage of whatever he is when I reach 26 not by
personality but achievement. Why should I wait for maturity to achieve things,
I want to fall, get back up, fall and fall some more if it means I reach
closer to what he did (no matter how simple the idea was). It is as if he is
not allowed to mature or people are still looking at him as a sophomore that
sent those sms messages. He does get assistance from his COO Sheryl Sandberg
<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/business/03face.html> so maybe back in
creation the site was a reflection of the immature sophomore but now it is
something different.

------
nervechannel
SPOILER ALERTS please.

~~~
simias
Do you want spoiler alerts on history books as well? :)

~~~
nervechannel
I went to an article on Facebook which starts off by explicitly discussing the
portrayal of events in a movie I haven't seen yet (and intend to).

How's that not a spoiler?

~~~
trotsky
The protagonist gets rich.

------
mdg
This movie is not about Facebook. If you watch the behind-the-scenes
documentary on the 2nd disk, they even tell you this. Facebook, in the context
of this movie, was just a vessel to deliver a story about building something
big and conflict. Much as a tortilla chip is a vessel for nacho cheese.

------
shankx
We all love to hate Facebook but cannot deny the fact that it has become a
part of our lives.

------
Tichy
Maybe one day we'll hear something like this about Facebook, too:
[http://www.theonion.com/video/internet-archaeologists-
find-r...](http://www.theonion.com/video/internet-archaeologists-find-ruins-
of-friendster-c,14389/)

