Don't read on if you are a lover of Facebook!

I really dislike Facebook.  Not just from a disgruntled business page owner point of view (6000 likers by the end and a reach of 10 per post, don’t get me started), but also from a personal view.  I deleted my whole account, personal and business, around two years ago and I haven’t looked back.  OK, so that’s a lie.  I did set up another account thinking I had to have Facebook for my business once, but it lasted around one hour and I realised no I didn’t have to have Facebook at all.

Here are some of the personal reasons I fell out with Facebook:

• It’s addictive.  OK, so I’m now addicted to Twitter, but from a business/blog point of view.  I don’t have a personal account, so that’s more acceptable right?!  With Facebook I could waste minutes (really I mean hours) just reading others timelines and looking at their pictures – guilty!  It was such a waste of time but I couldn’t help myself.   Even though I didn’t want to be on it, I just couldn’t break away for ages.
• I became really nosey.  I’d follow people’s arguments or conversations and really it was none of my business, but then they were making it public for all to see… But I didn’t want to be this type of person.  Again, I found I just couldn’t help myself with Facebook.  What a waste of my time.  It provided no benefit for me and made me feel very gossipy.  No thanks, that’s not the person I want to be.
• People stop actually communicating.  So I might be old school, but what happened to texts and phone calls and actual invites, etc!   I was quite upset to discover a lifelong friend was engaged and hadn’t told me. I found out hearing it mentioned in conversation.  His response?  ‘Well I did post a status update on Facebook’.  Arg!  Another friend was upset we hadn’t RSVPd to an invite to which I said I hadn’t received one – ‘Oh I sent Facebook invites to everyone two days ago’.  Right – well I haven’t checked my Facebook for a few days so didn’t know. Arg!
• People who aren’t really friends want to be Facebook friends.  SO many people I used to go to school with used to be ‘friends’ with me.  Some of them I was good friends with at school so I’d send them a message to say hi and chat and do you think I ever got a response?  Of course not.  Why on earth be ‘friends’ with me then?  Probably just to be nosey and see what I look like/do now.  But so frustrating.  Fake friends basically.
• Attention seeking.  Another ‘friend’ I hadn’t seen for a few months posted some really worrying status updates, possibly quite suicidal, expressing how she had no real friends and no one was there for her, etc etc and what’s the point.  So I was super worried and sent a message.  Do you think I ever head back?  There are also the people who say ‘I’m deleting my Facebook’ ‘Oh don’t stop me’ you know the ones.  So a billion people say ‘noooo don’t delete it, yada yada yada’ and they do delete it anyway.  But then they’re back on Facebook two days later because of the addiction thing perhaps, but maybe they just weren’t getting many likes so needed to create some Facebook attention.
• People take it way too seriously.  A friend of a friend had a baby.  The first baby within our friendship groups at that time.  My friend said to me 'I can't believe it took a whole month for him to change his profile picture to his baby!'.  Seriously?  As if he doesn't care for his baby as much because he didn't immediately update his profile photo!  What a silly observation!

SO in a nutshell, that’s why I don’t use a personal Facebook.  Because I know if I do again I’ll get sucked into it all again.  There are lots more reasons too and loads of business ones which you can read by clicking here.

What do you think of Facebook?  Love it?  Or hate it, but can't get off it?!