FARK.com: (7611488) Why I'm quitting Facebook by writing this publicity piece about Facebook

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		Why I'm quitting Facebook by writing this publicity piece about Facebook (cnn.com)		61
		More: Misc, Facebook, party plans, big data, Douglas Rushkoff

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3129 clicks; posted to Entertainment » on 25 Feb 2013 at 2:59 PM | Favorite | share:

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The My Little Pony Killer		2013-02-25 01:32:39 PM

Though I never really used it to socialize, I figured it was OK to let other people do that, and I benefited from their behavior.

It's a good thing nobody was actually waiting around for your permission then.

scottydoesntknow		2013-02-25 01:38:07 PM

Entire story summed up in 6 words: In my upcoming book "Present Shock,"

downstairs		2013-02-25 01:46:36 PM

He rants on about "related posts" in an article posted on cnn.com with a bunch of "related articles" right next to his story. Funny, that.

Vodka Zombie		2013-02-25 01:48:02 PM

Wow. That whole thing just comes off as sad and out of touch.

I expect his next screed will be something about the kids tearing up his lawn.

make me some tea		2013-02-25 01:53:37 PM

Well... bye.

I_Am_Weasel		2013-02-25 01:56:28 PM

Just what the hell is a media theorist?

unlikely		2013-02-25 02:36:53 PM

Why I'm quitting facebook: I'm tired of getting invited to parties, knowing when my friends have life changing events, and being just generally in touch. By gum if I want to put my foot in my mouth and ask Tom how Lisa is doing the day after she dumped him, I should be able to without all them facebook SPOILERS. Further, I love those "I don't have a TV" and "I don't read fiction" people so much I want to join them in my haughty assitude, and this is the path that will get me there.

gilgigamesh		2013-02-25 02:58:10 PM

unlikely: Why I'm quitting facebook: I'm tired of getting invited to parties, knowing when my friends have life changing events, and being just generally in touch. By gum if I want to put my foot in my mouth and ask Tom how Lisa is doing the day after she dumped him, I should be able to without all them facebook SPOILERS. Further, I love those "I don't have a TV" and "I don't read fiction" people so much I want to join them in my haughty assitude, and this is the path that will get me there.

I'm resigning myself to having to sign up for facebook because people don't email socially anymore. My old friends are all in on these ongoing conversations that I am completely out of the loop. I've essentially completely lost touch with younger relatives because they live on facebook.

On the other hand, my step daughter dumped out on facebook recently because she's sick of her very religious, Tea Party in-laws constantly chiding her on her "wall" or whatever it is for not raising her kid with the appropriate level of ferocious religiosity they maintain, or any time she posts anything political that doesn't treat the president for the Muslin Kenyan usurper bent on America's destruction that he clearly is.

Ed Finnerty		2013-02-25 03:01:29 PM

Facebook touched me in my digiphrenia.

T.rex		2013-02-25 03:02:20 PM

I'm not one of those 'i don't use Facebook' types, but i will say that it seems to have lost a lost of its luster in recent months. Nobody seems to post updates anymore.

Wellon Dowd		2013-02-25 03:04:18 PM

I don't really like NAMBLA and Kentuckians with Untreated STD's. I just Liked them in order to throw off their profile of me.

Bartleby the Scrivener		2013-02-25 03:06:54 PM

HAHA, i've never been on the facebook so i can just say that this revelation to this gentleman may seem like he's st. paul on the road to damascus, but its just coals to newcastle for me.

as for the "workers" of facebook, i'm glad i don't participate in a website where the users generate the lion's share of the content whilst the ringleaders just sit back with their top hats, bar towels, and fancy beverages cracking in the shekels. that's for suckers.

meade2001		2013-02-25 03:08:43 PM

T.rex: I'm not one of those 'i don't use Facebook' types, but i will say that it seems to have lost a lost of its luster in recent months. Nobody seems to post updates anymore.

Yup. After you've stalked all your high school crushes, there's not much to do.

downstairs		2013-02-25 03:17:07 PM

gilgigamesh: I'm resigning myself to having to sign up for facebook because people don't email socially anymore.

Ugh. So much this.

Jim_Callahan		2013-02-25 03:17:42 PM

Facebook does not exist to help us make friends, but to turn our network of connections, brand preferences and activities over time -- our "social graphs" -- into money for others.

Really? Someone is providing a service that others value (in this case social networking) in return for indirect or direct revenue (in this case, ads and demographic information)?

What a startling and sinister discovery.

Next, the startling revelation that TV stations decide what to show at what time based on ad revenue! And your local grocer isn't just giving you food from the kindness of his heart, he's turning your network of hungers-- your "gastrographs" into money... for other people. DUN DUN DUN.....

//Still not sure what the fark hipster nonsense has even mainstream journalists all up in arms every time someone makes money off of "their" precious hobby. People know that they're exchanging goods or services for other goods or services, dude, we're not all morons like yourself.

commisioner		2013-02-25 03:23:56 PM

I use facebook, but only really to keep in contact with friends and family back home (Moved to Canada from Ireland).

I don't really post that much, as I've really got nothing to say. My thoughts and musing aren't really interesting or amusing and no-one needs to see what I just ate for lunch.

What I do use it for though is when I find something funny or interesting, which I think "oh so and so back home would like that" and so post it on their page which then leads me to having a conversation or just shooting the shiat with people. So in that way it's useful for me.

commisioner		2013-02-25 03:24:34 PM

Gah, my sentence structure sucks.

likefunbutnot		2013-02-25 03:27:32 PM

As an "I don't use facebook" person, I would just like to say that if I give enough of a shiat about another human being, I don't need tools that automate the process of kinda-sorta keeping in touch with them.

My friends complain that I can't see all 50,000 of their daily updates and requests for level 15 Pork Knights, but somehow I still see all their favorite pictures and hear all their favorite stories regardless.

Amazing how that works.

Bartleby the Scrivener		2013-02-25 03:33:48 PM

downstairs: gilgigamesh: I'm resigning myself to having to sign up for facebook because people don't email socially anymore.

Ugh. So much this.

friends who won't make the effort to keep in touch with you through any other platform than social medial aren't friends worth keeping, and more than likely you are better off by yourself.

WhippingBoy		2013-02-25 03:34:13 PM

I don't not need to not never use facebook to be better than you.

StopLurkListen		2013-02-25 03:41:36 PM

Facebook is for getting angry and unfriending people, I guess. Everyone finds ways to get irritated by acquaintances ad relatives in ways they never would have known without Facebook.

OtherLittleGuy		2013-02-25 03:47:16 PM

/love, the internet

The Muthaship		2013-02-25 03:47:43 PM

When someone self-identifies as an activist, we are pretty much done.

StopLurkListen		2013-02-25 03:51:40 PM

My job involves being connected to Facebook, so I'm really getting a ... distraction from wasting time on Fark instead?

homelessdude		2013-02-25 03:56:48 PM

...............and we should care because of ______________________?

stupiddream		2013-02-25 03:57:40 PM

Facebook is Forever. Just like everything else on the internet. Only Facebook has your real name on it. Some of my friends have questionable views and I don't want future job prospects to be comprimized by some rant one of my friends or I myself wrote without thinking. So I let my wife keep me up to date on what cute pictures my Mom has posted.

MCM		2013-02-25 03:58:02 PM

scottydoesntknow: Entire story summed up in 6 words: In my upcoming book "Present Shock,"

That's exactly where I stopped reading.

HotIgneous Intruder		2013-02-25 03:58:28 PM

unlikely: generally in touch.

One of the stupiest things I've read on the internet today.
Facebook is a tone-deaf parody of an actual social life where anyone from your 90-year-old mom to your local police to an out-of-state bill collector to your boss can know all the personal business you're stupid enough to post.
It took an autistic-Asperger's sufferer to bring it into existence.
Also, when something like facebook is free, YOU are the product.

HotIgneous Intruder		2013-02-25 04:00:11 PM

stupiddream: Only Facebook has your real name on it.

Um, no.
If you joined facebook under your real name, you deserve the "forever" of the internet.

Dragonflew		2013-02-25 04:05:04 PM

T.rex: I'm not one of those 'i don't use Facebook' types, but i will say that it seems to have lost a lost of its luster in recent months. Nobody seems to post updates anymore.

Maybe they ran out of JPGs of other people's quotes.

silvervial		2013-02-25 04:18:05 PM

Facebook has always given me the creeps, along with Twitter. I also don't do Instagram or Pinterest or tumblr or any of those kinds of sites.

I simply have nothing to say to anyone, generally, and if something unusual happens, I'm not interested in sharing it with random people on the internet, especially potential employers/clients. I guess I'm more private than most people nowadays.

Just not the kind of "Okay, poop coming out" person that a lot of other people seem to be, and because I'm not, I'm now considered anti-social? I haven't changed that much, though. I'm not interested in 99% of what you have to say, and I'm not interested in sharing 99% of what I have to say because I know *you're* not really interested, either.

Fark-lite is about as "social" as I get.

Carth		2013-02-25 04:19:22 PM

Quitting facebook is becoming the cool thing to do. People who use it regularly are less happy and waste more time online.

Persnickety		2013-02-25 04:20:44 PM

I don't use Facebook because I'm too lazy to be bothered filling out a profile and keeping my news feed updated. There are better things to waste my time with on the Internet.

Persnickety		2013-02-25 04:24:20 PM

silvervial: Facebook has always given me the creeps, along with Twitter. I also don't do Instagram or Pinterest or tumblr or any of those kinds of sites.

I simply have nothing to say to anyone, generally, and if something unusual happens, I'm not interested in sharing it with random people on the internet, especially potential employers/clients. I guess I'm more private than most people nowadays.

Just not the kind of "Okay, poop coming out" person that a lot of other people seem to be, and because I'm not, I'm now considered anti-social? I haven't changed that much, though. I'm not interested in 99% of what you have to say, and I'm not interested in sharing 99% of what I have to say because I know *you're* not really interested, either.

Fark-lite is about as "social" as I get.

I feel exactly the same way. Frankly, I'm just not interesting enough of a person to post updates on the day to day common, ordinary things that happen in my life.

GlobalStrategic MapleSyrup Reserve		2013-02-25 04:41:46 PM

Bane of Broone		2013-02-25 05:01:40 PM

I must be one of the lucky few with a good family that has a proper perspective. When my folks signed up for FB I semi-jokingly said, "Oh geez. You guys are gonna see some craziness then once we're friends." Their response was that they saw it as my own life and I shouldn't have to worry about them intruding on the time I spend with my friends. So FB is exactly what I want it to be. Strictly fun and keeping in touch with old friends from school and previous jobs since I've moved. I love it. I've learned that a lot of my friends are freakier than I ever imagined and they share the same sentiment. Also, FB has made it remarkably easy to meet women.

HotIgneous Intruder		2013-02-25 05:10:30 PM

Persnickety: Frankly, I'm don't think I'm ~~just not~~ interesting enough ~~of a person~~ to post updates on the day to day common, ordinary things that happen in my life.

That makes you NOT a narcissist, unlike all the other needy attention whores who are products of the consumer advertising brain washing.

dustygrimp		2013-02-25 05:27:44 PM

GlobalStrategic MapleSyrup Reserve: unlikely: Why I'm quitting facebook: I'm tired of getting invited to parties, knowing when my friends have life changing events, and being just generally in touch. By gum if I want to put my foot in my mouth and ask Tom how Lisa is doing the day after she dumped him, I should be able to without all them facebook SPOILERS. Further, I love those "I don't have a TV" and "I don't read fiction" people so much I want to join them in my haughty assitude, and this is the path that will get me there.

I don't consume entertainment media. I have a plain white wall I enjoy viewing. It's far more enthralling than this "existence" you speak of.

What I don't get is why it's an all or nothing proposition. I am all for disconnecting and spending time alone with my thoughts and I think the world would be a better place if everyone did that from time to time. But I also enjoy the time I spend on Facebook posting a few times a week, on average, and reading the posts of others. Declaring your disdain for FB doesn't make you more enlightened than the masses, it makes you a reactionary, twatwaffle contrarian who desperately needs to find something to make you unique. It's the '70's grade school equivalent of "My dad could beat up your dad," need to be more extreme than your peers. Lighten the fark up.

The Muthaship		2013-02-25 05:33:02 PM

dustygrimp: Declaring your disdain for FB doesn't make you more enlightened than the masses, it makes you a reactionary, twatwaffle contrarian who desperately needs to find something to make you unique.

I disagree. Facebook has been caught taking advantage of its users in blatant and repellent enough ways to earn the disdain lots of people have for it. It provides lots of wonderful services, but it continues to prove it can't be trusted. Zuckerberg's own statements relating to how he feels about the privacy of its users should be evidence enough that FB is a risky place to post anything about yourself or people you care about.

wiseolddude		2013-02-25 05:41:18 PM

Marketers do not have access to my page. I use AdblockPlus and never see any ads. I don't see how anyone could surf without it.

Bane of Broone		2013-02-25 05:45:08 PM

wiseolddude: Marketers do not have access to my page. I use AdblockPlus and never see any ads. I don't see how anyone could surf without it.

So much this. I dunno about their access or not, but simply not seeing it has made my browsing experience a brazilian times better.

ColSanders		2013-02-25 05:47:00 PM

"Facebook does not exist to help us make friends, but to turn our network of connections, brand preferences and activities over time -- our 'social graphs' -- into money for others."
i240.photobucket.com

Mentalpatient87		2013-02-25 06:11:43 PM

gilgigamesh: because she's sick of her very religious, Tea Party in-laws constantly chiding her on her "wall"

Then delete them, stupid.

Ed Finnerty		2013-02-25 06:20:31 PM

Mentalpatient87: gilgigamesh: because she's sick of her very religious, Tea Party in-laws constantly chiding her on her "wall"

Then delete them, stupid.

I read that in Dr. Steve Brule's voice.

dtdstudios.com

ColSanders		2013-02-25 06:54:47 PM

Carth: Quitting facebook is becoming the cool thing to do. People who use it regularly are less happy and waste more time online.

Complaining about Facebook is becoming the cool thing to do, but I'd be willing to be a very low percentage of the complainers quit. Why, because it has become almost a necessity. I deleted my Facebook account years ago, but continuing to eschew Facebook is nothing but tilting at windmills. Not having a presence on Facebook can hurt your career, prevent you from getting a new one, make otherwise useful phone/tablet apps crippled, and at times simply make you a second class citizen on the internet.

It feels like pretty soon you won't even be able to get a drivers license without having a Facebook account.

So for every person who claims to be deleting their account now, there will be someone like me who, despite not wanting to hear from people I never liked in high school, will create an account again. I'm holding out for a while longer, though.

911Jenny		2013-02-25 07:07:29 PM

I keep Facebook to keep up with people I give a shiat about but may not have the time or inclination to call or visit them. (I have anxiety problems....so while I love my aunts and cousins, I don't love small talk where my awkwardness just kind of hangs out, blowing in the breeze.)

I don't add everyone but I have a lot of former/current co-workers and classmates. Facebook has over exposed people to me. Acquaintances that I would've thought were perfectly nice and normal people are suddenly exposed as crazy/stupid/hateful because of something they shared or liked. It's like spending way too much time in a room with them.

I've reached a point where I've been debating on doing a mass delete and keeping only the nearest and dearest. I'm thinking of using the rule, "if you were hospitalized, would I visit you?" No? Delete.

This recent development may be because my anxiety has been acting up so I'm waiting for the storm to pass. But I have been abusing the hell out of the "hide" post button. Probably a sign some people have over stayed their welcome.

jmr61		2013-02-25 07:09:12 PM

gilgigamesh: unlikely: Why I'm quitting facebook: I'm tired of getting invited to parties, knowing when my friends have life changing events, and being just generally in touch. By gum if I want to put my foot in my mouth and ask Tom how Lisa is doing the day after she dumped him, I should be able to without all them facebook SPOILERS. Further, I love those "I don't have a TV" and "I don't read fiction" people so much I want to join them in my haughty assitude, and this is the path that will get me there.

I'm resigning myself to having to sign up for facebook because people don't email socially anymore. My old friends are all in on these ongoing conversations that I am completely out of the loop. I've essentially completely lost touch with younger relatives because they live on facebook.

On the other hand, my step daughter dumped out on facebook recently because she's sick of her very religious, Tea Party in-laws constantly chiding her on her "wall" or whatever it is for not raising her kid with the appropriate level of ferocious religiosity they maintain, or any time she posts anything political that doesn't treat the president for the Muslin Kenyan usurper bent on America's destruction that he clearly is.

i can imagine why anyone would be stupid enough to subject themselves to that level of interaction with their friends and family.

HotIgneous Intruder		2013-02-25 07:56:24 PM

jmr61: gilgigamesh: unlikely:

i can imagine why anyone would be stupid enough to subject themselves to that level of interaction with their friends and family.

Well that's the perversity of facebook.
Nobody treats their acquaintances, dearest oldest friends, recent friends, their family, their preacher, their co-workers, their boss(es), potential employers, their mom, their spouse's employer, etc., on and on and on, with the same level of candor, informality, or political sharpness or dullness.

That. Is. Why. facebook. Is. Farking. Stupid. On. Its. Face.
Only an Asperger's kid could love such a thing and not think twice about it.

mamoru		2013-02-25 09:03:00 PM

Do so many people really not understand how you can use Facebook's privacy controls to limit what your 'friends' can see on your profile and posts? Or are so many of you just conveniently ignoring it so you can get your rants in?

Making use of lists and the privacy controls, it's very easy to limit information and make sure the people I'm connected to see only what I want them to see, thus separating my personal, family, professional, and public lives.

Are so many of you really not aware that you can do this?