[Zelphyr]

It is evil but it's really not as necessary as you think. I'm known to ALL of my friends and ALL of my family as someone who will not ever be on Facebook. You know what they do? They call me. Or text me. Or email me. And I never miss out on events. Even people I rarely interact with know how to, and do reach me outside of Facebook.

People make such a big deal out of how impossible their social lives would be without Facebook but never actually try it. I honestly don't get it.

[Aelius]

Same, however in my experience people like us will be left out of the loop when there are last minute changes to the event. Just last week I nearly missed a weekly public activity: the venue changed last minute and they only posted about that on Facebook. If a friend hadn't told me, I'd have gone to the usual place.

I have an amusing anecdote about being the one friend without Facebook.

Someone told me about a birthday party- they told me where it was and what time to be there. They did not tell me that our group was not actually invited and our arrival would be a surprise.

The rest of the group was half an hour late. I was not. They all wanted to arrive together and were delayed, but no one filled me in on the new time.

And that's the story about how I awkwardly attended a party for 30min where I knew no one but the birthday woman and it was obvious to everyone that I was not actually invited.

All was well once my friends arrived. Still, what a nightmare that was.

[Zelphyr]

I haven't had Facebook in going on seven years. Not once has someone said anything like, "I only sent the invite out on Facebook. I forgot to invite you!"

[kingbirdy]

As a counterpoint, I've made it clear to my friends I don't check facebook, and have missed out on events or only found out about them because they came up in passing conversation, specifically because they sent out a facebook invite and assumed it would reach me. Then when I mention I hadn't heard about it I always hear "Oh right, I forgot you don't check facebook". As the only person in my friend circle who doesn't use the platform, it seems almost unthinkable to the rest that someone would do that. Is it poor behavior on my friends' part? Perhaps, but it's not a hill I'm willing to die on.

[Zelphyr]

I suspect the difference is that they still "see" you there. So my friends can't see me, even if they're looking for me and maybe that triggers a reminder in their minds that they need to call/text/whatever me.

[macintux]

The only way to be informed of public events relevant to my interests is via Facebook, sadly.

So either I can be there and find out about them, or I can hope someone I know notices them and notifies me.

Both are terrible options.

[mikestaub]

You may be interested in my side project, peapods.com. The beta will launch soon.

[macintux]

It definitely looks interesting.

One challenge I face, though, is that I'm unwilling to let my Facebook account break out of its silo by linking it to anything else (and of course I'd love to kill it entirely) so event discovery becomes more challenging without the private groups I'm currently a member of and family/friends information FB currently holds.

[Zelphyr]

This looks really interesting. From what I gather, the intent is to encourage real physical interaction?

[lostgame]

I think groups/meetups/business owners/musicians, et cetera have a very different use case than yourself.

[y_tho]

> I'm known to ALL of my friends and ALL of my family as someone who will not ever be on Facebook. You know what they do? They call me. Or text me. Or email me.

That only works if they already know you. If you wanna start something new, it might benefit from having the outreach that facebook has.

[Zelphyr]

I recently joined a gym and have met several people there I now call friends. They also all know I'm not on Facebook so these new friends text me (usually) when they want to get in touch outside of the gym.

Guys, you're proving what everybody is starting to realize; Facebook has become masters at making people addicted to them. Every excuse I see like this one is nothing more than justification for an addiction. I hear it all the time. Me: "I'm not on Facebook." Them: "Oh, I could never do that" and then the proceeds to outline some extenuating circumstance that they claim is unique to them which is in fact unique to NOBODY. Because Facebook is that good at making people addicted to it.

I challenge you to try it. Disable your account for six weeks and see how you feel. If you're miserable, fine. Go back. But at least try it!

[Nimitz14]

I'm guessing you are not interests in local events.

[Zelphyr]

I participate in local events all the time. And I find out about every single one outside of Facebook.