[alanthonyc]

This is a classic "quitting an addiction" post. I've seen and heard this many times, from people playing wow to smokers to coffee drinkers.

If you have to announce how and why you are quitting, then you probably are doing it too much.

[dschobel]

http://www.newsweek.com/id/183180 here's a newsweek "I'm quitting FB" article

and I'm certain I've seen one on slate.com

Is Facebook really so all consuming for these people who have to quit it publicly?

Personally I love FB. It's like auto-pilot for my social life. It reminds me about the birthdays about the people I only vaguely care about, leave them a one-line message on their wall and that's it until next year.

All the people who are really in my life I rarely interact with on FB but it's great for making lots of people think that lots of people care about them.

What's not to like?

[frossie]

it's great for making lots of people think that lots of people care about them

followed by

What's not to like?

Dude, I think you answered your own question: superficial relationships masquerading as genuine ones - you know, that does bother some people.

[derefr]

But these are superficial relationships replacing non-relationships, not replacing genuine ones.

[frossie]

Again, not everybody thinks the same. It is possible to prefer a non-relationship to a superficial relationship. Some people value authenticity for its own sake.

I'm not trying to convince anyone to change their mind, I just want to explain why the appeal of the social media is not universal (not that it has to be of course). For example there are some people I would call "intentional introverts" who quite genuinely would prefer not to have a happy birthday greeting from someone they are not close to. Others obviously are delighted by the same thing. It takes all kinds to make the world, etc etc.

[jacquesm]

"It reminds me about the birthdays about the people I only vaguely care about, leave them a one-line message on their wall and that's it until next year."

you could easily automate that :)

[zimbabwe]

Facebook is wonderful - but I use it with only 23 people and disable Highlights, so I only see what I want to see.

What I love about Facebook is that if you want to use Facebook "responsibly", you can, and when you do Facebook doesn't nag you to be more supersocial or anything. Ditto Twitter, actually, though I have no need for Twitter myself. It gives you control.

Compare that to other sites - Tumblr comes to mind since it was mentioned in this article - that attempt to force users into contributing more. I've even heard some sites show a leaderboard of their "Top" users, and inherently pressure their users to post things that the largest amount of people will agree with.

[dan_the_welder]

http://news.ycombinator.com/leaders

[zimbabwe]

Yeah, that's the joke.

[dan_the_welder]

Oops.

[pageman]

I got my fb account disabled for putting the eternalmoonwalk.com link during the CNN Live.com/fb coverage of the MJ memorial and I didn't realize how peaceful my life became when I had no fb account - and then the phone calls, IMs, SMS, emails came in, looking for me (people thought something bad happened to me when I got dis-faceboked :P

[dasil003]

True, but there is a seed of truth here in how social media has upped the engagement factor so much that it's easy for it to become a time sink with the user not even realizing it. I think society needs another 10 years to absorb the implications of social media and how to use it effectively (and for the filters to get better).

[alanthonyc]

No one's denying the addiction.

However, I'm sure nicotine and caffeine (not to mention wow) are even worse for most people.

It's a combination of the stimulus and each individual's reaction to it. I'm sure that the vast, vast majority of people have no problems releasing themselves from social media.

[potatolicious]

I found my way of doing it was simply to block reddit, digg, and slashdot from my /etc/hosts. Otherwise I'd just go back if I was bored ("oh, I have nothing better to do for the next 10 minutes anyways...")

My life has improved immeasurably.

[antiform]

It also tends to work better than not telling anybody about it at all.

If you tell people that you are quitting something, there is a social pressure on you to follow through on your promise. Your friends and family might also be willing to help you achieve your goal, which can be encouraging and push you that much further.

Well worth it, if you ask me. Best of luck to the author.