[a3n]

Would anyone believe me if I said I don't have a Twitter or Facebook account? (Actually I think I have three Twitter accounts, never used, and no idea what their names are.)

Or might they believe me, and think I'm too odd-stream to rent their apartment or work in their office?

[VLM]

Make some dead accounts. I have FB, twitter, linkedin, haven't logged into any of them in months, maybe years now. I've made three tweets in my life, all employer acceptable, one in Sept 2008 stating this is pretty boring, another a year or so ago reporting a software bug (seriously WTF this is how they accept reports?) and one more recently verifying my keybase key. The growth rate seems to be accelerating over the past seven years. It never fails to amaze me I have 11 followers none of whom I can identify (spammers I think).

They are legitimately my accounts, I just don't use their services. I have a paper list somewhere with over 220 accounts, many defunct of course. Most accounts across the entire internet are, of course, unused or empty, its not going to be unusual.

[throwaway12309]

I have no twitter, no fb, no reddit, no g+, Github, and my account here is a throwaway which I regularly abandon and create a new one.

I was never asked for any of this (well, except github on job applications in the past which never been a problem when I explain them I don't have one) and if in the future I am, I probably will drop the deal (whatever it is) on the spot.

[personlurking]

And how are you getting on? Any problems, ie not being invited to friends' events because they're only announced on FB?

[jimbobimbo]

If the only way your friends reach out to you is FB, then they're probably not so much of friends. My real friends know my email, phone, IM, etc. There're plenty of ways to get in touch, if you value the person you're trying to reach.

[throwaway12309]

No problems to be honest.

I use email/phone if I want to do something with someone (mostly phone). There may be events like a house warming party that only gets posted to FB, but somehow that tends to reach me through someone, and if they don't, well.. not much is lost to be honest.

To be fair, most of the people I hang out with aren't that into Facebook/other or even if they are, they know I'm not there so they reach out to me/my wife over the phone.

I'm in my early 30's if it it counts for anything.

[a3n]

Sorta me too, except I'm in my late 50s. I'm not really friends with "a group." I'm friends with individuals, many of whom know each other or don't, and they contact me.

It's a solved problem, since before the web, and even before the internet.

[throwaway12309]

Yeah, I think that may be the main difference from folks that feel disconnected when they are off FB. I have relationships with individuals (or sometimes couples), but never with 'groups'. Probably the most group thing I do is people that play tennis where I do, but again, I have their phones and whenever I want a pick up game, I just do a few calls. I love leaving my laptop/smartphone behind and just go enjoy doing something without the fear of missing something.

[joshuapants]

> Would anyone believe me if I said I don't have a Twitter or Facebook account?

I'm in a similar situation. The only social media I have is a private Twitter account that I used for about 2 days and posted basically nothing to. People in general seem to understand my choice, though that might just be my social circle. I haven't yet been in a position where I've been asked to provide social media accounts for someone to check my credibility.

[Amorymeltzer]

Probably depends on your age and other characteristics. If you can be called a millennial, a 2013 study (http://www.emarketer.com/Articles/Print.aspx?R=1009748) found that there's over an 80% chance you use social media. That goes down each previous generation, so a baby-boomer should be expected NOT to have such things.

Also, other factors are probably relevant. "No twitter" is very different from "No twitter, because I'm married with twins."

[pluma]

It's important to remember that "80% chance you do X" also means "20% chance you DON'T do X". And "20%" means "1 in 5".

We like to conflate large percentages as "practically 100%" but even ".1%" just means "1 in 1000". For large groups even low percentages can represent a significant quantity.