Keep in touch!

I deleted my Facebook account in mid-February. I don't miss it. I didn't delete it because I had privacy concerns, I was spending too much time browsing Facebook, or my grades were suffering. No, not at all.

People wonder why somebody would delete their Facebook account if none of these things were an issue. I think we tend to assume that keeping in touch with nearly everybody we've ever known is a good thing. I beg to differ.

We love information. We love indexing it so we can search it instantaneously (Google). We love giving and getting information instantly and without full context (bumper stickers, evening news, text messaging, etc.). But should we remember everything? Should we know everything about everybody's lives?

I don't have 200 friends. I can't have 200 friends. Unfortunately, a computer doesn't forget unless it's told to forget. I only know so many people, and I will soon forget the ones that aren't constantly in my thoughts. But with the help of social networks, I can "know" many more people, and I will never forget them. On a related note, I think this can be a huge detriment to your IRL (in real life, duuuuh) friendships because if you come into a conversation already "knowing" what is going on in their lives, then conversation is dead. Why ask questions to which you already know the answer?

I think a show called Super News (which I had not heard of until I saw this video) sums it up nicely (and ironically does quite a good job in under 4 minutes-- bite-sized!): "This is how our generation communicates now! With detached, bite-sized, yippity yap!"



I don't think I'm totally clear on my thoughts (and I started writing around midnight...) but I thought I'd throw a post up. Blogging is kind of weird to me, too, and in the same realm as Twitter/Facebook at times. Although, I do see the importance of looking back on your life and being able to see progress/sanctification. So if you're reading this, I'm not writing it for you (though I don't think it would be a bad thing if Facebook went away and my amazing rhetoric convinced you to leave it...), but I'm glad that you're reading!

And if you want to be my friend, just shoot me an email and we'll talk, but please stop tagging photos of my on Facebook! I don't want to come back!