Urrrggh, facebook, lovely, enchanting facebook…really need you facebook…cannot live without you…you’re so dangerous yet need you in my life facebook but what will happen when I lose touch with all my friends, what if, one day, I need them facebook?…aaargh… there are so many challenges I must face when I break up with you facebook!!!
I have had three facebook accounts and the first opened in 2007 R.I.P 2011 was hacked into constantly (by whom to this day I do not know) so was deactivated permanently. The second account was stalked by my ex-boyfriend (he actually does stalk me in person as well – not an enjoyable experience, let me tell you that although it seems cyber stalking is almost fashionable these days). The third and final account is low-pro, rarely viewed and every time I check it I become depressed about what I AM NOT and how I am no longer the pretty, highly sociable, happy gal I once was…and how all my old friends from school are displaying happy and successful lives, which I was once before facebook came along. This account has also been located by the ex.
Maybe its a pride thing ; maybe I’m too embarrassed; maybe I’m afraid of letting my guard down, I don’t know but I now declare the final end to my relationship with facebook as I’m sick of questioning my relevance in the world and having to pick up the pieces of a technologically traumatised life and making up excuses as to why I don’t have or want a facebook account (I’ve had several temporary deactivations). Fellow students would say to me “You have to have a facebook account. Its a really good thing” as if I didn’t know facebook. I’m sick of having to produce new usernames, new email accounts, new passwords; resize/manipulate photos; explain to people why I change my accounts; implement security measures, and other prevention strategies…which would all go out the window if not stored or handled properly.
All you need to do is look back 15 years ago when friend contact was still face-to-face, hand-written, email or over a landline phone. Not only was it more affordable but, to me, was more satisfying, rewarding and enjoyable. Meeting with my REAL friends, catching up in person or simply ‘bumping’ into a friend down the road was far more pleasurable – who cared if we swapped numbers or not? I don’t care what my facebook friends (with whom I would have had no contact with at all) are doing, or what’s floating in their toilet every fifteen minutes?
I feel facebook also brings up the past and other matters we latch onto with such vigour that we are unable to move on with our lives in the way destiny or as was originally intended. Yes, sharing photos is a good way of connecting and staying in touch with family/friends and yes, it can be a good tool in promoting one’s business but this could all be done outside of a personal facebook account. It has interfered with genuine social interaction by attempting to create a faceless alter ego – that of the cyber personality, generally more outgoing and supposedly more accommodating, financially secure, caring, physically attractive, successful – and actually succeeding in it. It has created a world of fake people; a world by which, with the flick of a switch, could disappear, leaving a portion of the community confused and in misery especially those that rely so heavily up
on it. The cyber world is not the place in which I want to live; I want to live in REALITY.
I say bring back 1996 when the internet was in its infant stage and was mainly used for research; where it was controlled and used wisely. Rewrite the pages of history. The internet in itself is an indirect revolution in the guise of a ‘required business & personal tool’ – and nobody knows the damage this revolution, with all its sub-units, could eventually cause; only time can tell.
Its the changing face of the human race, literally. For some people, the experience of facebook is a positive one, evolutionary process something we must accept in order to remain a part of a well-oiled society. This is not to say I don’t want to be a part of society – I’m all for progress and evolution taking its course – just not in the facebook society.
Good-bye facebook and good riddens to the problems and insecurities that developed in my world.
Dealing with a stalker 