My love hate relationship with Facebook

I really used to love Facebook for what it was a tool to reconnect with so many old friends and relatives. I enjoyed keeping in contact with old school friends and colleagues. We could satisfy our mutual curiosity about each other, after not hearing from each for many years. And answer the old, “What ever happened to…?” questions. I have come to realise that Facebook is increasingly becoming a substitute for real communication and a fairly poor substitute at that. I remember a time when you would call your friends on their birthday, and when they would call me. These are personal touches I have started to miss in my life. Facebook has taken out all the effort and care when communicating with a fellow human being.

These days it is so easy to post a virtual birthday card on someone’s wall. But while it’s easy, the gesture seems hollow to me. It’s kind of like comparing food to a home cooked meal. Once in a while having fast food is okay, but you wouldn’t want to have it each and every day. Facebook is essentially for people to ego-masturbate. It’s useful, but you lose a lot of what is good about socializing. Too many people think that it’s how many people you know rather than the quality of the relationships. I have deleted my Facebook account about a month ago. The only reason I still stick with Facebook now is to run this blog’s Facebook page, and I must say I am much happier without it now than I was while I still using it.