To think that I almost succumbed to Facebook, my only excuse being that I feel cut off from my larger network of people since moving to Chicago. But after reading this article I don't think I can do it.
The article was published in January, but I just came upon it in a roundabout way. I've been reading the Idler, and apparently the Idler guy wrote it. More on the attractiveness of being idle later.
Here is an excerpt from the article - and this excerpt doesn't even get into the Facebook founders' horrendous politics which are the real reason people shouldn't use it:
And does Facebook really connect people? Doesn't it rather disconnect us, since instead of doing something enjoyable such as talking and eating and dancing and drinking with my friends, I am merely sending them little ungrammatical notes and amusing photos in cyberspace, while chained to my desk? A friend of mine recently told me that he had spent a Saturday night at home alone on Facebook, drinking at his desk. What a gloomy image. Far from connecting us, Facebook actually isolates us at our workstations.
Facebook appeals to a kind of vanity and self-importance in us, too. If I put up a flattering picture of myself with a list of my favourite things, I can construct an artificial representation of who I am in order to get sex or approval. ("I like Facebook," said another friend. "I got a shag out of it.") It also encourages a disturbing competitivness around friendship: it seems that with friends today, quality counts for nothing and quantity is king. The more friends you have, the better you are. You are "popular", in the sense much loved in American high schools. Witness the cover line on Dennis Publishing's new Facebook magazine: "How To Double Your Friends List."
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