Senior government and politics major
It was late November 2011 when I deactivated my Facebook account.
That was my worst semester of grades at this university. On a whim, I made the decision to deactivate my account. I made my last status about how I couldn’t be wasting time and how I would be back after the semester.
I have been living Facebook-free since then, and I’m here to tell you that you should join me.
It’s really amazing how large Facebook has grown. With more than 1 billion monthly users, the social network has truly revolutionized online communication. But while Facebook can provide entertainment, it is ultimately unnecessary and counter to natural interaction.
I’m certainly willing to concede that Facebook has useful aspects that enhance certain qualities of life. Distant relatives and friends are now able to communicate and stay in one another’s lives. People who once were not able to keep in touch now easily can. And I’m willing to admit I miss seeing pictures of my friends and myself. Now I don’t have any recent pictures of myself.
But in a somewhat narcissistic Facebook indulgence, we sacrifice genuine and natural human interaction — which detracts from what makes us human. In reality, people waste an incredible amount of time and attention on Facebook for empty rewards.
Facebook fulfills a social desire by letting users give idealized yet inaccurate representations of themselves for others to see. Profiles are effectively a polished image of the self for others to see, showing what you “like.”
Think about the typical profile. Your education, job, birthday, sexual preference, various pictures (uploaded by both friends and yourself) and statuses (detailing your thoughts) are all on Facebook for display.
Anyone you are “friends” with can peer into this representation of you and see these fairly intimate details without ever having a conversation with you. As a result, people know details of your life without knowing your life story, flaws and all. Rather than getting to know someone through direct interaction, we construct concepts of other people from profiles, which robs us of the human connections and experience of getting to know our peers.
We bypass genuine connection for the ability to privately view others’ lives. People are now more prone to judge behind a computer screen and in person and “creep” on others’ lives. We become acclimated to comparisons, changing how we view people we know, people we don’t know and ourselves.
The way I see it, Facebook only provides overvalued interactions. Tone, meaning, intention and how you think people perceive you can all be misconstrued and over analyzed, all from the construct of your own mind.
We focus a lot of energy on this social platform, and the consequences, positive and negative, of this sort of activity are imminent.
Really, people should be aware of how they use Facebook and how it affects their lives. For some, it has little to no negative effect. For me, it started to get in the way of my goals, both academically and socially.
More and more people are deleting Facebook, and if you are on the edge, I hope I can give you that final push. I’m telling you: The grass is greener on the other side.
When it comes to social interaction, nothing beats the real thing.
Tommy Creegan is a junior government and politics major. He can be reached at creegant@terpmail.umd.edu.
