I made the decision to leave facebook, almost.
At first it was a rash decision to leave it entirely.
Why? I spent more time there reading through 84+ "friends" worth of twitter-like updates or vague-baiting to find stuff that really interested me.
I also got the feeling that many of my 84+ "friends" really didn't care to read, or care for what I had to say.
Combine those two lists and skim the cream off (the cream being good in this metaphor) and I ended up with the facebook friends who comment on my posts and whose posts I enjoy reading and commenting on myself. Most of those 12 were the ones who actually weighed in my my facebook comment announcing my pending decision to leave facebook entirely. Those that didn't comment I can only assume cared less and will now not be burdened by my posts as I am no longer burdened by theirs.
Others suffered the cut only because they are non-entities on facebook. My brother and his wife both were cut, but they have a almost non-existent facebook presence. However, I converse with them on another social media tool that some people seem to forget even exists: email. My college roommate, who was cut, is a notorious non-emailer and was just as aloof in the realm of facebook. His wife, another college friend, IS an emailer and facebooker so she made the 12.
I have only had one request come in from a previous facebook friend. He was bummed to have been "defaced" but prior to contact on facebook I never heard from him (nor he from me...the case with most facebook friends) and all his updates consisted of pertained to the TV shows he was watching. Not terribly insightful reading for someone (me) who doesn't watch very much television.
So while it may seem rash or a bit harsh, it has made facebook a more pleasurable experience for me and wastes much less time trying to get to the reading I really would like to be doing. Facebook, or anything that is honestly just entertainment, should be fun, and it wasn't.
