Facebook: to delete or not to delete

[johnridley]

I haven't been on Facebook for close to a month now. Except to go and ignore "friend" requests from bikini-clad spambots. I keep the account "because a lot of my friends are only on FB" but if I never go there, maybe there's really no point?

I do get the occasional email "so-and-so sent you a message of Facebook" - and I reply via email directly to them. My first thought was that it might be worth keeping if it allowed old friends to find me. I did crack open the security just enough that you can tell that there's someone with my name there, and that's about it.

The other issue is that it's kind of a huge time sink. I mean, I already waste a couple of hours a day between BoingBoing, Reddit and some others. I've dropped FB and Bikeforums hard (I don't allow myself to go there anymore) and seriously reduced my time spent at other sites (mainly the Cheeseburger network) and that's reclaimed an hour per day if not more on some days.

I already have about 3 times more stuff to do than I could possibly get done; just doing maintenance level stuff takes all my available time, leaving no time for any recreation unless I neglect some maintenance (which I already do, a lot) - I decided to keep riding the bike, and that's about it apart from computer time which I'm really trying to reduce and replace with, well, anything else.

So I'm still undecided. I'd like to keep the FB account open for people to find me, but 90% of what I get from them is spambots masquerading as bikini-clad desperate 18 year-olds who "want to be my friend."

Comments

[madtechie2718.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I never seem to get bikini-clad spambots wanting to be my friend....

but I do get lots of similar notifications for Twitter, for which, in a moment of weakness, I I created an account, posted once and then immediately realised that it was an utter waste of time and abandoned it.

I would much rather that my friends were all on here instead, but will keep my FB account - I might spend maybe 5 minutes per day on it. If nothing else, it is a useful reminder of birthdays for friends and relatives.

[ann-totusek.livejournal.com]

As my life gets more hectic, I find that I use Facebook more. I'd PREFER to feel like I had the time to do all sorts of posts here, but it doesn't seem to happen.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

I decided that if it wasn't worth the time to post it here, it probably wasn't important enough to say anyway, so putting it on FB was pointless too.

[tullio42.livejournal.com]

It’s all about time. FB can be a major time sink so I’ve been forced to put it way down on the “to do list”. This seems to work and results in my checking it out two or three times a month – a level I can sustain. I hardly ever post though since that takes up more time then I usually have but I’m happy with that. It does give people who have lost touch with me a chance to make contact and that is valuable. But then I usually end up using old fashioned email with them.

Frankly, I like LJ better…

[isherempress.livejournal.com]

First, no bikini-bots come after me, and if they did, I'd take notice.

Second, FB & LJ are different types of forums (ooh, dare I say "fora"? no, I do not dare.) I tend to use FB more frequently because I want to post something brief. LJ does not lend itself to brief for some reason. However, I keep LJ because I can write about - and get solid feedback on - stuff that I do not want the world at large to know.

I certainly understand your need to cut back on online reading... you've got to sleep some time, right? Good luck with your minor quandary.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

My FB is locked down to the point where bots never contact me. Maybe adjust your settings there. My kids and some relatives are on FB, so I check in there, but I dislike the fracture it has put in my comfortable world of friends and contact here on LJ.

I think the short form is as welcome here as longer, more thoughtful posts.

K.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

I used to have my FB account locked down that hard, but the problem is that if the bots can't find me, neither can anyone else who isn't already in my friend's list, so it kind of defeats the purpose of having the account in the first place.

[kevinnickerson.livejournal.com]

Mines not locked, and I'm not getting any bots to notice. A couple a year, maybe.

There's an RSS feed, you could probably write a script to filter it down.