I ditched facebook about 2 years ago, for 14 months.
I learned that I never made enough of an impression for any of my friends to inquire where I was.
It was incredibly depressing because I exposed a lie to myself, that I had close friends.
I guess it's been neat, knowing the truth, but it was an expensive trade to obtain it. I've been back on there for a few months again, and sadly, even knowing none of those people actually think about me in their daily lives, it's once again a fantastic placebo.
So if you're sensitive and there's a chance your friends aren't really as close as you think, you should pause before you test every single one of them at the same time.
It's that generalization i take issue with. The communication medium you use to talk with your friends doesn't have all that much correlation between how close of friends you are. Distance, time, and other concerns would rank much more highly than facebook vs something else.
I would say that real friendship requires intimate conversation - discussing things that you wouldn't share with just anyone. This is what separates friends from acquaintances.
Intimate conversation, by definition, must be (or at least feel) private. So if you communicate with someone face to face, by phone, or by email, you may maintain the feeling of privacy necessary for real conversation. I'd allow that "private" Facebook messages might serve the same purpose.
Wall posts, however, could not. Everything is said with half a mind to how everyone else will read it.
That's only part conversation; the other part is performance.
I agree. Email, IM's do not replace face to face contact. We're biologically wired for those type of interactions, not online ones. It's a true generalization, even if there are exceptions.
I learned that I never made enough of an impression for any of my friends to inquire where I was.
It was incredibly depressing because I exposed a lie to myself, that I had close friends.
I guess it's been neat, knowing the truth, but it was an expensive trade to obtain it. I've been back on there for a few months again, and sadly, even knowing none of those people actually think about me in their daily lives, it's once again a fantastic placebo.
So if you're sensitive and there's a chance your friends aren't really as close as you think, you should pause before you test every single one of them at the same time.