Found an interesting article in yesterday’s New York Post by a very perceptive 18 year-old: Why I quit Facebook. Seems Zach has wisely decided to eschew the superficial cyber-world of Facebook for real-life face-to-face friends. After four years on the social network site he’s come to realize;

Adolescence, to begin with, is a time of awful social anxiety. Now a website exists that exacerbates your most irrational social fears to the point of paranoia. Instead of just a private hormonal case of nerves, this is a massive, corporate crowd-sourced paranoia that a huge economic sector is encouraging us to take part in.
 
On Facebook, I saw how I was taking time away from being with my real friends to feel bad about all the other people who were hardly even part of my life…
 
…I’m not the only one who is deactivating my Facebook account. I’ve had other friends tell me that they’re sick and tired of going on Facebook everyday hoping to connect, but ending up feeling only more disconnected. Lost in the hype of the company’s stock-market debut this year is that while Facebook is ubiquitous, it may also be a fad.
 
Before I went off Facebook, my friend made a status update saying,“Deleting your Facebook is like running away from home. You do it for attention but you’ll be back one day.” But I’m not doing it for attention. I’m doing it so I won’t go there when I’m hungry for attention, only to end up feeling more alone.

 
Pretty astute observations for someone so young! Zach’s article perfectly captures the depressing downside of Facebook. While the site is a great place to keep tabs on old friends, share pix and birthday wishes, there’s also a pathetic, almost desperate notice-me aspect to it, and not much genuine connection going on.
 
While I haven’t hit the “deactivate” button yet, I have been spending a lot less time on Facebook… and a lot more on Twitter [It’s the news-junkie in me!] 😀
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Related:
Should we start calling it “Anti”-Social Media?