Ditch Facebook

NO, your friend hasn’t dropped off the face of the earth.

They’ve just dropped off Facebook.

More and more people are deciding 2012 is the year to ditch social media and get a social life. It comes as no surprise really – with trolls, public feuding and the bad grammar and banality that make up some people’s lives – it can easily wear thin.

But when did dispensing of an interactive website become a life-affirming act?

Probably in the same length of time it took for the social conduit to become a marketing tool and business network. Now Facebook is more about work than fun for small business owners, PR professionals, mumpreneurs and more.

As Pico Iyer, author of “The Man Within My Head”, recently wrote for the New York Times, “in barely one generation we’ve moved from exulting in the time-saving devices that have so expanded our lives to trying to get away from them”.

The lightning speed of information dissemination through Twitter, Facebook and more means we are expected to consume more, arguably irrelevant information and form an opinion on any number of topics from Gaddafi’s bloodied body being dragged through the streets to the breakdown of the Kardashian marriage.

Suddenly it’s important to be saying something on the subject that everyone’s talking about – even if it’s only for the next 24 hours (sometimes not even that long).

During Queensland’s “summer of sorrow” Facebook was instrumental in locating loved ones suspected of being swept up in flood waters. It kept people abreast of what was happening – when the bridges were cut, when the roads were open – more effectively than any government agency could manage at the time.

But it also meant that, for weeks, we were bombarded – not just by traditional TV news images – but by people’s emotional outpourings and heartache online.

I, and others I spoke to at the time, confessed they had to “switch off” – it was affecting them too personally. To me, it felt like cutting off a lifeline to victims.

So disabling a Facebook account can seem like a superficial task to some. But to an increasing number of people, it’s down-gearing.

It’s reclaiming your time, redefining what’s important and denying every distraction that beeps in your palm. Not every message brought to our attention deserves said attention.

It’s not always easy – especially if, as it is for many, you’ve entered the social media domain as a mere curiosity and been swept up in its capacity to market your wares.

Building an audience can take on a significant importance and stepping back from all that can be scary – no less so if your business thrives on Facebook hits. Even as I write this, I’m distracted with one site’s picture of their pile of dirty laundry and marvelling how they’ve started a dialogue on it.

But with distance comes perspective.  Without the constant barrage of what others are discussing, you may just discover what’s important to you and discover a balance that is both meaningful and engaging, without feeling bombarded.

Peta-Jo is an author, social commentator and mother of two. She is a newspaper subeditor in Queensland and juggles marketing her site, petajo.com, with laundry, a second novel and two kids armed with permanent markers.
Site: www.petajo.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Peta-Jo/461304725178?ref=tn_tnmn
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/misspetajo