Social Accounts

I removed my Friendster account today. Haven’t been loggin in since around 2 years. I was quite surprised that few friends still have their account updated, but most don’t anymore. Isn’t everyone turning to Facebook? Yes definitely. Is Facebook amazing? Is it the reason I remove other social network account? No, definitely no for someone who is not a social alert. I even didn’t log in to FB since months ago. However, at any time in the future,  I’ll keep at least one account to stay connected with real friends. Now it’s FB. It helps me to do things I don’t like doing in real life, such as greeting Happy Birthday and so forth. The chit-chats are easier when I do it virtually. And I’m also comfortable with the privacy options, and the mainstream activity flow, and how I can find great information about my city,  plus some more that ease the way I interact with core friends. It’s best in the service. But surely, people who are really close will interact with me more in real life than in virtual accounts. That’s why I do not log in frequently.

I wonder why people do not feel ridiculous when they greet, especially their other significant one,  close ones on social accounts. Are they being far to each other that they can’t use more personal ways? Can’t we just say it directly or use SMS which is more convenient and private? I could immediately think of some possibilities:

1. they are showing off that they have social activities
2. they are telling that they can’t enjoy the real life
3. they are really busy (but have time for social account?)
4. they’re coincidently loggin in , maybe for playing games or checking messages, and they feel it’s necessary to leave message to these close ones
5. perhaps they shockingly consider that as being fun? (to me  it’s boring and stupid).

All don’t sound like me at all. I may use FB to deliver important greetings when I already say personally either via SMS or in person.  But in most cases, I use FB to avoid the need of saying it PERSONALLY. This is the best advantage of FB to me. It helps me to stay away from unnecessary communications without being bad. Most things are just not that important to do, but social habits sometimes require you to. Still I’m insensitive about this.

What I care for is interacting in real ways. That is where sincerity can be sensed. I understand that at times virtual interaction is advantageous and really efficient. I’m lucky that the very close ones, esp Bram and core family members, can understand. I am happy I don’t need to communicate much. I don’t need un-purposeful conversations unless with really close friends or close relatives. Don’t get it wrong as I am still friendly and open for new friendship. There are just some types of people that are disg****ng to me.

With FB, I have been trying to keep it less than 130 in friend list. If it gets more, I’ll have to delete some people I don’t really know. I won’t approve friend request if I have no intention for further contact with this specific one, even if I know her/him, and especially if I don’t know her/him at all. I want to keep it clean and meaningful. I want to be able to find close people easily when I’m looking for them. I want to see updates only from people I care for.  It’s foolish to do this when you have some hundreds or thousands of people in the list. Call it a public list instead of friend list then.