LIFE WITHOUT FACEBOOK, PART 4
Image via Ilya Schurov
The Digital Gentleman, looking to make sense of the mess called social media, recently deactivated his Facebook account. This is a series about the resulting misadventures. Check out Part 1, Part 2, or Part 3.
It’s been about three weeks since my experiment started and, well, what can I say? I’m still here. The withdrawal symptoms have largely subsided, although I find myself still eying the Facebook app icon on my phone and wondering what’s on the other side of the blue curtain.
Stumbled across this article detailing the complications social media creates when people are estranged IRL (in real life) but not on social. As if life wanted to hammer the point home, recently a friend of mine began having some issues with an ex-boyfriend who was still monitoring her social feed and getting information on her life. It’s a reality of 2012, the Great Question of our generation: more connection, more transparency, more speed, but at what price?
I can say at least that this experiment has given me a greater degree of invisibility. Sure, it’s harder to invite me to birthday parties, but it’s also harder for a stranger to know where I am at any given moment. I may not see people’s brunch pics in real time, but neither can people find unflattering pics of me. Friends can’t private message me on Facebook, but neither can enemies harass me.
In short: it’s now a bit harder to Google me, a bit harder to find out my secrets, a bit harder to know exactly what I’m doing and what my plans are. As digital reality seeps into our real reality, perhaps anonymity is the ultimate luxury.
