operation: awolf

…Or: Absent Without Leave on Facebook. This is to explain where I’ve been, or rather why I haven’t had much of a presence on Facebook for the past couple months.

While I clearly see the many benefits of being on Facebook and having all the connections and interactions aka stalkings, I got curious about something. As I noticed more and more people joining the world’s largest social network, would anyone notice if I disappeared?

I don’t mean like off the planet or deactivating my account like so many people claim they’ll do because of “drama” and ultimately start giving more of their personal business, then complaining that “you” don’t know them or “they” are talking about them. No, I just mean disappearing in my daily usage of the website, checking the messages and comments, etc. On occasion I’d check on a few of my friends, which is what it’s built for. I’m guilty of stalking just like the rest of you. But my addiction was and still is Twitter.

A look back on the majority of my status updates, they were all Twitter. I found it convenient to have my two accounts linked  so I only have to make one post. There was a few problems, or at least what I considered to be problems. Twitter is designed in such a way that it encourages it’s users to tweet often. Very often. What I tweet 5 minutes ago may have little to do with what I tweet right now. Okay, a better example: live-blogging or live-tweeting TV shows. I feel this might be an annoyance to my Facebook friends and might earn me a spot on their Ignore list unless they were watching whatever I was watching too.

With Twitter, things are just so much simpler. From what I hear with what Facebook wants to do and is already doing, it’s becoming gaudy and too busy with information overload. I’m sure there will be customizing options to organize the clutter, but even that alone can be a hassle. Yes, you can have too much of a good thing. That’s why parents warn their kids not to eat all their Halloween candy in one night. And I said it before and I’ll say it again, the one thing I’ve seen people ask for on Facebook and still haven’t done: the dislike button. YouTube has it. I’m just saying… since they copy everyone else…

Anyway, I decided to unlink the two accounts and I would guess my tweeting increased about 122%. The Twitter community noticed. I ended up getting a lot more followers. But what about Facebook?

With about 300 “friends” on my list, only about 3-4 of them noticed I wasn’t posting much. In fact, someone thought I unfriended them. No offense to my current Facebook buddies, but if you’re really one of my friends, I send you a text once in a while… unless I don’t have your number… yet, or we connect through other means. And still, with all this technology we have at our fingertips, the best way to connect is face to face whenever possible.

Don’t get me wrong, Facebook is great despite their need to fix things that aren’t broken every few weeks and me being very critical of them the past few weeks. I just think some people are addicted to it and I wanted to test myself to see if I was one of them. I learned that I’m not. Will I go back to being a regular user? Perhaps. Do I feel it’s a sinking ship like MySpace? Sorta. And my thoughts on Google+… I’m having a hard time with it.

I’m not really “gone” from Facebook. I just don’t do too much with my own account. Sometimes I’m logged in as the admin for The Lost Dial or Grace & Mercy so I might not even see my own profile anyway. Keeps me focused. It’s no secret, I’m easily distracted. Twitter is also a culprit.

So for the record, if you’re looking to interact with me or tune into my daily musings, follow me on Twitter. And as for a shameless plug, you can actually listen to me on The Lost Dial.