Social networking — whether it be in the form of Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare or any other online forum — is a powerful and ubiquitous tool. But as shocking as it may seem when shouted by a new acquaintance over the noise of a party or divulged during a coffee date, there are some members of the student body who have chosen the seemingly unbelievable — to delete their social media accounts.
Unsurprisingly, time wasted on Facebook is listed as one of the primary reasons for choosing to stay off of it. Fourth-year College student Brian Muffly deleted his Facebook account during his second year.
“When I had a Facebook, I would go to the library and spend the first 20 minutes messing around before I actually started studying,” Muffly said. “Now I’m more efficient with my time. I can go to the library and get started immediately.”
Improved time management, however, is not the only reason students have chosen to abstain from using the social media website. The constant stream of event invitations, new photo albums and status updates cause some students to compare themselves negatively to others.
“Facebook was making me compete [with others],” said fourth-year College student Jacob Lee.
“It’s just one less thing to worry about,” said second-year College student Ryan Hill, who deleted his Facebook as an experiment for Lent last year. “I expected to feel like I was missing out, but really that’s [how I’d been feeling] when I had a Facebook.”
Making the initial decision wasn’t easy, students agreed. Not having a Facebook makes it more difficult to stay connected with people who live far away. Hill said he sometimes finds it difficult to keep up with friends he made at camp or people he knows who live out of the state or in another country.
“You have to say some slightly more permanent goodbyes,” Hill said
Lee, however, questioned whether communication via social media is truly keeping in touch, or whether Facebook relationships are so superficial that people only use it as an excuse for voyeurism.
The decision to delete Facebook has also enabled these students to invest more time in face-to-face interactions.
“I can get to know people for who they are and not through their Facebook page,” fourth-year College student Caroline Cross said.
Lee said he initially replaced Facebook with Twitter, but he said he now feels as though he is able to use the time he would have spent on Facebook to do other things, like reading articles, playing guitar and meeting up with people in person.
Although all these students view their decisions as final — for the foreseeable future — both Cross and Muffly said they are unsure whether they will reactivate their accounts after graduation, in order to keep up with old friends.
“I’m not saying that Facebook is the curse, but for me it set me free [to get rid of it],” Hill said.
“Maybe I’ll turn it back on when I’m middle aged and the world doesn’t revolve around me.”
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