Have you lost the love for Facebook?

I signed up for Facebook years ago and for a while it consumed my life. I hunted down old school friends, then after that I added people I barely spoke to at school, and eventually I ended up accepting Friend Requests from completely random people I am not sure I have ever met. To keep the buzz going I was ‘Liking’ pages and adding games like a mad man, and then, suddenly, it hit me: I was bored.

Do you recognise this feeling?

If you do then like me you login every so often, mostly when tagged in some awful photograph, you see promotions from brands you don’t use and updates from people you don’t really care about (go on, admit it).

So, the buzz is gone. Do you move on to the next social network? Get militant and close down your account, screaming about privacy?

I chose another way, a purge.

• I ‘un-friended’ (horrid word) all but people I am actually friends with, 112 people
• I ‘un-liked’ all the pages I have no interest in, tens of brands and groups

And what difference did it make? Loads. Using Facebook feels lighter, every post on my wall seems more interesting and relevant, comments on things I upload are from people I actually know and want to reply to.   

So, if you felt like I did, maybe it is time to purge.

I would love to hear your views by commenting below.

Comments

[Ed Henderson]

Totally agree. Did this myself a year back. Halved my friends, removed all numpties, hid all boring folk. Much more fun.

[@KevinGilmartin]

My attitude towards facebook adding has always been very strict. I've only ever "friended" people I know personally or know well from another online platform like a forum.

I won't add family or colleagues, and I don't play games on there. That said, I'm still bored with it. I'm only still on it out of necessity as there are some folks on my list for whom Facebook is my only method of contact.

Anything I post is also posted on Google+; I'm more active there than on Facebook.

[Gary Day-Ellison]

I don't think I ever 'loved' Facebook. But I loved what is made possible. Easy contact with friends at a distance. Re-connect with friends who had slipped out of my life. Informal contact with good aquaintainces as I get to know them better. And I increasingly use private channels.

Of course it has balderized the word 'friends'. But I know who my real friends are. I am not looking for notches on my friendship gun. Which sounds vaguely smutty but isn't.

Platforms change. I would prefer to use different channels for different folk but that is increasingly difficult. Google+ circles is smart as some fall into more than one. But it eats screen space. And I want to spend better time on SM. Not more time.

In the end it is about people and how they relate. Regardless of the pipelines. I think some may see your action on Facebook as harsh or ruthless. I believe it is healthy though, Mark. Taking control of another part of your life.

[Alex Christou]

I did a cull about a year ago as well (not so good when you run into one of those people immediately afterwards and realise that you still get on really well). I have about 30 people sat in the pending list as I don't count them as friends (people that I was at school with but never knew for example). I blocked updates from certain people, not to mention anything to do with Farmville. I never "liked" any brands or other pages unless I genuinely wanted to hear what they have to say (only about two or three I think).

Much like Twitter, Facebook needs to be managed by each person around their respective needs and desires.

For me it is simply not as dynamic or informative as Twitter, so I go on it less. But it does have its uses.

[Mark Jennings]

Thank you for the replies.

So do we agree with Gary that it is about different networks for different groups of people? If so, who are we engaging in Google+?