I've never loved Facebook. It has its uses, but it causes headaches–more than usual over the last couple weeks. In fact, I've been thinking, "How little can I use Facebook?" That sounds like a silly question to ask, but the key is that I still want to use Facebook. I don't want to delete my account, and I don't want to simply not log in anymore. I'm just tired of dealing with unwanted–sometimes creepy–comments from friends of friends. I'm tired of getting tagged in every picture from every party I've ever attended. I'm tired of Facebook causing drama.
I've taken a few steps to change how I use Facebook. I may take some more eventually, but I'll see how it goes for a few weeks.
First, I've started using it less. Much less. I stopped commenting on other peoples' pictures and statuses, and I stopped posting articles to my friends' walls. If I have an article to share, I'll email it. And I only did the other things to waste time when I was bored. It's so simple that I've taken it for granted, but simply being less visible invites fewer people to take notice.
Second, I tweaked my privacy settings. One of the reasons that I don't want to delete my Facebook account is that it's a great tool for sharing pictures with friends. I want people to look at pictures that I put up, like pictures from my vacations. I just got tired of getting emails saying that so-and-so tagged me in a photo only to log in and see that it's another picture from that party. You can change your privacy settings to take care of just that. My friends can see my pictures, I can see theirs, and I don't have to worry about, well, anything.
There's one more step that I haven't taken yet. I've been playing around with the idea of getting rid of my wall and posting a message saying that "I don't use Facebook very much, so if you want to get in touch with me, call me, email me, or chat with me on AIM. Just don't expect me to respond to anything on Facebook."
I'll see how it goes for the next week or two before I decide whether or not to do that last option. Either way, it's incredibly refreshing to remember that I can still have control over my place in social networking.
