The AdNews NGen blog: The Onus is on Facebook

The majority of Facebook users are women, aged between 18 – 34 years old. As far as demographics go, I’m what you would call the ‘perfect’ Facebook user.

I’m a 22-year-old female who has just graduated from university and has been out of high school for less than 5 years. I had over 800 ‘friends’ on Facebook, update my status 4-5 times a day and access it from not just my computer, but my phone – thus making me a ‘super user'. I use Facebook as my primary form of communication, with it definitely dominating the use of my mobile phone. As mentioned, I would shamelessly update my status on a very frequent basis. My updates ranged from lyrics, ‘witty’ thoughts/criticism of people on the train, links to my blog, and tagging my friends avidly describing my love for them. My efforts were aptly rewarded with the crowning of “Miss Facebook” amongst my peers.

So, given all of this, you can imagine the surprise and utter shock I received from my ‘friends’ when I posted, “Deactivating my account… laters”. Followed by doing exactly that. Within the next half hour I received a colossal amount of text messages on my phone asking why I had deleted said sender from my profile. The only response I received upon my explanation that I deleted myself, not them, was, “Why?” My answer of “Why not?” wasn’t received well.

Initially, I felt that a great weight was lifted off my shoulders. I could breathe and not have the think about the ramifications it would have on Facebook. Then I questioned myself; how will people know where I am if they want to communicate with me? How will I be invited to parties and events? How will I know the inner lives of my best friends?! I shifted into panic mode and soon started to regret it. Surely I couldn’t reactivate it within an hour of deactivating it though, right? I would look like a complete fool! So I stuck to my guns and didn’t. I went and made myself a coffee and read an online article. I thought to myself how great the article related to a friend of mine and went to post the link on her page. That’s right… no Facebook.

Throughout the first few days, I felt like a junkie trying to kick the habit. There were certain times in the day, such as first thing in the morning, lunchtime, before I would leave work in the afternoon and on the train home, when it was hard to not log on and reactivate my account.

Then, after a while, I realised that I didn’t really care. What difference does it make if I know about my friends' favourite songs or what group everyone has ‘liked’ that day?

Now that I have deactivated my account, I feel somewhat less restricted. To me, everyone that is on Facebook is linked to each other through a web of status updates, photos, comments, tags, etc. whereas I’m just me, doing my own thing. And that in itself, oddly enough, is very liberating. As one friend put it, everyone using Facebook is stuck in a web and I’m just the spider chilling and watching everyone stick around.

I feel that it is almost like having the house to myself for the first time being 9 years old. I can do whatever I like without answering to people.

So for now, I’ll enjoy being alone in my home with no siblings or parents watching me, ready to dob me on as soon as I do something wrong.

Goodbye mindless status updates, crude photos and updates after accounts have supposedly been ‘hacked’, photos that have alcohol bottles strategically placed, and girls with overly plumped lips with their hands a permanent fixture on their hip.

* Note to reader: Account was reactivated after one week.

Elisa Bianchini
Media Coordinator
Initiative