Content With Value: Why Facebook Is Just For Fun
About a month ago now, I deleted Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Words With Friends and several other 'habitual' apps from my iPhone.
The main reason for doing so was that I never felt the need to be constantly connected but since owning a smartphone, the "pocket reach'n'check" has become a defacto standard of communication. I know I'm not alone.
Reaching for your phone every time you have a free moment to see what's going on - instant gratification - has become the norm. What I have realized and made a joke about with a colleague at work was that now I actually put my phone away after checking it. I found I had no withdrawal, was more aware of my surroundings, the years before I had a smartphone started to flow back in memories. The joke was that 'now I have more time to pretend I have a life'
I actually took a lot more away from this than I realized in the moment. A few days later I realized that 'having a life' and its subjective meaning has changed.
So why is Facebook just for fun? Well, look at your News Feed. Maybe it's just me but most of the posts are either humorous links or links to big publication pieces for the most part, along with the usual daily Insta-dog/child/meal photographs.
Not that there is anything wrong with this but it really brightens my day when I see an informative piece either written by someone I know or shared from a source I hadn't previously heard of. I have a bad obsession with reading Y Combinator daily and so all of my information comes from start ups, angels, VC's and all things tech. Every now and again I share it and shortly after, I realize it's not interesting to probably 90% of my Facebook friends.
So Facebook, for fun, is the place we go to share our most immediate moments, to feel immediate validation or instant gratification. When I look at Y Combinator, Medium, Svbtle, Techblocks or others I now don't immediately share what I find interesting. The value of content is determined by the individual but at the same time it is determined by the reader or viewer.
We all have hidden certain friends. We must be friends on Facebook since we are already members, but we don't necessarily need to see fifty daily pictures of their selfies or their pets. At the same time, Facebook is the Walmart/Target/Sears of sharing, everyone goes and maybe it's not the best place for academic or intelligent pieces.
My conclusion is that I visit the site a lot less. I check every few days from my computer only but my 'Dailys' no longer include it. I feel that as I get older and closer to the grave and further from youth, I want to read and learn more. As such, I have a curated list of interesting writers/journalists on Twitter and have found it to be a better sharing platform for genuinely interesting content. In terms of sharing my own findings, photographs and writing I stick with Tumblr for ease of use and a simple UI.
What experience, from outside the big blue walls of FB, have you found of a site you prefer to share your web findings, pictures and writing that you feel give more value to the content?
