Permanent Facebook quit?

I'm thinking of permanently quitting Facebook.

You've heard it before from others. But I don't mean just deactivating it. I mean I want to start a revolution. I want to start with the man in the mirror and redefine happiness as something deep. Not shallow. Redefine recreation. Rediscover procrastination. Reinvent life.

It means taking a big (and I mean BIG) step to actually DELETE it, as opposed to mere deactivation. But the more I try to assess the situation, the more I realize how trapped I am despite all of the privacy issues arising due to the "evil Mark Zuckerman" and the procrastination which comes along for the ride.

First, Facebook and I go way back. That means all of my high school friends, peers, upperclassmen, and underclassmen are there. People who I share treasured memories with! What if I try to contact them again in the future? Will they have forgotten me? Will I even need to contact them in the future? I want to feel like I'm missed.

I would lose all of the contact information of the people I might want to contact again in my life. I would fall out of the public sphere and people who are searching for me would have to go through a painstaking route to contact me. For example, just recently, I tried to seek help and advice from a friend at UCLA. All I had to do was search his name and click "Send Message." Without Facebook, I'm not sure how else I would have gotten a hold of him. I would have to revolutionize the way I keep track of people and revert back to emails and more old-fashioned methods. Ways that people are not altogether used to. Thus, ways that would discourage people from interacting with me... hypothetically, of course. I want to feel wanted.

Second. Facebook is uncannily a large part of Hong Kong university culture. And suffice to say, it has improved my current network status and helped me adjust to life in Hong Kong. I now know more people and have even grown closer to people who I probably would not normally interact. What if I grow farther apart from them? Or does it mean I'll grow closer to them? When they become "memories," how else will I keep them in close contact? I want to feel a sense of belonging.

Third. How will quitting Facebook affect my long distance relationship? Will it make it better because our interactions will be more genuine (theoretically)? Will it make it worse because our relationship won't be announced in the public sphere and it'll be easier to slip away? I suppose either way, it wcould be an indicator of the sincerity of our love or lack thereof. Still, I want to feel like love means something in a public context.

Fourth: alienation. Being someone without a Facebook is a lot different from someone who doesn't use their Facebook often. It could potentially alienate me from the rest of the population. I guess the feeling might be akin to a starving artist or a salmon swimming upriver during mating season. Everyone would talk about what's going on on Facebook and I'd sit there dumbfounded, reminded of the fact that I quit Facebook just because I believed in a budding revolution. I honestly just want to feel a sense of belonging.

There are plenty more reasons why I feel trapped but the reasons currently listed take most of the cake. I'm still in the contemplation stages (oh no, this sounds like a model I learned in Health Psychology...). Writing it out, I've almost convinced myself (sosc200P again...). A serious farewell to Facebook seems like it's in the making.

It's only a click, a password, a captcha, another click, and a 14 day incubation period away....

https://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account