In the stone age, before Facebook, when I wanted to share something, I would send it via email. In fact, I still have different mailing lists set up in gmail for sending out different kinds of content.
So what then is the value of Facebook? There is no guarantee that when you post something on Facebook that people are going to see it. I have read that maybe only 20% of posts are visible to people because there are too many posts, and Facebook itself tries to figure out which ones you might want to see.
The first thing that Facebook has done for me is that it is allowed me to connect with people that I would have otherwise had no idea how to contact. It turns out that the friends of my friends are also my friends or at least people that I would like to stay in touch with. And Facebook allows you to search for people. I created my account all the back in 2008, but rarely used it until certain people found me on Facebook.
The second thing that Facebook has done for me is that it is pretty darn entertaining. Not a day goes by that I don't see several things on Facebook that are amusing. Sometimes it is informative, but usually not, so Facebook is not how I get my news.
This also makes Facebook time consuming. It is interesting to see how many people have their face buried in their phones looking at Facebook. For many people, Facebook is the Internet.
Facebook is also a weird form of social interaction.
So I have spent much time on Facebook. In the last three years it has become an integral part of my life, whereas before it meant very little to me.
I am contemplating deleting my Facebook account for a week to six months. It would be interesting to see what life is like without Facebook. Go dark. This would save a bunch of time and make it easier to focus on other things. However, maybe I can no longer live without Facebook. It is almost a certainty that I will come back.
Youtube has also become a form of social interaction. It is interactive in a different way, where you subscribe to channels of things that interest you, and then people exchange comments on the videos posted to those channels. Plus, if you are ambitious enough, you can make your own videos. I am as much hooked on Youtube as I am Facebook.
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