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I am surprised that deleting Facebook led people to socialize offline more. After I deleted Facebook about seven years ago, my social life took a big dive becau

I am surprised that deleting Facebook led people to socialize offline more. After I deleted Facebook about seven years ago, my social life took a big dive because I was no longer getting word of events that my friends were organizing – they would solely post the announcements solely to Facebook. Now I am wondering if this doesn’t happen to people today because Facebook is increasingly passé, and so all those event announcements are going over Whatsapp instead and no one is deleting that. But even today, without Facebook it must be difficult to hear of many general events happening in one’s city where one could make new friends. Meetup.com used to be a great platform for this, but where I live or in the cities I travel to, it has been reduced to either lecture evenings for software developers or thinly-veiled ways for yoga teachers and entrepreneurs to build businesses off of the people who show up.

xcavier 6y ago
I think you’re missing the point: deleting Fb meant they had to make more of an effort to know what their friends were up to, which resulted in more offline interactions.
godelski 6y ago
I deleted mine years ago. It increased my offline interaction. But like my sibling comment suggests, I had to be more proactive. Yeah, it is more work, but it has felt more rewarding and the relationships feel more real. It gets a lot easier real fast too. Basically you have to get your friends to realize that they can't be lazy with you and if they want to be friends they have to put in effort too. "Why didn't you show up to my BBQ?" "Because you didn't invite me?" "What? I told everyone on Facebook". "I don't have one. If you want me to come you'll have to text me." And people end up texting you. I can say one of the reasons if feels more real is because you're showing up to an outing with an explicit invitation, not a generic group invite.
amelius 6y ago
> After I deleted Facebook about seven years ago, my social life took a big dive because I was no longer getting word of events that my friends were organizing Instead of deleting Facebook, just unfollow all your friends. Then you still have "Events".

xcavier 6y ago

I think you’re missing the point: deleting Fb meant they had to make more of an effort to know what their friends were up to, which resulted in more offline interactions.

godelski 6y ago

I deleted mine years ago. It increased my offline interaction. But like my sibling comment suggests, I had to be more proactive. Yeah, it is more work, but it has felt more rewarding and the relationships feel more real. It gets a lot easier real fast too. Basically you have to get your friends to realize that they can't be lazy with you and if they want to be friends they have to put in effort too. "Why didn't you show up to my BBQ?" "Because you didn't invite me?" "What? I told everyone on Facebook". "I don't have one. If you want me to come you'll have to text me." And people end up texting you. I can say one of the reasons if feels more real is because you're showing up to an outing with an explicit invitation, not a generic group invite.

amelius 6y ago

> After I deleted Facebook about seven years ago, my social life took a big dive because I was no longer getting word of events that my friends were organizing Instead of deleting Facebook, just unfollow all your friends. Then you still have "Events".