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I was shut out of Facebook for 24 hours and felt like I had a limb chopped off. I honestly, truly, just don't understand this. Really, I don't. How can anyone

I was shut out of Facebook for 24 hours and felt like I had a limb chopped off. I honestly, truly, just don't understand this. Really, I don't. How can anyone allow themselves to become so utterly dependent on a single company like this? This reads like a drug addict describing going cold turkey.

jiggy2011 12y ago
Because all of their friends are also dependant on it.
- wanderingstan 12y ago
  And not just friends, many people depend on Facebook for their work. I know from an ex that the Opera world operates entirely within FB, and I can imagine the same is true for drag queens getting gigs. My realtor also swears by FB. It's not like people chose to become so dependent on a social network, often you one must to work within the context that's given.
w1ntermute 12y ago
Especially someone who's 58 y/o (according to his Wikipedia profile). Did he just forget that he was living just fine for nearly half a century before Facebook was even created?
- Nickoladze 12y ago
  That quote was from another person. “We don’t realize how ingrained Facebook is in our everyday lives,” a drag queen named Heklina told KNTV in San Jose, Calif. “I was shut out of Facebook for 24 hours and felt like I had a limb chopped off.”
- kiallmacinnes 12y ago
  I didn't look that up before posting, but yea, it certainly makes it even more difficult to understand. Edit: Aha, I see from a sibling post that the wikipedia page is for a different person.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
dkarapetyan 12y ago
This is not very uncommon actually. Teenagers all around the country feel the same way about their smartphones. I can't remember when this experiment was done but when smartphones were taken away the kids literally had withdrawal symptoms. As for the dependence on a single company that's more of an issue with technical training and awareness. You might be able to set up your own VPS with all sorts of open source alternatives to what facebook offers but not many others can.
- humanrebar 12y ago
  > literally had withdrawal symptoms Meaning what? That's a broad-enough statement to be meaningless. If withdrawal symptoms include grumpiness, listlessness, and boredom, I get withdrawal symptoms every time I sit in traffic.
  - dkarapetyan 12y ago
    Do a google search and find the study. I'm neither a psychologist nor a neuro-chemist.
    - CocaKoala 12y ago
      It's pretty poor form to cite a study and then say "google it and find it yourself" when somebody asks for clarification.
      - enraged_camel 12y ago
        It's also pretty poor form to ask for a citation on something when you can easily find it on your own. We aren't talking about a generic topic here. A five-second search on "smartphone withdrawal" brings up tons of relevant results, including the study mentioned by parent. edit: I guess expecting people to do their own work is offensive to some people...
        lotharbot 12y ago
allegory 12y ago
That's a fair way of describing it. A couple of years back I had a facebook account, a nice iPhone 4 and an Android tablet and did most of my social organisation and communication through them. Everywhere I went I had one device or another attached to my face or hands permanently. I got anxious if the internet was patchy and went particularly batshit when my ADSL line was down for 2 days resorting to cracking the neighbour's speedtouch router password and using that. Totally fucked up situation so I fixed it one afternoon. Today, I have a fastmail box that gets about 2-5 emails a day that I read once a week, a single static web page and a £20 Nokia that I don't actually even know where it is as the battery is flat. Work happens elsewhere via RDP and no corporate phone any more. Life is good. The transition from one to the other was initiated by a sudden realisation that I wasn't actually doing anything any more other than piping crap into someone else's product and that I wasn't productive or useful and that my family were suffering. I was like a hamster running in a wheel. Getting rid of this was hard and could be considered like a drug addict going cold turkey as you say, so spot on. I felt ill for a couple of weeks. Then it wore off suddenly. Now I just have to lever my wife off it...
joe_the_user 12y ago
I honestly, truly, just don't understand this. Humans need social interaction. If someone's only form of social interaction has become online interaction, losing that will be akin to being put into solitary confinement (which we know is akin to real physical torture). Most human beings are lazy. Most people don't change their UI's default setting and similarly most people aren't going to change their default mode of interaction. So even your good friends are not that likely to change from Facebook to some other mode of interaction just because you aren't there. Now, it would be great to not be lazy in choosing your interaction mode and to have all your friends also not be lazy in this regard but the later part is going to be a lot harder.
- kiallmacinnes 12y ago
  Humans need social interaction. If someone's only form of social interaction has become online interaction, losing that will be akin to being put into solitary confinement (which we know is akin to real physical torture). I totally understand the need for social interaction, and the effects of that interaction being withheld. I don't however understand how anybody could possibly allow their "only form of social interaction" to become Facebook.
  - chrismcb 12y ago
    It is pretty simple. When all the people you want to interact with are only using Facebook... What are you going to do?
tfederman 12y ago
Maybe it's hard to find Facebook essential (as opposed to convenient) if you lived during a time when you had to actually know your friends' phone numbers and enter them manually. As I did. Anyone you're close to you have a way to contact without Facebook. Anyone else shouldn't make you feel like you're missing anything important. Right?
yeukhon 12y ago
To me, it is simply it has become part of someone's life. You will feel a little sad and even angry when your favorite hang out place is shut down. You simply make it part of your current moment of life. Do people depend on it as a channel to talk to people, sure. Once you are used to something, you build an attachment.
dustingetz 12y ago
the same way that many are dependent on gmail

jiggy2011 12y ago

Because all of their friends are also dependant on it.

wanderingstan 12y ago
And not just friends, many people depend on Facebook for their work. I know from an ex that the Opera world operates entirely within FB, and I can imagine the same is true for drag queens getting gigs. My realtor also swears by FB. It's not like people chose to become so dependent on a social network, often you one must to work within the context that's given.

w1ntermute 12y ago

Especially someone who's 58 y/o (according to his Wikipedia profile). Did he just forget that he was living just fine for nearly half a century before Facebook was even created?

Nickoladze 12y ago
That quote was from another person. “We don’t realize how ingrained Facebook is in our everyday lives,” a drag queen named Heklina told KNTV in San Jose, Calif. “I was shut out of Facebook for 24 hours and felt like I had a limb chopped off.”
kiallmacinnes 12y ago
I didn't look that up before posting, but yea, it certainly makes it even more difficult to understand. Edit: Aha, I see from a sibling post that the wikipedia page is for a different person.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

dkarapetyan 12y ago

This is not very uncommon actually. Teenagers all around the country feel the same way about their smartphones. I can't remember when this experiment was done but when smartphones were taken away the kids literally had withdrawal symptoms. As for the dependence on a single company that's more of an issue with technical training and awareness. You might be able to set up your own VPS with all sorts of open source alternatives to what facebook offers but not many others can.

humanrebar 12y ago
> literally had withdrawal symptoms Meaning what? That's a broad-enough statement to be meaningless. If withdrawal symptoms include grumpiness, listlessness, and boredom, I get withdrawal symptoms every time I sit in traffic.
- dkarapetyan 12y ago
  Do a google search and find the study. I'm neither a psychologist nor a neuro-chemist.
  - CocaKoala 12y ago
    It's pretty poor form to cite a study and then say "google it and find it yourself" when somebody asks for clarification.
    - enraged_camel 12y ago
      It's also pretty poor form to ask for a citation on something when you can easily find it on your own. We aren't talking about a generic topic here. A five-second search on "smartphone withdrawal" brings up tons of relevant results, including the study mentioned by parent. edit: I guess expecting people to do their own work is offensive to some people...
      - lotharbot 12y ago

allegory 12y ago

That's a fair way of describing it. A couple of years back I had a facebook account, a nice iPhone 4 and an Android tablet and did most of my social organisation and communication through them. Everywhere I went I had one device or another attached to my face or hands permanently. I got anxious if the internet was patchy and went particularly batshit when my ADSL line was down for 2 days resorting to cracking the neighbour's speedtouch router password and using that. Totally fucked up situation so I fixed it one afternoon. Today, I have a fastmail box that gets about 2-5 emails a day that I read once a week, a single static web page and a £20 Nokia that I don't actually even know where it is as the battery is flat. Work happens elsewhere via RDP and no corporate phone any more. Life is good. The transition from one to the other was initiated by a sudden realisation that I wasn't actually doing anything any more other than piping crap into someone else's product and that I wasn't productive or useful and that my family were suffering. I was like a hamster running in a wheel. Getting rid of this was hard and could be considered like a drug addict going cold turkey as you say, so spot on. I felt ill for a couple of weeks. Then it wore off suddenly. Now I just have to lever my wife off it...

joe_the_user 12y ago

I honestly, truly, just don't understand this. Humans need social interaction. If someone's only form of social interaction has become online interaction, losing that will be akin to being put into solitary confinement (which we know is akin to real physical torture). Most human beings are lazy. Most people don't change their UI's default setting and similarly most people aren't going to change their default mode of interaction. So even your good friends are not that likely to change from Facebook to some other mode of interaction just because you aren't there. Now, it would be great to not be lazy in choosing your interaction mode and to have all your friends also not be lazy in this regard but the later part is going to be a lot harder.

kiallmacinnes 12y ago
Humans need social interaction. If someone's only form of social interaction has become online interaction, losing that will be akin to being put into solitary confinement (which we know is akin to real physical torture). I totally understand the need for social interaction, and the effects of that interaction being withheld. I don't however understand how anybody could possibly allow their "only form of social interaction" to become Facebook.
- chrismcb 12y ago
  It is pretty simple. When all the people you want to interact with are only using Facebook... What are you going to do?

tfederman 12y ago

Maybe it's hard to find Facebook essential (as opposed to convenient) if you lived during a time when you had to actually know your friends' phone numbers and enter them manually. As I did. Anyone you're close to you have a way to contact without Facebook. Anyone else shouldn't make you feel like you're missing anything important. Right?

yeukhon 12y ago

To me, it is simply it has become part of someone's life. You will feel a little sad and even angry when your favorite hang out place is shut down. You simply make it part of your current moment of life. Do people depend on it as a channel to talk to people, sure. Once you are used to something, you build an attachment.

dustingetz 12y ago

the same way that many are dependent on gmail