Facebook shifts from personal to business - for me at least

I feel facebook is the best device to reach your friends and people you work with. It has options to post all kinds of content and can be formal if you publish something in that context. I am looking to trim my facebook right now because I have a lot of friends that I dont care too much for their opinions or what they ate during the week. I want my timeline to have posts that I would like to read or I find beneficial. I will continue to use facebook in my life as long as it does not begin to clutter like myspace did. Because we all know that got out of hand way too fast.

I have had a Facebook for a while now.  My thoughts on Facebook are that it is a huge waste of time when you actually need to be productive and get stuff done.  I enjoy it because it is a good way for my teammates and I to share pictures from our sporting events.  When I graduate college and am seriously looking for a job I think I will trim my Facebook.  It will be more appropriate when employers go online and look at my profile.  I do not think I will ever delete my Facebook because I still want to be in contact with my friends, but I will definitely not use it as much in the future.  I did not know that you can share #NMDL posts on Facebook.  I'll have to try that out soon. 

Lately I have been debating the samething, not for all the same reasons, but we do share some reasons alike. My facebook lately has been jamed pack of a newsfeed where about 1/3 of the people I dont even know who they are! This isn't a problem that I have been contributing to lately, its from before when I first got a Facebook. I originally thought it was a good idea to accept every single friend request that was sent to me, now after about five or six years with the same Facebook I have people I don't even recongnize! I'm going to be cleaning up my facebook in the next couple days, not only by dropping the people I don't want, but making my facebook a professional page, not just a stay connected to friends page. It wasn't even until about a year ago where I made any changes to my security to my facebook. For atleast 3 years if you looked up my facebook and weren't a freind of mine, you could see everything I had to offer. Everthing I had on my Facebook wasn't so perfect, this had to change. I couldn't allow just any person to look up my Facebook and get to know me like a Facebook freind would, I made everything private. One point you made that I really like is by cutting people, your cutting usage time. Makes perfect sense, the less information to look at, the less time I'm spending on Facebook! That's a great way to be more productive, I'll start now!

After reading your thoughts about Facebook, I decided to look at my own page. Realizing that I have over 600 friends and I really talk to about 100 of them I have decided it is time to cut. I have had my Facebook since senior year of highschool which has been great because it allowed me to keep in contact with my high school friends while meeting a lot of new people at MSU and getting connected to them. But every year my birthday rolls around and Facebook announces that to all my friends and I realize people are writing on my wall who I have not spoken to since their last wall post about my birthday the previous year.

 

Going forward into the future it is now time to start to treat my Facebook professionally. It is no longer used just for catching up time to time my future can rely on it for job opportunities. I need to realize that everything is public and that everything on my facebook can reflect me and I need to be worried about that. Being a business major employers will start to research me by looking at my Facebook and what ever they see good or bad resembles me. I need to be more aware of this and really start to think logically about what is posted on my Facebook and who my “Facebook” friends are.

 

I see this trend increasing with businesses. Personally, I think it is very helpful because you are able to link events, friends, and other useful information to relatable companies. For instance, companies in East Lansing are on Facebook to increase awareness of events, promotions, and their objectives. It serves as a “Google” function where people have the opportunity to look up all the information they please on Facebook. However, the con to this is clutter and the overwhelming amount of information that is targeted toward you. In the end, it will be interesting to see what new elements are incorporated into Facebook and the benefits it presents.  

After reading this blog, I agree that I should delete friends; however, having a lot of facebooks friends are beneficial to me right now.  I am involved in party promoting and have a wide range of accepted friends.  In the near future I will eventually delete people from my friends list.  I have to admit that I have close to 3,000 friends and I only know/seen about 40 percent of them.  Its scary that a lot of people that I don't know have access to my personal life.  I rarely think about facebook because most of my time is occupied on twitter.  I think it is good to keep facebook to help refer to people you meet and to reconnect with friends you have lost contact with.  

I think facebooko has a lot going on.  In my opinion there are too many appplications that trend for a short period of time then fade away.  Also, there is too much spam going on.  That makes me not want to use.  I only use facebook for business only now.

Every time I log into Facebook, my newsfeed is bombarded with photos of people I haven't spoken with in years, statuses about how depressed someone is about their breakup, and quite frankly, I don't care! I, too, have become fed up with this messy over-populated Facebook I've created for myself. I think it's important to keep in touch with people, but to an extent. I know they have taken recent efforts to allow you to "subscribe" to certain people, but at least in my case I think I' m too far gone. I don't want to go through 860 people and decide individually what aspects of their lives I care about. I am all for simplicity. Google+ is a grea blank slate and I really hope I can convince my friends to hop on the bandwagon. I think I would have a really tough time getting rid of my Facebook because of all the time and content I have invested in it, but I will certainly tone down my usage if the site doesn't stop updating and making things more complicated. In the Big Fat Marketing Blog, Tim Parry talks about how the amount and frequency of stuff you post on Facebook can clutter and turn off your friends. I think we all need to cut back a little on our Facebooks, and learn to enjoy them again. 

You bring up many great points. Many people spend hours on Facebook per day, usually not doing anything productive. I try no to spend too much time on it for personal use, although I do use it for business. Managing many Facebooks and other social media feeds for clients has put me on the other side of the fence. It is interesting to see how people interact with business pages. I understand that users want to connect with the brands and businesses that they like. As a business you need to use your time and your consumers time wisely. It is easy for me to think like a consumer because I am one, it allows me to connect our clients to their users much easier. As a business resource I think it is a tremendous tool. Facebook can allow you to share every aspect of your business with your consumers and give them an experience that they will enjoy. 

After reading this it’s easy to see why shifting Facebook from a site of personal sharing to more of a business based site was beneficial to you, and I can relate to most of your points but have found exceptions in a couple that relate to my personal experiences that disallow me to consider deleting my account.  I agree that Facebook has become a complete time suck as I have been found guilty of this on multiple occasions, but in certain circumstances it has proven to be my only connection to home.  Recently I traveled abroad for a lengthy amount of time and the only mode of communication I had with everyone back home was through Facebook, so in this light I didn’t see the massive amount of time I spent on it to be a negative thing.  In regards to the privacy aspect, I too dislike the fact that Facebook owns everything that is put up on the site and have been reminded that I need to closely monitor what I put up there from now on, so thank you for that!  As far as Facebook in the future, I agree that it’s not going to go away but it also is an extremely crucial medium in which I believe could be beneficial to students looking to connect with various people in high positions at firms in which they potentially find employment with.  Instead of looking back at how many hours I’ve spent on Facebook, I choose to think of the ways in which Facebook could benefit me in the future and possibly help steer me in different and exciting new directions.  When it comes to simplicity, I couldn’t agree more and I would like to add that half the people I have listed as friends are people that I don’t even know at all.  This reason for the cut has also inspired me to make a few cuts of my own.

-Christina Salowich 

This is a reminder that I need to be careful with what I put on facebook. You never know who could see it!

I would totally agree that Facebook has become way too personal! I like the idea that I can catch up and stay in touch with old friends. But the fact that I can know when my friend is tired or that another friend hates life and thinks his homework stinks, I could do without. In fact, I could do without knowing all of my friends every thought or a friend that updates where they are and what their doing every 15 minutes. Facebook has taken a lot of people's free time away from them, or if your like me, your work/study time too! In reading this from Dereck, I totally get why he would want to trim back some unnecessary time from being on Facebook. It has definitely re-affirmed my original want to delete facebook "friends" that I never talk to or that I just don't need to know about. Especially since in a year I will graduate anyhow, I need to consider how I appear professionally also in the business world. Information I put on my facebook and the type of friends I can aquire without being selective or careful, is alarming.

So, here is an insightful list of tips on how to keep your facebook professional.

 

I definitely agree with what this post describes about. I made my facebook account since 2009 but I only have less than 200 friends because I am not a crazy to spending my time on facenook. Even I am not a facebook perso; I also spend an hour per day. My day is starting with checking new post of my friends. Presentday, many college students depend on facebook beacuse it gives you updating friends' thought and many other things. In this semester, personly, I have a full of stress for studying my major advertising. I decided do not spending my time on facebook, after that; I read this post which gave bunch of resonable reasons help me cut off my time from facebook. One another good example of how people depend on facebook case is my friends' story. He posts every small thought on his wall even in class. If he posting but no one else reply to that, he got a stress for it. I felt weired but he seems like serious. If anyone is time suck facebook, they should think seriously about it and I glad to recommanded this post.

This post really hits home in my recent struggle over Facebook as a new way to connect professionally. Facebook was long seen, in my eyes, as a personal site for students to express their innermost thoughts and feelings with friends and family. However, this era of the personal and professional divide is quickly diminishing. The “I am eating Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal for breakfast” update was once acceptable but is now seen as irrelevant and irritating, especially to potential employers. I may want my friends to know I am watching Jersey Shore in Holden Hall, so they can come join me, but I don’t want professionals to know that I shamelessly anticipate the new episode each week. I believe this may explain my gravitation to Google+, where I can create separate friend and professional circles to communicate with these groups in a different style and tone. Fortunately, I have never felt compelled to post this type of content on Twitter or LinkedIn and, therefore, feel comfortable connecting with professionals on those platforms. Do you suggest students create a separate Facebook page intended for connecting with professionals, similar to your “like” page?

Although my posts are all professional and mother approved, I am torn between further cleaning up my page and eliminating individuals from my friends list (that I may not want to be professionally associated with), or keeping a more open demeanor on my profile for who ever would like to view it. 

Thankfully, I personally am not plagued by the time suck Facebook often creates. I am able to limit my time watching the newsfeed tick away because I just don’t have the time and know I need to complete other tasks in my day. I also am bored with updates that in no way add to my personal knowledge base or spark my interest (although, I am probably guilty of generating posts that bore others). I would much rather take to Twitter or LinkedIn in search of meaningful content.

 

The 4 reasons you listed above make a lot of sense to me for Facebook usage. The number one thing I have an issue with when it comes to Facebook is that 95% of the time it's a huge waste of time. The amount of time that people spend on Facebook daily is somewhat embarrassing. I understand that people have different reasons for using the social media site, but I also think that people try and telll themselves they use it for one thing, when in reality that's not the case. Anyway, I am definitely looking to trim down my Facebook, it needs a lot of work. When I first joined the site I was young and didn't really understand the concept of what Facebook really is. I accepted anyone I was familiar with as a friend and used it to be social. Now, as I have hopefully matured, I understand that Facebook can actually be somehwat dangerous and damaging to my future professional goals. Honestly, because I am still a college student, I will mostly likely continue to use my Facebook in most of the same ways, because it's a great way to communicate to friends and family that I don't see often because I go to school out of state. For a little more into the future, I am aiming to trim mine down as much as you did yours. I know I can eventually use it from a business standpoint and that's where I want to be with Facebook in the future. I want to be able to use it to network and make connections with people that are worthwhile. I also want it to be able to boost my ego and my career not hurt it.

I agree with many of the points that were made in this post regarding Facebook, yet even as a Google+ user, I still find it to be one of the most interactive and meaningful networking sites. Just as mentioned in The New Rules of Marketing and PR, Content is King in new media and that can be related to Facebook in that your account is only as valuable as the people you're connecting with (i.e. what they're posting).

I have a little over 700 "friends" on Facebook and I do think this number would be better off somewhere in the 500s. That said, however, even if I'm not particularly fond of somebody's posting activity, if they are someone that's a peer or is relevant to my life (or my past), I still find it valuable to have them as a part of my feed. Just as it is a little absorbed to micromanage one's Facebook "Info" or "interests", I find a little calculated to prune friends so regularly and intensly as they truly add to the experience of Facebook, or true "Social Networking".

There is one point that's indisputable, it's that Facebook is indeed a time-suck. Rather than limit friends or get too personal, I think I would fare best simply limiting my time on the site period.

Facebook definately wins the battle for time spent on site, it is important to remember the time you spend reading people's updates on facebook, at the same time more people will update their status thus creating more updates for you to absorb if you are the type who wants to know everything there is to know about everyone on your facebook page. I honestly dont spend that amount of time on my facebook, mainly because the friends I truely have connection with, I can just call them or simply meet up to gossip or simply chat. Alot of facebook status updates are quite minute, of course I'd congrat them if my friends landed a job or something of that multitude, but if someone who just ordered a bagel and sits in boredem, I probably wouldnt' spend the time to read or reply. Facebook actually has a smart algorithm to match status updates to the people you have more connection with, I dont know how it works but most of my news feeds are from people whom I actually want to keep track of.

I have been debating on trimming my facebook again, I trimmed it once before 2 years ago because I was sick of all the random status updates from random people! Also I felt as though I had to many "facebook friends" or people that I met once or twice somewhere, they add me as a friend, then I accept and never actually see or talk to them again in person, which I feel is pointless. As most people I love to check up on old friends and to see what family members are up too, and staying connected with all of them. But I feel as though Facebook has exhausted all of their resources, as well as having alot of negative feedback from users about their website updates. Consumers get sick of using the same old thing and will eventually want to get on next big thing, as of right now I am still a active Facebook user but theres no telling what tomorrow brings and for all we know Facebook could die slowly just like MySpace did a couple of years ago.

Oh Facebook. Or as my Tia Patty calls it, Spacebook. You'll get your Mind lost in it that's for sure. My thoughts on Facebook are that of it taking up much of folk's time as we are constable talking/writing to people and looking at their photos. Atleast for me I enjoy staying connected as I use my account to express piety of my artistic experiences. I put up my art and designs as well as raps and songs, so getting as many people possible to view it is a goal of mine. I agree in that our friendships and fraternizations have gotten so out of control and ingenuine that you always hear people say well were not friends, but we are on Facebook. The world got caught up on increasing their friend number as much as possible as it expressed some sort of status to have so many friends. Silly them and me;) I feel I will do the necessary trimming myself as I'm sure I have friends that I don't even know, and really don't know theyre intentions for seeking me if any. I want purpose and genuine connections and I will try to defer back to this level. To me Facebook will always be my "creative diary". Full of honest emotions and hidden meanings of thought.

I've been thinking about this topic a lot recently as I approach the "real world". I think in terms of Facebook i'm looking to trim in every area. I don't need thousands of pictures of myself on my page, and I don't need to be friends with every single person i've ever met. I think in my future facebook will be used as a way to stay in touch with people and let them see what is happening in my life. Right now, as a college student, it is a way to waste time and to see what everyone around me is doing. I think that as I grow up I am starting to distance myself from sites or resources that are for people to show off how cool their lives are and for people to try and be "social". I like those new car commercials where the girl says her parents need fun so she gets them a Facebook page when it's the complete opposite of fun. Instead of documenting every step of my day on my facebook page I think it's time to start doing things that are fun and dont need pictures to be commented on in order to know how awesome it was. With all that said, i still use my facebook frequently and will probably update my status after this.

I go through my Facebook relatively frequently and rid myself of the people that are on there for no good reason at all. I met them once, they friended me, I accepted, no further communication occurs. Yeah, those are the ones that get the boot. I, unfortunately (but I CAN admit it), spend entirely too much time on Facebook chatting with what seems like the same people over and over and over again. I see these people almost daily and I still find a need to talk to them online. Facebook is taking out the absolute need to be face to face or even to TALK on the phone with people that you have day to day interactions with and seems to be dumming down the world when it comes to actual communication. I think that going to a professional page is a very smart idea, especially as I transfer from the college stage of my life to the "real world" stage (no, not the MTV kind).

I'm also sick of all the privacy issues that they seem to be having lately. It's a bit ridiculous that they can take all of the information (which is really the bare minimum) and do whatever they want with it and I have no control of it or potentially the knowledge.

Now, if I will take it upon myself to change my page in any time soon, I am doubtful, but the thought is always there.

The recent Facebook change I personally believe is a sigh of relief! I agree that over the past few years Facebook has become very controversial when it comes to privacy issues, time consumption, and just overall clutter! Being an owner of a facebook since 2007 I have slowly found myself as well as family and friends becoming less attached to it. For example, I probably update my photo about once every six months and my status probably at a rate of once a year! I had the issue that Facebook provides too much information. I never could get into the "trend" of updating my life away to the entire world. I feel that the "new" and business savvy approach allows Facebook users to control what they want their Facebook page to be. Do you want to continue using Facebook as that recreational activity and be a social butterfly? or Do you want to simplify your life, limit your time and promote yourself or business in a more formal approach? I feel that Facebook is addressing the concerns of all of their users so that they can continue to evolve and remain an innovative staple of our time. 

This article is very insightful, Facebook is indeed everything you have laid it out to be. I personally haven't trimmed my network connections in quite some time, although I think it's a great idea. I mean, I have to be honest, a lot of "friends" I have on my account aren't truly my friends, rather just people who may like to see what I'm up to or just added me randomly one day after meeting me once wherever it may have been and never again actually attempted to converse with me on any deeper level. As you mentioned, it's incredible the time that is spent on Facebook, I myself am guilty of letting Facebook sidetrack me from things I could better spend my time doing, like reading a book, exercising more, enjoying more of the hobbies I don't take advantage much of anymore and such. I don't use my Facebook for any business reasons, but mostly as a way to stay in contact with my family, friends and following bands, artists and festivals that I constantly get updates and free downloads from which is great. I think i'll certainly consider trimming my friends, I think it will eliminate any unnecessary viewing and or exploitation of my personal information by people who aren't my true friends/family, it definitely won't hurt. In the future I can definitely see myself getting rid of my Facebook since I've definitely already considered it before, but for now, it stays and will keep me connected to those I decide to keep as friends. One thing I will work on is the time I waste on a day to day basis, simply getting lost in a time warp delving into others lives, instead I need to focus my time on myself, building my personal character, not for everyone to see but for me to enjoy myself.

Facebook has been the bain of my existance since I started using it in 2007. Checking the mundane status updates of old high school aquaintances that I barely remember and commenting on friends poorly photoshopped profile pictures has become part of my life and hard as I try I just can't shake it. I've trimmed down my friends recently to a little under 200, weeding out people I hadn't talked to in the past year. Life does feel a little better now that I've downsized but I'd still love to cut facebook out of my life perminantly. I really only use it as a tool for socializing, not to promote myself to the bussiness world. I feel calling up close friends, e-mailing or even reverting back to snail mail would be nice and more meanigful. However, I'm taking things one step at a time. Hopefully one day I'll be facebook free!

I believe that the business function of Facebook is better than the personal side of it. I have recently looked and debated the same thing with Facebook. I read a tweet you had about Facebook getting too large and I completely agree. A lot of people are switching to Google + and soon enough Facebook will have its competition in the social networking game. I am on the verge of deleting people I barely talk to and that is a downfall of Facebook. There is so many opportunities for people to say anything they want. Switching to a business page just allows for the user to have an easier time with the account and I feel that it is a great move. I feel that you can be more productive on Facebook once you trim. My Facebook has become cluttered with so many people that its hard to really connect with the people I want to. Time for a trim!

I absolutely agree with your post about switching to using Facebook for personal use to business. I just recently made the switch about six months ago when I began looking for a job. I started deleting many of my friends that I either really didn't know or don't talk to anymore and started using it for business and job efforts. A couple months ago I got a job at Motion Marketing and Media as an Account Executive and that's when my facebook really changed- businesses actually began asking mre to promote them on my facebook. While I thought this was kind of odd at first, it is actually a great idea for my friend and co-workers to learn about Lansing businesses and my thoughts on them. I think Facebook will continue to be used more for business relationships and grow in that area year after year. Until then, I'm sure highschoolers and many college student will continue to use it to stalk old boyfriends and people they haven't seen in a while.

I have used Facebook since January of 2006.  At that time it was only a couple years old and so I've grown up with it.  Facebook to me is the social network for my personal use only.  I love it and use it to keep in touch with family and friends, especially to stay in contact with friends that went to different schools after graduating high school.  I like to see where people are in their lives and how they are progressing as people. Right now I'm at about 550 friends and that is pretty much my limit.  There are people I'm friends with that I don't even talk to, so I probably could "de-friend" them.  But I don't want to build up my number of friends.  In my opinion there are only so many people you can be Facebook friends with.  Facebook with be the same for me in the future as it is now as far as purpose; a communication channel to stay in contact with friends, family, etc.  

I agree with just about everything in this post and have made similar efforts to trim recently. Facebook is the new TV. It can be enjoyable in small doses, but it shouldn't keep people from living out their own lives. The internet in general can be a bit of a time suck and has kept too many people locked inside their rooms. For me, Facebook will most likely function as a way of staying in touch with friends and perhaps for business purposes in the future. It also runs the chance of annoying me to the point where I simply have to get rid of it.

I completely agree with this post. Facebook used to run my life. I would check it constantly just because I was bored and it was something to do. I have the app on my phone and became obsessed with "stalking" my friends and more importantly my exes (as I am sure most girls do), but as I grow older and my life becomes busier, Facebook has lost it's importance. I check it less frequently and spend less time on it. I care a lot less about what my friends or other people are doing. Though I have never deleted any "friends", I have 90 friend requests that I haven't accepted or ignored because I don't want to reject anyone, but I really don't care to know what these people from high school have been doing with their lives. It just isn't important to me and won't affect my life to know who they're dating or where they're working... to be honest... I just don't care. I update my status occasionally, but I also don't care if people know my business either. I use facebook mostly now as a way to communicate with my friends when they are on facebook chat since it basically replaced AOL Instant Messaging. When I have the time, I probably will go through and delete friends that I added when having the most facebook friends was the most important thing in the world, but for now since I use it so infrequently, I don't mind all of the cluttered nonsense that people I barely know post.

I totally agree that facebook has become like a monster that eats up your whole life. After reading this I took a look at my own facebook account and I need to do some triming, not only my friends but all the groups and pictures and stuff because they litterally own all oof my memories. I like my facebook profile but it is crazy how you get trapped into this whol little facebook world. I dont llike the fact that facebook is so public too. so to eliminate knowing what everyone else is doing and everyone knowing what im doing with my life I will definitelly cut back on the people  who can view my page. I dont understand why people choose to be friends with people on facebook if they dont know the person.

I completely agree. Facebook basically runs our generation. Granted it is a very useful tool in college or highschool even to see what your friends are doing and stay connected to friends and family, but do you really know half the people on your friends list -- probably not. Myself I had over 1000 friends at one point and after going through my list I unfriended over 650 people -- simply because I didn't really know them, met them once, was a friend of a friend of a friend, or just outright didn't care "what was on their minds". I think Facebook is taking over and I myself would like to cut back even more than I already have. I would rather communicate in person rather than on facebook chat.

Honestly I have been thinking about my Facebook usage lately. I don't use the site in the same way I used to and don't communicate with my Facebook friends as much as I used. Before I would spend hours on the site (usually avoiding something else, like homework) but now I don't have the time or the desire to spend so much time reading about other people's activities. Now I spend more time using sites like Twitter, foursquare, Tumblr and now Google+. Quite frankly I've become bored with my Facebook newsfeed and find other sites more useful. Right now I have decided not to trim my Facebook because as a college student it is helpful while trying to connect with classmates. Once I've finished school and moved on to a career I will trim my friends down. Facebook is not going anywhere but in my opinion it has had its time already and other sites are more interesting and useful. 

Facebook is useful when i was in collage. i could make friends and get in touch with friends or someone who i interested, because i could make a point to people's saying and track what people going in there. I found the person i know and he knows my another friend. this is amazing when we getting together and talk about those things. it looks really fun and could make us stay together closely. However, when i going to work at this time, i want to make my life and work separetly, i do not want my workmates see my collage friends. the main reason for that may because you are acting the different person in workplace. but if you stay with close friends you behave differently. in summary, i would cut down my personal friend in facebook.

I use facebook strictly as a way to communicate. Yes, its good for when i want to know what someone is up to, but mostly its just a way for me to keep in touch with my friends and family on a more regular basis. I find myself deleting people from my facebook who take away from my enjoyment of the site. Whether they clog up my stream by posting too many updates, or sending me too many game requests. Eventually there comes a point when i say enough is enough and just delete them. But as far as long term goes, i think i'll stick to the current system i have going. It seems to be working just fine for my needs.

This blog post has really sparked an interest in me because I spend such an immense amount of my life on Facebook.  It has gotten even worse and become more time consuming since I purchased an iPhone just about one year ago.  I'm starting to notice that I don't really enjoy visting Facebook anymore since I am on it so often and realize that I visit the site almost by habit, its an easy touch away.  I do like knowing what my friends and family out of state are up to and being able to view their pictures, but after reading this blog and seeing that I have close to 1,000 friends on Facebook I need to do some major trimming!  It's funny because I am not friends with 967 people in my day to day life, so why do I have so many online?  Thank you for this blog post because it has really opened my eyes, I love the idea of a professional page and have some major work to do on my Facebook account!

I like the thought of making a professional page. My sophomore year I deleted my facebook account because it was too time consuming and personally I wasn't doing anything on the page. I now monitor the requests that I receive via Facebook and honestly feel no need for the page. I believe that there are uses for Facebook but they aren't as professional as they should be which is why I now use twitter and linked in profiles on a regular to excel my personal brand. I agree with the fact that it is too personal and now and it is also very distasteful. I am now thinking about getting a professional page.

I really agree with you on everything that you commented on about Facebook. I basically just use Facebook to find out what is going on for the weekend. I only have mostly close friends and family on my Facebook. I really think that keeping my Facebook and a minimal amount of friends also helps with my status feed and it doesn't get over ran with junk. I think that Facebook will still be around for along time in the future and it probably will be something that most people will use in their jobs so therefore I think it is still important that we stay up to date on what is going on in Facebook. I think that it will be really interesting to see what happens when Google+ moves into social media contention and whether or not Facebook will lose users.

It seems as if you did some serious thinking about Facebook. I know many people that spend WAY too much time on Facebook because they want to know more about friends personal life, what they are doing, where they went on vacation, who they are dating, etc. I will sign on Facebook and occasionally get wrapped up in the world of Facebook, but for the most part I just check my notifications and respond to friends posts. I don't think the problem is how many friends you have at all, I think it's more about how much time your get lost/procrastinate on Facebook. No one is forcing you to go through everything on your News Feed or look at every picture in an album. If you’re wondering what a friend is doing, type their name in the search box and look at their profile. There is a lot of noise on Facebook, you just need to filter through it, just like Twitter. I follow about 150 people on Twitter, some I care more about others I don't need to see their every tweet. So I created "lists" that break down the people I follow into categories: Hometown friends, college friends, job leads, advertising news and of course New York Jets players and news. This allows me to filter through some of the noise on my twitter. So my opinion don't slim down, just be more selective.

Personally, I agree with many of the points you made. We are constantly on Facebook each day. Not only can it be a waste of time but it often times distracts me from things I should be doing instead, such as homework or working. This is one of the reasons it is Sunday night and I am just now starting to reply to this blog post. However, it is a really good way for me to stay in contact with friends and even family members. The thing about Facebook for me is that plans such as parties are made on Facebook. Group projects at MSU use Facebook to contact one another considering we all have crazy and hectic schedules. As of now, expanding Facebook is going to continue to happen for me considering I am about to move to Florida and meet new people. I will want a way to easily contact them and make plans. My friend is actually doing a project for her internship where she can't use ANY social media or even texting while dating. It has so far proven to be even more difficult than you'd expect. It's crazy to me how much we use Facebook, yet I don't see myself stopping.

Like you and many others, Facebook couldn't be more of a time suck for me. I have thought about downsizing "my friends" for a very long time or getting rid of my account, but there are a few reasons I haven't done it yet. First, as a co-founder of a non-profit organization (I've Got Your Backs Foundation) we use Facebook as a huge marketing tool.  We like to get the message out to friends that may not be fans of the foundation page yet, as well as keep them updated on upcoming events or future goals that we may have.  Since I am constantly meeting new people and friends with people I do not talk to on a regular basis, it's easier to keep the public informed. It's also nice for people to know that I am involved in something other than school! Another main reason I haven't is because I have had a lot of very close friends move across the country for various reasons such as jobs, school, travel, etc. So you're probably thinking, "If you're so close with them why don't you call or text them?" Not that I'm too busy for certain people in my life, it's just more convenient to have a wall-to-wall convo with someone I haven't seen in a while over the span of a few days. Sounds kind of stupid, but I am the type of person that will be in the middle of typing a text, something will distract me, and I'll forget altogether that I was even talking to someone. We've all done it. Unfortunately, I happen to do it frequently which is something I should probably work on! So for now, until I find a better solution I will still be adding friends.

I still like Facebook,  but am starting to feel the same way. They own everything that I publish on this site, meaning I don't know if they would sell information to marketers or other companies that I don't want them to know. Also, it is a giant time suck, I find more and more that Iam spending most of the day with Facebook on a tab, and I do right now to be honest. It's still my favorite social media site partly because it is still personal, and lets me connect to friends on a much more personal level.

Facebook is my default homepage, which says a lot in itself. I spend a lot of time on it, but not really much time at all on other social media outlets so I think it balances out. In the last year or so, I have been trimming back in terms of what I say and do on Facebook. I have untagged a lot of unbecoming pictures and stopped swearing in things that I post but I'm not at the point where I'm cutting down my friends list - since it's not that big anyway. I don't do much "friending" and really the only new friend requests I get are from people I work with (we have a big program with 200+ students and a lot of turnover).

Often times I see some things people on my friends list post and just shake my head. A lot of it is unnecessary or annoying, but a surprising amount is actually REALLY inappropriate. I think about the pictures of partying or vulgar status updates some people post and have to wonder if it will ever come back to bite them. My guess is it will. I'm still not on the Google+ train (probably because I seem to inherently resist trends out of principle) but I've heard a lot of good things about it compared to Facebook. If Google+ would give me more control in eliminating all the idiotic garbage that tends to clog my newsfeed, I might just have to give in. But a good place to start might be reconsidering why I'm "friends" with some of the authors of this "idiotic garbage" to begin with, eh?

I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook, but since I've been introduced to Google+ and its fixes to many of issues with Facebook, I think I am going to move on. I don't know if I will completely delete my Facebook or just gradually cut down and use it less, but my usage is definitely going to dwindle. 

Like you and many of the other commenters, I have been taking a closer look at Facebook over the past year. I just don't have the same love for it as I did in college. I had over 1000 friends a year ago, and now I'm down to about 530. My best strategy has been to defriend people as their birthdays pop up...I feel bad defriending on a birthday, but if I don't feel close enough to wish them happy birthday, we probably don't need to be friends on Facebook! But I know I'm not deleting my account any time soon. This is where my family and close college friends still are, and I would miss seeing their updates and having an easy way to catch up with them. While I'm pushing them to try G+, I know that will take a while. So I'm just going to spend less time on FB and more time on Twitter and G+, where I'm happier. :)

At one point last year I had considered deleting my Facebook as you did.  Shockingly enough in today's society where everyone and their grandma is on Facebook, literally, I still have a friend who has never created one and most likely never will.  I admire her lack of desire to have a Facebook. It does soak up a lot of my time and if I analyze the way in which i spend my time on it, it is looking at my few closest friends pages, which I already know everything about, and those people I am friends with but do not know very well.  Which proposes the question, why should I even care to spend countless hours each week on Facebook!  Facebook gives people the oppertunity to get lost in other people's lives and less time spent on it could serve to give people the chance to get to know themselves better and create a desirable life for themselves.  I do not think I will be deleting my Facebook anytime soon, but will take the first step in deleting the 'friends' I would not want knowing my personal information. 

I found it extrmeley refreshing to read what you've done recently with your facebook page. I've been complaining about the exact same 'noise' you mentioned that was frequently on your news feed. I only have around 600 or so friends on facebook, but no more than 100 are people I'm actively still involved with; or at least have meaningful relationships with. One day (when I muster up the energy) I'd love to do the exact same thing with my facebook page. I feel like the unnecessary updates that a lot of my 'friends' post frequently to my news feed, are just updates that are not relevant to my life/things I never need to hear. So cheers for cleaning it up!

Well put Derek! I have actually been asking myself the same question, why am I even on Facebook? This week has been so stressful for me, I have had 3 interviews and Facebook has been in the back of my head; should I delete it? What's even the point in having it? I have Facebook because it keeps me updated with my friends. Personally, I think it' fun sometimes to "snoop" around on other people's pages; especially those who I haven't seen since high school. Although this is kind of the only reason why I actually have Facebook. I feel like if I don't have Facebook then would anyone ever even talk to me again or want to hang out with me? I ask this because in today's society the Internet world is so crazy where if you do not have a social media account somewhere your basically lost behind a stream of dogs running around. It's true, I don't get the point of Facebook being with me today; I should really just delete because sooner or later my pictures would probably get me no where in life. My partying pictures should be put in a photo album and kept in a closet; not on Facebook. After reading this blog post it has motivated me to trim down on those who really aren't there for the future with me. Facebook right now is cool and it's fun, but in 20 years will Facebook still be the "it" thing? Facebook has done well but for those like myself trying to start a carreer, Facebook is almost pulling me back because it is so personal for anyone to creep on you.

I find myself deleting people all the time. When I first signed up for facebook, before I even came out here to Michigan, I used it to get in touch with some other MSU students so when I came to MSU I might know someone. I look back on that now, and think that that sure was creepy what I did. Adding people you don't even know can be dangerous, yet it's happening everyday. My 14-year old sister is already at about 1100 friends and she just got one a little over a year ago. Her and her friends make fun of people who have less than 100 friends, calling them "losers" or other mean names. I don't find this to be fair at all, however because of all this, I understand why so many young people feel inclined to add as many people as they can to their network just for the popularity aspect. That's basically what the number of friends on facebook has become, at least in the younger generations, a popularity contest. Now that I am older and am deleting people left and right that I've never even met before, or that I've met once at a party or something, it has become clear to me that it definitely doesn't matter how many friends you have and that adding people you don't know just get your numbers up just adds traffic for yourself and is quite honestly, a pain. I will probably always keep my facebook for the purpose of keeping in touch with my friends I don't get to see very often, but other than that, I don't see myself staying as addicted to it as I was in previous years. Facebook is still a great tool for keeping in touch, but knowing exactly what your friend is doing at every second of the day is a little bit excessive. 

Sometimes I'll randomly find myself deleting people off of Facebook...those random people who pop up on your news feed that post every detail of their life. All in all, I'm trying to cut back on my Facebook friends I already have and be more careful of people who I accept as friends. Like you said in your post, it just creates a lot of unnecessary noise.  For me, I don't have a whole lot of time to be on Facebook so it's not really a problem but I know many people who could benefit from cutting back on Facebook. I'm sure I'll continue to use Facebook as I do now, for communicating, networking, and keeping up with people I care about, but I believe that in the future the Facebook community as whole should cut back on usage in order to really be productive. 

I've heard a lot of people are doing this lately, so you're not alone! I've always been pretty careful about who I friend on Facebook, because I see the major social media platforms as having their own distinct purpose - LinkedIn is like the corporate office (just business), Twitter is the water cooler (interesting buzz) and Facebook is the bar (you never know what you're going to hear). So, for me, Facebook is truly a place for friends or people I'd like to get to know better. I think a lot of people are moving in that direction. Now with Google Plus, I'm curious to see if people use Facebook less or just don't adopt Google Plus... I spend more time than I'd like on social media, and I don't need to worry about more updates.

Great blog Derek. I do agree with your decision to trim your facebook. I feel as though everyone, including myself, has contemplated whether or not to trim their facebooks, but for me, I still have not. The reason I haven't is three fold. First, I feel as though it would take forever to delete everyone from the list. This to me seems like a hassle so I'd rather just press forward. Secondly, the things I put on facebook don't discredit myself. I make sure everything that goes on there is in my best interest. So through social media, if someone really wanted to follow me in everything, I guess they can. I have nothing to hide. (not to in any way say you do, etc.) I digress. And third, I feel as though there will be backlash from people if I delete them. I didn't add one of my dad's friends one time and received a very sad message about why I didn't add them, pathetic, but whatever. I guess that's my biggest problem, I don't want anyone to take it personally if I delete them. Anyways, thats just my thoughts

I do not see myself making cuts on Facebook anytime soon. I use my Facebook for personal use. I use it to stay in touch with friends and to see what everyone is up to. I have a LinkedIn account to be used professionally. I feel I do not have that much clutter on my Facebook page and if others think so, whatever! It's my personal page. I do keep track of the content that is posted in case a future employer happens to look me up, but I don't always use proper grammar and I am informal with my friends because it is my personal page.