The day I said goodbye to FB

Last time I checked, there were 411 friends in my account. To be honest, I never really expected to have such huge number of friends. I said to myself then “ang dami ko na rin palang friends” but to my surprise, there are FB friends of mine who have over a thousand friends in their friends list! They must be so lucky and blessed to have such massive persons sharing their thoughts and emotions.


Facebook is social networking site launched back in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and his classmates while taking up Computer Science at Harvard University. At first, its membership was limited to Harvard students only but later on it was opened to nearby schools and communities until it has been fully opened to the world. In a CNN report last March of this year, Facebook has topped Google to become the most visited U.S. website and it was not surprising then for Facebook has reached 132 Million unique visitors in the beginning of 2010. No wonder, marketing enthusiast are shifting their advertising medium from the news websites to social networking sites particularly Facebook.


Having lots of friends is both a blessing and a curse. Pardon the term, but that is exactly the reason why I’m taking time off from this social networking site. Not that my friends (or a friend) intention was to be a nuisance but as destiny would have it and as Neyo would say it, there are “perfect distractions” that can really knock one off the road yet manage to get right back on trail but there are those who are “accidental, rare and unexpected” friends that can keep you moving in circles until you are lost.


Some say that Facebook - the site itself, is good, bad and addicting and I agree. All your favorite games, gossips, pictures, videos, links, songs, groups, scandals, news, singles, it's complicated, lovers, break-ups, non-sense and friends all rolled up in one site called Facebook. What else can one ask for? As a former fanatic myself, I never recalled an instance where I failed to check my FB page before I sleep and after I woke up, my FB traffic has also been double these past few months. At home during Saturdays and Sundays, I managed to do my households simultaneously while being plastered on to the monitor 12 hours and more. Keep coming back because I just need to check my page one more time.


Those days are gone until further notice. I will still be friends with the 411 in my list and to the hundred more out there who are not yet into FB. I need time to manage myself off the circle and draw my line again. There are other worthy things than FB, but I have to admit it, FB is one of the best things that happened in the world and it will take more than enough courage to say “no” to the best thing the world can ever offer. I believe a peachy day lies ahead.

12 days later I was back. But things were never the same as before. There were various speculations on the reason(s) why I took a leave of absence. Speculations that were never true, unfounded and nowhere behind the glimpse of reality. I only had one reason when I left and eventually get back on the site. The reason has always been known to you and nobody else. You who told me I was NOT listening!