Deleted Facebook Account

Well I did it.  Last night I actually deleted my Facebook account.  Up until now I'd just disabled it so all the information would still be there when I reactivated my account, should I choose to do so.

I was surprised to find that six people had already dispensed with me as a friend when I returned.  Six out of two hundred and sixteen 'friends'.  One I think has already left prompted by my idea to leave, so let's say five.  Five deleted me as a friend.  Now either they might have left themselves or disabled their accounts or they were glad to see the back of me maybe lol?  What if I'd only disabled it for a break?  Did they think so little of me to get rid so quickly?  I've deleted people with disabled accounts myself but only if they kept disabling them or were M.I.A for months.

I actually thought to look to see who the friends were who got rid.   Who were these people who were so quick to delete me from their friend list?  But then I thought no, if I do that, it might upset me.  I'm far too sensitive to that sort of thing.

So in the end, I just deleted all my photo albums [just in case] and contacted one friend who I didn't want to lose touch with and we spoke in real time to exchange contact details.  Others I know I can contact by different means or via friends.

But it makes you think that out of the two hundred and sixteen friends I had when I disabled my account just under three weeks ago, who were my real friends there?

One is in touch with me every day and I know we'll meet up again in the future.  So she's a real friend.   Another wrote me a letter saying he'd like to meet up again with his wife in the future.  I met him on a pen pal site a year ago and he's proved to be a great friend who really cheers me up and if gets to read this, he'll know who he is when I mention a certain hotel that had sticky taped its skirting board when he came to stay in my home town.  No, there was nothing going on with me and him, he and his wife stayed there a year ago and I went to meet them for a drink.  He also travelled for a few hours to come to a meeting from York.  This was at a social group gathering I used to run on Facebook.  I thought the world of that he would travel so far for a meet up.

Other friends have emailed me and I met up with another for lunch a couple of weeks back since disabling my account.

I would estimate out of all my Facebook friends perhaps around ten were friends.  That was less than a twentieth of my friend list.

Often people you don't know will add you as a friend and they might even be from your hometown.  But the thing is you rarely get to know these people even if you add them as friends.  Sometimes you don't even write on one another's walls.  So what's the point in being a friend? 

So last night I logged back into Facebook for the last time, deleted my photo albums, messaged a friend I wanted to keep in contact with, quickly scanned the newsfeed which was full of the same old same old and deleted my account.   I do have the option to log back in within a fortnight and reactivate my account before it goes, wherever it goes to...maybe it's shot to smithereens and floats around in minute pieces around the universe.   A testament to the life of Lynette Rees, who once baked a clown cake for her grand daughter's first birthday.  The same Lynette Rees who spent far too much time on Facebook when she should have been writing instead.

The good news is I've now completed a first draft of my new novel.  You can bet if I hadn't disabled my account three weeks ago, I wouldn't have made so much progress.

So 'Hello, real life! I'm back and I'm looking forward to getting acquainted with you again!'