ha!  Facebook is one of the things I decided to give up for Lent.. funny to see an article about it..

I also gave up Facebook for Lent. Thus far, it has yielded me much more free time to comment on blogs than I had before.

Giving up Facebook!? Now we’re talking serious deprivation. Next thing you know, people will be giving up Texas Hold’em and March Madness. This gives self sacrifice an knew depth and meaning.  Impressed in Maine

Well, good! Maybe they’ll realize that without FB, they’ll have more time for meaningful, one-to-one, or, gasp, even phone or face-to-face interactions with people!

Facebook Foe in Texas

#2 Ouch.

I, too, signed off of Facebook as part of my Lenten discipline.  I am grateful for the time I have for other pursuits, yet I do intend to return to Facebook at Easter—it allows me to keep in touch with a wide group of people from the last 20 years of my life, which I would NOT be able to do in “meaningful, one-to-one” “phone or face-to-face interactions.”

#6—How did you do it before FB? It’s sad that no one takes the time to write letters, cards, or even emails anymore.

The big objection I have to FB is that to even look at a friend’s page, you have to register an account yourself. That’s because it’s a giant marketing, data-collection scheme and I refuse to be used in that way.

#7 I agree, also not on FB.  Will never join.  What a scam.  Rude, rude, rude, you are “friended” or “unfriended.”  How dreadful.

I’m with Jason Miller, it’s not for everyone but it is a tool.  It has made it that much simpler to keep in contact (if superficial most of the time) with people I have not seen in years, particularly old school and college friends.  Could I have put in the hard work to maintain contact with them over the years? Certainly.  Would that have been worthwhile? Absolutely.  Did I do so?  No, unfortunately.  But thanks to what is admittedly a marketing and data collection empire, I have been able to find people it would have been very hard to track down after more than a decade.  And I, for one, am grateful for the contact.  I would also add, that if you do it properly, and are careful, you can limit the amount of information you give the empire to collect on you.  And to date (after a year and a half) I’ve never spent a dime on or through FB.

There is something seriously wrong with a society that regards giving up FB for Lent is a sacrifice.
    ” I love gambling SO much that I am making the supreme sacrifice and give it up for Lent. ”  “My teeth need repair but I going to give up going to the dentists for Lent.” I am going to watch American Idol only once every two weeks.”  There are some levels of sacrifice that smell badly of New Years’ resolutions, the sacred self deception. Larry