If I told you that you’re better off deleting your facebook account right now, you’d scoff at the ridiculous statement and put down this article immediately. How will you survive being cut off from any outside communication? How would you remember everybody’s birthdays? How are you going to stalk interesting-looking people? How are you going to be notified about upcoming gossip and events? After all, 80 million of us are already addicted to FarmVille. Why would anyone EVER want to quit? There is reasoning behind this madness.

Studies are finding that students who are actively logging into social networks earn a whole grade lower than those who don’t. Facebook users are getting in an average of one to five hours of studying a week while non-users get in 11 to 15. You can easily get addicted and lose track of time unintentionally. Since future employers and institutions will choose those higher achievers, non-users have more chances of getting a good job. But of course, you’d rather be a waitress at a lousy restaurant than click that exit sign at the top corner of the screen that’s way too high to reach for your poor little finger.

No matter what they say, the site isn’t nearly as private as you’d like it to be. After recent changes, Facebook is hoping for a more social and accessible website. -But at what cost to privacy? People are getting in trouble at work and held legally responsible for things they say there. Oops! Everything you post on the site are fed to facebook Apps. In truth, they know you back to front. Anybody can stalk and trail you around the web. Facebook attempts to tear down walls between social webs so you can access it anywhere. This may sound good, but do you really want your skeptical relatives to meet your casual friends to meet your professional work mates? Everyone draws lines between people they know. Maybe these lines aren’t meant to be torn down by facebook. (Great Aunt Bertha is questioning who that weird emo dude with the nose ring is.) You could not be less private than standing in a street and screaming all your personal information for the world to hear.

But the only reason I signed up was to connect with my friends! Are you suggesting I can’t talk to people anymore? Well, a social network just isn’t the same as a real social life. Updating your status every few minutes shows that you don’t live to experience, but you live to report. Friends who post pictures of you may seem like they’re true friends, but perhaps this can be better measured by how many times they got together with you and watched a movie or lent you a hand. The social site that was meant to bring us together can also push us apart.
Even if you want to quit this endless system, it’s difficult to delete your account. You can’t just say goodbye and walk out. Your information is now stored in the Internet, most possibly for good. Account deleting is incredibly (and probably intentionally) very complex. They should start giving out 10-week lessons on how to delete facebook accounts. But what about deactivation? Yes, it’s quite easy to deactivate your account, meaning you’ll still get tagged and spammed and once you log on again, it’ll seem like nothing happened nevertheless. The only way to truly delete your account is to find a link buried (literally buried) in the online help section. Isn’t this confusing enough?

Just another reason to add to the blame; the layout is always annoyingly the same. -boring, much?