Facebook is a Waste of Time
By Mark Ewbie
There. I’ve said it. And the relief is tangible.
I have tried using Facebook for a year or so, in order to market myself, make ‘friends’ and earn money.
Hours and hours of liking stuff, posting stuff, sharing, linking and friending.
Net result?
Zero.
Sure, every time I log in I can see lots going on, and messages to read, photos to look at.
But in terms of getting traffic to my web pages the exercise has been entirely pointless.
Therefore, due to preferring the idea of writing my own stuff rather than reading other people’s – I have decide to quit my Facebook Groups and put effort where it has a chance of making me some money.
No more wasting time on Facebook.
Using Facebook for Link Sharing
The only reason I joined was to share links to my wonderful web pages.
It took me a long time, too long, to realise that the idea isn’t really to share your own stuff.
The point is to share other people’s.
Now that’s wonderful and charitable and all that, but to be honest, I’m not in the charity business.
I’m trying to write content that other people might want to read and share. Not spend my precious time reading and sharing theirs.
I know, it’s supposed to be a quid pro quo. Well frankly, screw that. The time I spend viewing and reading would be much better spent writing and improving my own offering.
If it’s good enough then people will visit, read and share. And if, as is more likely, it isn’t – then I’d better put a lot more time into improving it.
.
Mindless Postings
I can’t spend any more time reading other people’s idea of what is either important or funny.
Very rarely does it gel with my ideas.
Mostly, it’s just irritating mind pap.
Now, that’s fine if you want to spend your time on that. People do different things.
I love messing around on forums, playing silly games. I love it too much. But a while back I realised I would be better occupied actually trying to write something properly, and aiming for some financial reward.
I can’t bear reading what x thinks of y any more. It really doesn’t matter to me or affect me.
That Sharing Thing
My experience of sharing my own pages has been that it is a particularly ineffective way to gain traffic.
Any hits are fleeting and temporary.
The visits consist of friends being badgered into taking a look at your page out of politeness.
I call it misleading, favour traffic. It is not being shared because it is good quality, engaging, interesting.
Much better to leave my own finger off the Like or Share button and if I ever write anything that does tick some boxes – then it will get some traffic.
Good Bye Facebook
One less thing to check each time I switch my computer on.
It’s bad enough waiting for Windows to load, checking email, stats and analytics.
Why add another pointless five minutes seeing if some inane thing I said got liked, or if someone else I don’t know wants to be my friend?
They don’t want to be my friend.
They want to spam me, the same as I spam them.
Or perhaps worse than that, they do want to be my friend.
I don’t have the time to get involved. To care, to try to understand, to offer encouraging words.
So, to anyone who wonders why I left the Group, whichever group it was, the above should explain it.
I need to get on with working on the internet, not talking about working.
Kindle Advice on Facebook
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Comments
It's really all about having nothing else to do...lol Although, I read a lot of hubs I wouldn't have otherwise peeked at because someone shared them on Facebook. Definitely an acquired taste. :)
I have to agree with you, to some extent. I like the pics; most of the copy on Facebook I could live without. It's very much people's day-to-day lives. Which is interesting if it's a far away relative, or friend you haven't seen since high school, or something. Not too riveting if it's a total stranger we're talking about here.
Thanks guys for comments.
I joined it for shallow self centred reasons, and am going to (try to) ignore it for the same reasons.
I keep Facebook as my kids post all the grandkids pictures there. It is sort of like texting. I never wanted to text. I also realized if I did not learn to text, there would be rarely any calls...I know sad...maybe a little exaggerated but any way...then came Facebook. I love seeing everyone but I am finding I am on information overload. I deleted my account once but got back on a few months later...not sure what I will do. Feeling a bit like that now...I asked my kids would you just send the pictures to my email as attachments...everyone appears so busy but at the same time so much time to write on Facebook. Oh and... Why do we need to put where we are 24 hours a day...I may want to do something in secret. I swore I would not post my whereabouts. Pet peeve of mine I guess and what did I do..."Beautiful day I am going walking!" I just broke my own rule!...I am slowly turning into a Facebook rat...I must do something quick or it may be too late...
Thanks Mark
If you don’t mind, I will make a very boring and long comment substantiated with some facts about Face book I just learnt awhile ago when I was researching for the benefits of Facebook. Hope everyone bears with my comment.
According to Nielsen’s “State of the Media report I read on-line a while ago, and if I can remember right it was the report was titled, The Social MediaReport,” social media accounts for 22.5 percent of the time that Americans spend online, compared with 9.8 percent for online games and 7.6 percent for email. That makes social media the No. 1 specific category and the No. 2 category overall,behind the other ways in which Americans pass their time online which includes (unsurprisingly) browsing adult content, onlineshopping, and reading about topics like sports or health. This statistics is for the USA alone. What if the world over is included? Woh! I can’t imagine now.
The report found that Facebook is the top social media brand that Americans choose to spend (or waste) their time with. During the time, when Nielsen compiled its report, Americans spent 53.5 billion minutes on Facebook’s site from computers at home and work—up 6 percent from a mere 50.6 billion minutes in May 2010.
After Facebook was Google’s Blogger, at 723.8 million minutes; Tumblr, at 623.5 million minutes; Twitter, at 565.2 million minutes; and finally, LinkedIn, at 325.7 million minutes.
The report also made note of some differences between the sexes in their online habits. Nielsen found that Facebook reaches 70 percent of active Internet users in the United States, 62 percent of which were female. In addition, more women than men watched video clips on blogs and social networks, but men streamed more videos and spent more time watching them than women did.
With that information on hand, I totally agree with you that Face book is a real time waster. To what extent? One has to answer this him or herself…It not wrong usinf face book. Infect it is one of the best medium for doing business or other important personal things. Yet if not used properly can be a greatest time waster.
This is a useful hub and I am voting it up..up..up and sharing with my FB friends.
Cheers
Ian
There's an irony in the Share Ian, and I thank you for that. Very interesting comment, thanks for that as well.
Sunnie. I am not a 'genuine' user. It was purely for spamming I joined, purely for self marketing. I can see reasons why people would use it for family contact, photos and so on.
It is also, unfortunately, a pernicious time waster. It gradually invades your life so you have to check, have to respond, have to like and have to share.
Ok, for those that are happy doing it. For me, I just think it is a better use of my time to write articles or improve my older ones.
Or talk to my 'real' family!
i wonder you don't already have dozens of comments and critics here??? well i give mine, i quitted facebook 2 weeks ago, lol, what a coincidence, to you post this hub... the reasons i cancel my account were: time wasting and above all the rape to my privacy. you may say " but you turn edit your privacy and turn off all the stuff", but it's funny , then why is it the default privacy options allow your friend's friends to check you profile?
vote up and usefull
Honestly, I have found that Facebook is truly a waste of time, I get much better results from real SEO methods like link building through articles ect... Great hub, voted up and interesting and I hope that you will enjoy mine as well!
Hi melafx - I might have more attention if I spammed my FB with it. Truth is - I cba. Good points about privacy and marketing.
I'm not really into SEO either FH, but Google is still where it's at as far as I'm concerned. At least I don't have to make friends with the search engine.
FACEBOOK is really a waste of time. As per my view FB is not really a social networking website. They developed it to meet there requirement and not the people. Just for revenue, money making fb is useful other than that its just a media to communicate each other. No privacy and main thing is nower days facebook is getting hacked and unfortunately many of my friends account has hacked and information has been taken and some illegal post has been published. People out there pls change the password for every once in a week and change to secure mode that is https in privacy settings.
I'm a member of "Facebook", but I hardly ever use it. The whole idea of sharing details of your life with strangers, and pretending to be interested in theirs, just leaves me cold.
It is heartening to see that someone is prepared to burst that bubble.
Best success to you.
Hi Mark - I'm a member of FB so that I can keep in some sort of contact with my daughter and grand-daughters in the Caribbean. I also put my hubs on my page but I doubt few people read them from there.
I even, radically, unfriended all the people that I either did not really know, or who I had actually lost touch with. It left me with 13 true family and friends. Not really what FB wants of me, I know ... but what the hell ... it felt honest.
I wrote a rant about this 'pruning' on my blog but I won't bother putting a link here as I know you won't read it ...
Hi Angie. That pruning is a great idea. I'll read your page in a minute. Promise.
Thanks for not putting a link on, it always makes me think "oh yeah, that's why they made a comment"
Genuine FB use, friends and family, I have no problem with that. In fact I have no problem with people doing what they want with it. For me though, it's just a false waste of time. That's probably a failing on my part. Well hey... whatever.
Edit: I can't find it. Put a link on!
right said, its waste of time, i have more than 200 friends, as soon i login, people trying to chat with me, if you don't reply, they mind it. i would not go to facebook now.
A welcomingly (is that a word?) honest hub. Every now and then I wonder if I'm missing out by not being an FB person. You've set my mind at rest for another few months.
Hi web-tools, I'm going to see how long I can avoid it and how many messages I have awaiting my attention when I go back. At least half of those messages will be "lolol".
Thanks Keri. You're not missing out. Well, maybe if you want to see pictures of people's cats, sometimes with writing on, or those phrases like "today is the first day of whatever". I must stop being sarcastic.
:) Mark
It's only a short, grim rant ... and the point of my comment was to agree with you ... honest, guv. But here is the link anyhow ...
http://thisisangiesblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/getti
Feel free to ignore it.
I swear Mark,I think you are actually serious! But I have no problem with that. I just wrote on another hub that I don't like FB at all. The only reason I used it in the first place is to keep in touch with my brothers who seem to like it and more recently, my hub friends. I get to hang with them outside of HP and it can be fun.
Angie - nice blog. You have been busy!
Cardisa, yep I was serious. Need a picture with my serious face. I need to crack on with some hard work, instead of sitting waiting for messages on FaceBook.
Originally, I joined FB to keep in touch with my high school friends who live far enough away that I would need to call long distance to talk to them. And my friends have moved all over the world. Somehow I ended up friending people who live here in Chilliwack too. (Why?) I try to spend no more than 1/2 hour total on Facebook each day. I notice that some people post every few minutes. Others post once a week. Guess which kind I prefer?
Once a week I guess?
In a bizarre twist I was invited to yet another 'writers' group today. I say invited. It just sort of happens and then you are in.
I'm just going to let it ride but not join in anymore.
I'm never sure about writer's groups ...
I tend not to join things like that as I believe that if you are any sort of artist it is very difficult not to be either secretly jealous of another's work or secretly censorious. Some cannot keep it secret ... and few have the gift of truly 'constructive' criticism.
I used to work in the artist colonies of Cornwall ... and generosity and magnanimity were very thin on the ground.
Ah, my bad. I said "writer's group"... I should have said "HubPages writer's group". There's a small difference I suspect. Not that I belong to any writer's groups.
Ah yes, I guess that does make a difference ... we're nice peeps on HP.
But, I can say this. HP writers' groups on Facebook are still nothing more than social networking groups. We share our works with each other, and in some cases it's nice because folks in the group on Facebook may not necessarily be our followers - so we get new readers. BUT, overall, it doesn't make a huge difference traffic wise.
Don't worry: Facebook will get much better when it goes public, thereby becoming beholden to shareholders and falling under the boot of multinational governments and landing in the cross-hairs of well-meaning lawsuits brought by legions of lawyers.
It will be way cooler.
Yes, much cooler... lol. Apple, Google and now FaceBook - it's hard to retain that "we're on your side" thing. Still Nike and Coke keep on selling.
Seriously, I'm now beginning to feel more and more spied on each time I search or like stuff.
I used to think that Facebook was a waste of time too - I don't want to share what I had for breakfast, and don't care what time everyone goes to bed. I wasted a lot of time on the games there. I stopped using it for a long time, but now that we have a group of hubbers together, I find it is really helpful to read other hubs and get them to read mine. I get revenue when they read my hubs, and that makes Google think that they must be a really good hub, which gets even more traffic here. Plus, I can always learn something when I read other hubs, even if it is how not to write a hub.
I think you have some fair points MT... if you have the time. I'll reserve judgement on traffic. My feeling is that for me, I need to constantly work on my 'offering' in the hope that one day a casual visitor might choose to share it naturally.
I am enjoying myself more, when I can get links to hubbers work instead of trying to dig through a maze. I have spent countless hours looking for fun things to read and yours as so much spunk,life and personality. I also enjoy your stick people, I really truly do! Thumbs up! :)
Hi AE, thanks. The really funny thing is that since I wrote this I have spent MORE time on FaceBook.
Sometimes we have to be careful about what we wish for. lolo! What I like about FB is when people share there work, I can go and read. :) It just takes time on FB to build the momentum. :)
The thing about the writing groups too is that often you are supposed to only share hubs by group members who are active. Well, that's a small number of people. Most of the hubs I see should be read by more people are not by active members. And well, people go ballistic on the site too-especially when you don't respond to them. So you block them.
Of course it is a waste of time, unless you work for Facebook or plan on owning shares. It's a con. You share your info and they sell it, like Google. People are gullible and their egos are vulnerable--it's what keeps Facebook and most consumerism profitable. Who in marketing doesn't think anyone can be manipulated to want something they don't need?
If I were a psychological analyst or something it would be very interesting to understand that need to share every little detail, and play straight into the marketing guys hands.
On the other hand, I suppose at least it means the ads might have some relevance...
My opinion about F is same. And I am glad that finally someone wrote straight about this.
Thanks tsarnaudova. If people like my stuff then THEY can share it - seems to make a lot more sense than me spamming 24/7.
If they don't like it then there's no point in me spamming it.
I can definitely relate to this. I don't have a whole lot of traffic flow from posting things I've written on facebook. It's more of a tool for me to check up on old friends. Yes, it's always better when others 'like' your writing instead of spamming it randomly. I voted this interesting.
anndavis25 3 months ago
I swear, I can't believe you have no comments. So here's one....I agree with you about face book. Ha ha.
Now hubbers are different. So far, I have found that intellect has nothing to do with being popular.