Some more alternatives to fb

Hey,

this week a friend of mine left facebook, because it was getting on her nerves. I've heard many people say this, too, but most of them are still on facebook, even though they hate it. If you're one of them, you could just quit facebook. Others will follow you. When enough people quit facebook and refuse rejoining it, it won't be difficult not to have it any more. Everybody can just talk to each other normally again and have real friends to meet. So here some new alternatives:

4. Read a book
Be honest, when was the last time you read a good book? Can you even remember? Well, then it's time. I'm sure, you had at least one favourite book, when you were younger. Even if it's a book for children, just read it again and remember.

5. Meet with some people you haven't seen in a long time
People say, they've got facebook to stay in contact with old friends. Well, yesterday we had a class meeting with our primary school class. Ok, part of it was organized through facebook, but the girl who had organized it had also contacted the facebookless and so we could all meet together. It would have also worked if we all didn't have facebook.

6. Write something
In this generation internet people forgot how to write normally. Most written things on the internet are small messages, like tweets or status messages. So why don't you start writing a blog with a certain subject (e.g. a hobby) or if you don't have a subject to write aboutyou could start writing a diary, of course not online, just in order to practise writing in a normal language and maybe keep track of what you have been doing. Also you could start writing stories or a book. That's something I might be doing soon.

I hope you found some things that are interesting and that you see, that facebook is not the only activity you can have.

Yours
Blackbird

First alternatives to spending your time on "social" networks

Hello again,
so here's my first alternative to spending your time on facebook.
1. Creative hobbies
As I've been playing the guitar for quite a while and I love drawing and painting, I can tell you that when you come home tired and would usually sit in front of your PC and stalk other people on fb, or simply check your messages and friend's updates, you could do something creative. It really helps me to get my head clear. Of course you can also join a drama group or drama club at school. That helped me with many important things in life, for example how to stand in front of a group of people (e.g. for presentation). Furthermore, there are so many nice people in the drama club and I also found new friends I wouldn't have met if I hadn't joined. But the best thing: it's so much fun, playing on stage with cool people. Way better than just reading what other people did or said...

2.Get social!
When I say social, I don't mean that I would work in a kindergarten or in a hospital. I think it's nothing big, but I'm in the SMV which is something like a students council at our school. We organize some events for students at our school and the neighbour schools. Friends of mine help in youth centers or at their sports club. It's a lot of fun, you met people and you get an insight in different organisations.

3. A ("uncool") hobby for you and your friends
In the past years, my friends and I always went geocaching in sumer or simply made a bike tour. That sounds simple, but it was something that defined our group. We grew closer during that time and we didn't ever feel the need to post any pictures on the internet somewhere, because it was our thing. This was such a great time and it's such a shame that facebook and the need to do "cool" things (partying all the time or going on spectacular holidays) in order to be able to post them destroyed it. A hobby to share with your friends can be anything simple. It shouldn't be something expensive or something that someone can't do because he/she isn't sportive or clever enough. But most of all: it should be something everyone can have fun with!

These are some alternatives to spending your time on facebook but still keeping contact with your friends and get to know other people and having fun.

What do you do instead of wasting your time on fb? Feel free to post a comment!

Yours
Blackbird

First of all: What's this all about?

Hello,

First of all, I'd like to introduce myself to you. I'm a 17-year old girl from Germany, and so you could think that I'm a member of the so-called "Generation Internet". But actually, I'm not. At least I don't consider myself to be that. For one reason: I don't have a facebook account.
But most of my friends and classmates do. So I've heard many reasons why I should join facebook, too, but I didn't. I'll also tell you why: I know people you could call facebook-addicts and I know that if I joined, I'd become one of them. Always checking the newest posts and pictures or spending a shitload of time stalking people through their profiles. Of course, there are other good reasons that also influenced my decision not to join facebook, for example loosing all my rights about my own data (this was actually the first reason, but now I think my fear for facebook-addiction is the main reason).

So here comes, what this blog is about and why:
As a teenager I've often noticed how people close to me and also their relatioships with each other and with me have changed since there is facebook and other so-called "social networks" all around. These are some of the negative aspects:
-Everyone spends much time at their computers and/or smartphones
-People aren't interested in talking to each other any more, they just look at each other's profile
-Some people don't care about their 5 real life friends any more, because they have 500 facebook friends
-Some people don't know how to write an e-mail any more (or use any other way of communication except for fb)
-Many people don't spend time with their friends and hobbies any more, because they're on facebook when playing computer games and so feeling "social"
-Most important: one year ago, a very good friend of mine did nearly all these things I mentioned and I tried to do the exact opposite because I didn't want facebook to take control of my life he changed so much that we didn't want to be friends any more. But still, I sometimes miss his friendship.

So because I think that a few true friends are more important than hundreds on the internet and that real life is more important than the internet, I'd like to tell you how to get rid of your facebook-time and what you can do with these hours you have now. I'll tell you what I've been doing in the past year and how I stayed in contact with everyone.

0.how much time do YOU spend on fb
to me, of course, every minute on fb is one minute too much, but when would you call someone an addict? answer this question and then find out how much time you spend on fb (having a fb-browser tab opened also counts). Just stop the time on a normal day and be honest to yourself.

1. get rid of your facebook-account
As I had been a member of another social network earlier, I know what people are talking about when saying "But it's so easy to communicate through facebook."
My answer now is: If you're using fb (or other social networks) to stay in contact with others  exchange e-mail-adresses or phone numbers before deleting your account, at least with the people you really want or need to stay in contact with (close friends, family members, classmates, colleagues). Then delete your account or at least deactivate it (facebook won't delete your data anyways...)

2. spend your time with anything you want
As I already told you, I'll introduce some alternatives to facebook to you, that worked for me and still do. You can also post a comment with anything you do to spend your time without being on fb.

3. be happy and free :-D

4. tell others


So, I hope I could convince some people to get rid of facebook or at least realise how much time they spend with this imao both useless and dangerous activity.

I'll soon post the first fb-alternative.

Yours
Blackbird