Is it time to give Facebook the flick? I'm not talking about destroying property; "defacing" is a word that was introduced to me this week by some friends taking time out from social networking.
"Why?" I asked them, before it occurred to me that for the first five minutes of our catch up I was staring longingly at the LCD screen of my iPhone checking us in, tagging those with me, taking an Instagram photo and thinking of a 140-character witty quip to post on Twitter.
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"Because I was having dinner with my family last week and it was nice to sit back and live in the moment, engaging in face-to-face conversation, without having Facebook notifications distracting me," the marketing mogul mate said.Another friend, a business owner, decided to pull the plug on the 'Book when the virtual world and the real world began colliding and clashing worse than an outfit of leopard print and zebra stripes.
"I'm a people person so I still have 900-plus 'friends', so sometimes the line between friendship and associate becomes blurred," the elegant entrepreneur told me.
Both pointed out that it's only Facebook they're leaving; other social media sites were still fixtures in their busy lives.
This I could understand, I'm a keen twit. I love a good trending topic hashtag and stream of consciousness-type environment, whereas with Facebook I sometimes find myself mindlessly clicking through photo albums of people I don't even know.
Why do I care what an old school friend's ex-boyfriend's aunt got up to on her Mongolian holiday in 2008?
While the aforementioned friends power down on the world of poking, tagging and status updates, other people I know are taking the concept of "pressing pause" to impressive levels.
"Sorry I can't make your Project Runway episode three party, I'm off on a 10-day meditation retreat," one told me.
Turns out Gen Y Australians are ahead of the curve when it comes to switching off.
Late last year, media and marketing company Lifelounge conducted a study of young Australians that found more than half the participants aged between 16 and 30 spent at least one hour a week reading a book and more than 50 per cent said they visited art galleries and theatres more than nightclubs.
Over recent weeks I've been invited to play Connect Four over cocktails and have been served scrambled eggs with a side of Scrabble, however these invitations came with a strict "no mobile device allowed" disclaimer.
Why do you think Aussies are "defacing" and "pressing pause" on online social activities? Would you consider clicking the deactivate button on your account and switching off the mobile?
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/lifematters/blogs/my-jennaration/switching-off-to-save-our-social-lives-20110722-1hsip.html#ixzz1TkOn0xql
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