social experiment

Facebook is just one of many social media outlets available now and it is the one I use most often and have used for the longest. Recently, I have noticed something about my usage. I realized that I was posting and responding to posts on the site as well as sending messages to other people. I became very aware that no one was sending me messages (except for replies to my messages) and very few people posted anything on my wall in response to my posts.


This got me considering conducting an experiment. I wondered what would happen if I completely dropped off of Facebook. No posts. No responses to other people's posts. No messaging.
So I started to conduct a social experiment on social media. I know, I am just so crazy.


My last post was on February 18, 2014. I have 318 (supposedly. I can imagine that some of them wonder daily why they accepted or sent me friend requests. Yes, I am THAT kind of Facebook poster) friends.


I sat back and waited to see if anyone mentioned me on Facebook or sent me messages asking why I have not posted in some time.


The results are not surprising.


Now I cannot say whether anyone noticed.


And I cannot say whether anyone cared.


One person, Dori, did post on my wall stating she missed my snark (which may or may not be true since she makes some darn good attempts at snark herself. Whenever she does, I just tell her "good effort, good effort" which is why I never stand within fist range of her). Another person, Jen, sent me a message asking about me.


I wanted to (originally) believe that this is a good indicator about the people I know on Facebook but that would be wrong. I realized this is a statement more about me than anyone else. Only two people noticed (or felt moved to communicate about) my absence.


So the takeaway from this, for me personally, is that if I keeled over dead today, no one would even comment on my absence for at least a month. This is not saying they would come looking for me (they wouldn't). They would say "I haven't seen him on FB in some time. Eh, what are you going to do?" and move on. Of course, the next thing to learn from this is that my cats would end up eating me. I know they would since I can see them giving me the eye late at night some evenings.


Of course, there are some that would say this should be a good indicator I need to go out and meet more people. I despise this logic.