CULTURE: Why Quitting Facebook Is Impossible!

No matter how much you enjoy playing Farmville, paging through photos of your friends’ pets, or “looking up old boyfriends and trying to find photos of their wives and kids without actually ‘friending’ them,” you have to admit the hours killed on Facebook aren’t “a particularly good use of time.” That’s what Meghan Daum thinks—yet she still can’t quit. Why not? Because “not being on Facebook means you’re invisible,” she writes in the Los Angeles Times.

“If there's an electronic equivalent of locking yourself in the house with the lights off and the shades down, forgoing Facebook might be it,” she continues. Remember in the 1980s, when “not having an answering machine or call waiting was a signal that you just didn't care about that important job offer,” or the 1990s, when anyone without a cell phone or email was “essentially closed for business”? Well, now there’s Facebook: “Joining up isn't just about being up to date; it's about being a responsible, modern, civilized person.”