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Sunday, October 19, 2008

Why I deleted my Friendster and Multiply accounts

Yes I did.

It was a bit hard to do, I had 235 friends in Friendster, and I had tons of photos uploaded on my Multiply account. But my motto for this year is to simplify my life. I went through my yahoogroups and left half of the groups I was subscribed to. I even deleted all my inactive accounts in Shelfari, Flixster, Tagged and what-have-yous. Then I stopped at Friendster.

I looked at all my 235 friends and realized that only a handful were my real friends. And they did not even update their account! I do not want virtual friendsters who would just post some glittery greeting on my message board or send me virtual smileys. I wanted friends who I can talk to over coffee, tell the details about the going-ons in my life and laugh at the idiosyncrasies of people around me. Including myself.

And so I went to the account settings and hit the delete button. When Friendster asked for a reason why I was deleting my account, I typed in: "It's complicated."

Then I went to Multiply. I kept that account for couple more weeks after I bid farewell to Friendster. I still hanged on to the idea that I had friends in Multiply who may want to read my blog or view my photos. But then, I got tired viewing their photos and letting them view mine. I got tired responding to their blogs and seeing their responses to mine. Maybe I wanted more meaningful conversations than one-line comments. Or maybe I was rebelling against all forms of convention. And Multiply IS convention. Everyone seems to have it. I wanted to be different.

Blame the artist in me, for it was the one that made me go to my account settings and delete my Multiply account. When the team at Multiply asked why I was deleting my account, I said "I did not want to Multiply, I wanted to simplify." And simplify I did.

Now I have put all my blogs, published articles and photos into one site: www.vanessavelasco.com. It's not a social site, I just put that up for professional purposes. Like a profile or portfolio for would-be clients or contacts. But still I linked this blog to that site, because my blog is something I really cannot delete. I don't know why. Maybe because all my good memories are kept here. And I do want to keep them.

But as for social media, I am making myself scarce on cyberspace. For I'd rather see my friends' real smiles than their virtual smileys, or hear them laugh than see the letters "ROFL" or view some yellow bald cartoon rolling on the floor laughing on my computer window. I guess social media has made me anti-social.

And oh... thank you for reading this entry. Wanna have some coffee sometime? =)

13 comments:

  1. Coffee? Sige! Amy and I will be in Manila Jan. 1 to 6. :)

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  2. I would LOVE to have you share my White Chocolate Mocha at Starbucks! I can't go back right now cause I am so B-I-G na but when we do, we should get together.

    A Simple Life is my goal too. Maybe that's why I remained probinsyana filipiniana with just a little dash of America. I don't blame you. Yong friends ko sa Friendster are only people I have meet personally & relatives from both sides of the family that I haven't seen in a long time or actually haven't meet yet. And I totally agree with you about the glittery comments..haha! When I got those stuff, I delete them and I ignore all kinds of applications invites. The only other thing I have on is Facebook, and it is for friends here in the states mostly and I have the same rule, I should personally know you and I ignore all other kinds of invites here and there. I am however passionate about my website at SmugMug, and my blogger blog that is linked there. Welcome to SmugMug nga pala, yay! Neighbors na tayo, let me know if you need any help k.

    Glad to see you updating your blog again. You are really a good writer you know.

    You made me think about my Multiply. I am not really updating it, I opened it with the intention of being my sole home on the web, but I have difficulty making it work with my blog, then I found SmugMug and it's all over. Hmmm.. think, think, think!

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  3. hey pau! nice to hear from you. Sure! coffee with your wifey it is on January. Drop me a line when you're here. :)

    hey lanie! I thought hard about my multiply, but I got tired updating it. And I've been receiving invites from people just because they want to sell something hehe. So I'm back to blogger. Glad you dropped by! Kita tayo one of these days. Who knows, I might find myself in Virginia Beach haha!

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  4. C'mon! There's plenty of Starbucks around here. You can never have enough of them..hehe! Ohhh.. did I tell you that the university cafeteria has a Starbucks?! Now you know why I got spoiled, my husband brought me these stuff regularly! It's a cold morning, ahhhh.. would love to have one right now!

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  5. Haha! Plenty of Starbucks around here too. Tatlo nga and Starbucks around the block of our office. Kilala nako ng mga barista by name kasi everyday andun ako. Pero I go for the cold drinks, like the iced caramel macchiato, because it's sooooo hot in this country!

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  6. Congratulations. Alas, we have grown old and weary. Coffee sounds nice but I've got to mind the ulcers.

    hehehehe.

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  7. for olive: if not coffee... how about some tea? or better yet... vodka? hehehe =)

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  8. so what makes a friend real?

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  9. Some months ago, I read a friend's status in YM said: "In times of crisis, you'll know who your real friends are." And I agree... that's the test of true friendship.

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  10. in that case, have you been a real friend?

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  11. Not to all. I am only human.

    And if you've noticed, I've been answering your questions even though I do not know you. Care to introduce yourself first? =)

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  12. These are so my thoughts.

    I would have loved to have coffee with you - wish we were in the same place at the same time :(

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  13. Binura mo nga...nag Facebook ka naman! Ganun din. Hahaha.

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