Goodbye Facebook

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000

After thinking it over for the past few weeks, I’ve finally pulled the plug and deactivated my Facebook account.

I haven’t fully deleted my account just yet, in case there’s some reason I’m forgetting that I should maintain it. Deactivating it just means people can’t see my timeline or search for me. I’m also assuming it means advertisers can’t access my data, though this link at Facebook’s Help site doesn’t explicitly state that.

It’s not that I don’t want to connect with everyone anymore — it’s that I just don’t use Facebook to do it. I wasn’t posting anymore, I don’t really derive much happiness from browsing it anymore (I am using Instagram a little more often lately for keeping up with friends,) and the recent privacy scandals have really sealed the deal about me putting too much of my life information on there.

So, bye-bye Facebook. It’s been real.

Update 2023-01-24 I've remained on Facebook because of some local requirements, mainly to sign up for volleyball. Without being on Facebook, I haven't found another way to connect with people in our area socially. I really do hate Facebook the company and what they've become. If there was a viable alternative to communication then I'd definitely ditch Facebook immediately, and I'm always looking for an opportunity to do so.

Why and How I Use Twitter

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 00:00:00 +0000

I use Twitter every single day of my life, and have my live stream of tweets open on either my computer when working or at home, or on my phone when I’m commuting or waiting in line somewhere.

A lot of people ask what Twitter is used for, and why they would need to know when someone is “eating dinner or going to the bathroom.”

Twitter started out that way, yes. It was a simple, text-based system to tell your friends what you’re doing “right now.” But in the years since it was introduced, Twitter has blown up and become a vital part of our society. It’s a prominent method of communication and a vital part of the public sphere. You cannot watch TV or go online without feeling Twitter’s presence.

So how is it used? I’ve seen a lot of new users to Twitter follow people like celebrities, only to quickly realize that this tends to be more towards the “I’m having dinner” type of information stream. In contrast, I only follow a handful of celebrities and/or actual “people.” They are the ones I’m either really interested in their opinions, or I find their tweets to be hilarious distractions from my day.

The rest of those I follow are news sites (APNews, BuzzFeedNews, local newspaper), Sports related (ESPN, DetroitBadBoys), Tech related (AppleInsider, various software companies), and web development bloggers and resources (SmashingMagazine, Zeldman, AListApart, etc.). I follow accounts for any services I use, such as Gmail, Twitter, and Dropbox, so that I can get updates on outages and new features as soon as possible.

Of course I also follow my friends and colleagues, as I like to read their witty tweets about whatever is bothering or exciting them at the time.

So the gist is that I recommend using Twitter as less of a celebrity and sports team-following service, but rather as more of an information-stream, news and opinion service.