by Will Emaus

Created on: July 22, 2010

One of the many joys of growing beyond your teenage years is that as a person matures they discover themselves; they realize who they are and what they enjoy and who they want to be...and maybe who they prefer to hang out with.

I recently quit Facebook; I did it for the privacy issues mainly coupled with the lack of trust I have in whether my personal information and especially those "oh my God I really did that" photos from my teenage years were really my private property; or was it that those items are my private property today as long as no one changes a policy tomorrow.

However there was another dynamic to Facebook that didn't make my decision but in retrospect after having removed myself from the application I came to discover was another benefit.

I didn't have to be friends with people I didn't want to be friends with anymore.

You say that's easy, just don't accept the friend request.

But alas that's sort of the problem. People that hung around together when they were teenagers seem to gravitate towards these same groups on Facebook today. Your "network" hopefully will extend beyond just those from your youth, but it still becomes a very tricky matter of trying to accept the friend request of someone you are really interested in re-connecting with; while trying to politely avoid their friends; who used to be your friends too, that you'd just as soon not be friends with today.

To come online every morning and get little gifts from people you barely know or remember; or those of the opposite sex who seemingly have very little understanding of the fact that you are married today and getting online flowers every day may not exactly make your spouse happy; are all little facts of Facebook life that make for a number of uncomfortable situations.

The funny thing is, if I had it to do again; if Facebook somehow turned into a company I really trusted or if Google or some other company really does come up with a solid Facebook type clone; I may have crossed a bridge by turning off my Facebook friendships that I may not want to cross again.

I've come to discover that to keep those past relationships in the past seems to make me quite a bit more satisfied; and for the people I would still like to be friends with, I'm discovering other means of connecting with them.

You know, like an e-mail or a telephone.

What a concept, huh?

Learn more about this author, Will Emaus.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.