NEW YORK (AP) — Don't try to
friend MaLi Arwood on Facebook. You won't find her there.
You won't find Thomas Chin, either. Or Kariann Goldschmitt. Or
Jake Edelstein.
More than 900 million people worldwide
check their Facebook accounts at least once a month, but millions more are
Facebook holdouts.
They say they don't want Facebook. They
insist they don't need Facebook. They say they're living life just fine without
the long-forgotten acquaintances that the world's largest social network sometimes
resurrects.
They are the resisters.
"I'm absolutely in touch with everyone in
my life that I want to be in touch with," Arwood says. "I don't need to share
triviality with someone that I might have known for six months 12 years
ago."
Even without people like Arwood, Facebook
is one of the biggest business success stories in history. The site had 1
million users by the end of 2004, the year Mark Zuckerberg started it in his
Harvard dorm room. Two years later, it had 12 million. Facebook had 500 million
by summer 2010 and 901 million as of March 31, according to the company.
That staggering rise in popularity is one
reason why Facebook Inc.'s initial public offering is one of the most hotly
anticipated in years. The company's shares are expected to begin trading on the
Nasdaq Stock Market on Friday under the ticker symbol "FB". Facebook is likely
to have an estimated market valuation of some $100 billion, making it worth more
than Kraft Foods, Ford or Disney.
Facebook still has plenty of room to grow, particularly in developing
countries where people are only starting to get Internet access. As it is, about
80 percent of its users are outside U.S. and Canada.
But if Facebook is to live up to its
pre-IPO hype and reward the investors who are clamoring for its stock this week,
it needs to convince some of the resisters to join. Two out of every five
American adults have not joined Facebook, according to a recent Associated
Press-CNBC poll. Among those who are not on Facebook, a third cited a lack of
interest or need.
If all those people continue to shun
Facebook, the social
network could become akin to a postal system that only delivers mail to
houses on one side of the street. The system isn't as useful, and people aren't
apt to spend as much time with it. That means fewer opportunities for Facebook
to sell ads.
Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet
& American Life Project, says that new communications channels — from the
telephone to radio, TV and personal computers — often breed a cadre of holdouts
in their early days.
"It's disorienting because people have different relationships with others
depending on the media they use," Rainie says. "But we've been through this
before. As each new communications media comes to prominence, there is a period
of adoption."
Len Kleinrock, 77, says Facebook is fine for his grandchildren, but it's not
for him.
"I do not want more distractions," he says. "As it is, I am deluged with
email. My friends and colleagues have ready access to me and I don't really want
another service that I would feel obliged to check into on a frequent
basis."
Kleinrock says his resistance is generational, but discomfort with technology
isn't a factor.
After all, Kleinrock is arguably the
world's first Internet user. The University of California, Los Angeles professor
was part of the team that invented the Internet. His lab was where researchers
gathered in 1969 to send test data between two bulky computers —the beginnings
of the Arpanet network, which morphed into the Internet we know today.
"I'm having a 'been-there, done-that'
feeling," Kleinrock says. "There's not a need on my part for reaching out and
finding new social groups to interact with. I have trouble keeping up with those
I'm involved with now."
Thomas Chin, 35, who works at an advertising and media planning company in
New York, says he may be missing out on what friends-of-friends-of-friends are
doing, but he doesn't need Facebook to connect with family and closer
acquaintances.
"If we're going to go out to do stuff, we
organize it (outside) of Facebook," he says.
Some people don't join the social network
because they don't have a computer or Internet access, are concerned about
privacy, or generally dislike Facebook. Those without a college education are
less likely to be on Facebook, as are those with lower incomes. Women who choose
to skip Facebook are more likely than men to cite privacy issues, while seniors
are more likely than those 50-64 years old to cite computer issues, according
the AP-CNBC poll.
About three-quarters of seniors are not on Facebook. By contrast, more than
half of those under 35 use it every day.
The poll of 1,004 adults nationwide was conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs
and Corporate Communications May 3-7 and has a margin of sampling error of plus
or minus 3.9 percentage points.
Steve Jones, a professor who studies online culture and communications at the
University of Illinois at Chicago, says many resisters consider Facebook to be
too much of a chore.
"We've added social networking to our lives. We haven't added any hours to
our days," Jones says. "The decision to be online on Facebook is simultaneously
a decision not to be doing something else."
Jones says many people on Facebook try to
overcome that by multitasking, but they end up splitting their attention and
engaging with others online only superficially.
Arwood, 47, a restaurant manager in Chicago, says she was surprised when
colleagues on an English-teaching program in rural Spain in 2010 opted to spend
their breaks checking Facebook.
"I spent my time on break trying to learn
more about the Spanish culture, really taking advantage of it," she says. "I
went on walks with some of the students and asked them questions."
Kariann Goldschmitt, 32, a music professor at New
College of Florida in Sarasota, Fla., was on Facebook not long after its
founding in 2004, but she quit in 2010. In part, it was because of growing
concerns about her privacy and Facebook's ongoing encouragement of people to
share more about themselves with the company, with marketers and with the
world.
She says she's been much more productive since leaving.
"I was a typical user, on it once or twice a day," she says. "After a certain
point, I sort of resented how it felt like an obligation rather than fun."
Besides Facebook resisters and quitters,
there are those who take a break. In some cases, people quit temporarily as they
apply for new jobs, so that potential employers won't stumble on photos of their
wild nights out drinking. Although Facebook doesn't make it easy to find, it
offers options for both deleting and suspending accounts.
Goldschmitt says it takes effort to stay in
touch with friends and relatives without Facebook. For instance, she has to make
mental notes of when her friends are expecting babies, knowing that they have
become so used to Facebook "that they don't engage with us anymore."
"I'm like, 'Hmmm, when is nine months?' I have to remember to contact them
since they won't remember to tell me when the baby's born."
Neil Robinson, 54, a government lawyer in
Washington, says that when his nephew's son was born, pictures went up on
Facebook almost immediately. As a Facebook holdout, he had to wait for someone
to email photos.
After years of resisting, Robinson plans to join next month, mostly because
he doesn't want to lose touch with younger relatives who choose Facebook as
their primary means of communication.
But for every Robinson, there is an Edelstein, who has no desire for Facebook
and prefers email and postcards.
"I prefer to keep my communications
personal and targeted," says Jake Edelstein, 41, a pharmaceutical consultant in
New York. "You're getting a message that's written for you. Clearly someone took
the time to sit down to do it."
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I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one who has chosen not to participate.
My personal reasons for not joining:
(in no particular order)
I don't need to know if my friends are currently eating a cheeseburger, watching a movie, or just loved the restaurant they went to. If they want to tell me they can in a phone call or in person.
I worry about the amount of information given out about me on the internet that's out of my control already. I don't need to tell possible burglars and rapists when I'm leaving my house or if I'm on vacation. By the way, I live with a lot of people so the house is never vacant....ever.
I don't like Facebook in general, much like I don't like Walmart.
I'm fine with everyone else doing it; it doesn't affect me one way or the other, so have fun if you like it.
If you look closely, the titles of these new scents are things like Man Town, 2x4, and Riding Mower.
