Brian’s Blog: Taking a Break From Facebook Is Understandable

A recent Pew survey tells us that 61% of Facebook users having been taking a break from the social networking site. I have continued to use it as usual, but I can understand why some are checking out.

Two out of three American adults who use the Internet are on Facebook. About 150 million Facebook users are in the U.S. Why are they checking out?

If you're like me, you post an occasional photo of family, make a witty comment here and there about sports, movies, music or current events. You comment on family stuff, or make a comment about things your friends post.

I'm kind of selective about my friends list. Even though I work in media, I'm a fairly private person. I know people who respond to every friend request. I don't let that many people have a glimpse into the activities of me and my family.

As for the burn out, here's my theory.

How many times do you want to be asked to play Farmville? Do you need to know about every little intimate detail of your friend's kid's lives? What do you say? "Nice that Johnny makes big boy poo poo now!" Let me just put a big fat "likes" by that one.

As I said, I use Facebook to keep up with the people I choose to keep up with. And to be honest, some I have as friends, but hide their feeds. Might sound snotty, but that's me.

Ooops, gotta go. Someone just let me know that they scored 1,000 Bejewled points.

You can check out the Pew survey here.