Mediaboss Marketing

In high school, Shane Fischbach 15 checked his Facebook incessantly. Like the vast majority of his peers, he consistently liked statuses, posted photos and received updates on the college acceptances of friends he hardly knew.

At a superficial level, (Facebook) didnt make me any happier, Fischbach recalled. I would go on and sort of satisfy this addiction for snooping into other peoples lives, and what would happen is I would get systemically less happy because, by definition, people are performing on Facebook.

Disenchanted with the superficiality of the site, Fischbach decided to terminate his relationship with Facebook and unplugged in March of his senior year of high school.

Fischbachs decision places him in a small minority of undergraduates who abstain from using social media. In an age when efficient communication and widespread connectivity are increasingly emphasized in students lives, the move to digitally disentangle stands in stark contrast to mainstream trends. Fostering relationships today involves more than a mere exchange of telephone numbers or emails addresses, with the Facebook profiles, Twitter accounts and Instagram feeds taking a prime role. To many, social networking has exploded into an art of self-advertisement, and the use of and participation in social networks seems inevitable.

Within this increasingly plugged in landscape, Fischbach and other Brown students are intentionally opting out.

I think its natural to want to be connected to people you care about, said Reem Rayef 15, who recently deactivated from Facebook. But I dont think its natural to be so in (tune) with so many people that are so marginally important to your life.

The inauthenticity and prevalence of online presentation and communication similarly motivated Pia Brar 15.5 to deactivate her Twitter account.

But as a visual arts concentrator with a focus in photography, Brar retains her Instagram account to stay in the creative process and uses the platform to post her photos regularly, she said.

Though Brar is a heavy Instagram user, she said she remains skeptical of the superficiality of modern social networking sites.

These sites are playing on the vanity of humankind, Brar said.

More:
Unplugged: Students opt out of social media