Facebook is a behemoth, no doubt about it. Over one billion users, including everyone from the president and businesses to you and me, it’s a force to be reckoned with. Even in light of their recent manipulations of users, the apparent defections to other services, and the fact it’s led by a guy like Mark Zuckerberg, it’s still is a cultural phenomenon and an effective way to connect not just with friends and family but brands and public figures as well.

When I was on the east coast recently, I had at least seven different people tell – not ask; TELL – me to get back on Facebook. I said I’d think about it, but haven’t done it yet. Then, just yesterday, I got a text from someone asking if it was ok to have movie night at my house. I hadn’t heard from this person in three months, and I replied that while I was fine with it, the request was out of the blue.

She agreed, but said everyone else keeps talking about it so she figured she may as well ask me.

I was taken aback. For three months everyone has been talking about having a movie night at *my* house but no one ever asked me? I wasn’t part of the conversation?

It turns out that I wasn’t part of the conversation because I’m not on Facebook. Since they’re all 20 years younger than me, I guess that’s how the kids communicate these days when they’re not on my lawn. And because of that, I’m not made part of the conversation of which I’m the subject!

Earlier this year I wrote about a project titled “99 Days of Freedom” that asks people to go 99 days without Facebook, and explained why I deactivated (but not deleted) my account. It’s been odd; I’m out of touch in many ways, but quite free in others. So since the subject of Facebook has come up so many times in my personal life recently, I thought I would revive the post and see how many of you think you could last over three months without it, or have reasons of your own for leaving. It’s a very interesting socio-technical consideration.