> I stopped using facebook once my friends list grew into the hundreds
Why didn't you just remove friends and then keep using it? That's like saying you gave up on using email because of all the unanswered messages you had sitting in your inbox.
In three years of using Facebook, I've never had a friend delete an account. Not once. And it's the only site beyond Hacker News on which I keep a consistent account. (I wouldn't keep a consistent account here if deleting myself was permitted.)
But I'm edgy and avante-garde and so I did disable my Facebook account for two days. Restored it almost instantly. It's not that there's an addiction, it's that Facebook is so easy to bend to your needs that outright deletion is stupid.
I removed all but ten friends and suddenly Facebook is a way of talking to friends and being vulnerable and the whole shebang. I've got no complaints. Literally none.
By design, i guess it's just not encouraged. Frankly I just don't want to say no to people. And facebook is designed so that it's easy to find people you know, even remotely. I need a passive system that fits my needs.
Plus there are other ways I keep in touch with my closer circle of friends: instant messaging.
The other benefit with that is that when I say something, it isn't pushed to everyone else. Even if I delete friends, conversations will still be open.
Why didn't you just remove friends and then keep using it? That's like saying you gave up on using email because of all the unanswered messages you had sitting in your inbox.