“I deleted all of my friends,” senior Sam Carlson recounted. “All but two. And I have alternative ways to talk to those two people, without Facebook. I don’t use it anymore.”

Carlson is among the many students at St. Paul Academy and Summit School who are beginning to wane their Facebook usage, or simply deleting their accounts altogether. While student’s reasons for diminishing their time on Facebook vary widely—from an academic distraction to a personal test of willpower—many have arrived to the same conclusion: Facebook creates a superficial social climate.

“People will post random, unnecessary stuff about their lives,” Carlson continued. “It’s like they’re searching for people to like and comment on their post.”

It’s a phenomenon that people notice offhand, but is starting to gain more credence—Facebook users search for positive affirmation through “likes” on their pictures and comments, and feel inadequate without it.

Junior Sophia Harrison is another of the students who have recently slowed their Facebook usage. “I used to be someone who would go on multiple times a day,” Harrison said. “But I don’t use it so much as a social place anymore, as I do to keep track of when stuff is happening—a social calendar, almost.”

Even while using Facebook sparingly, Harrison found it hard to ignore Facebook posturing. “People look for affirmation, and it’s based on how many likes they get. I see it all over the place,” Harrison continued.

“You know they just want attention,” sophomore Willa Grinsfelder agreed. “You can tell when people post something just because they want to get a bunch of likes. You think to yourself, ‘just stop!’”

To many, the essence of Facebook makes that type of environment unavoidable. “Between the lines, social media encourages that—it’s the nature of social networking,” Harrison said.

Carlson and Harrison agreed that academic use of Facebook is beneficial, but that the ostentation it pushes on teenagers is damaging. “Now they have that thing on Facebook, where it says ‘seen by 27 people,’” Carlson said.

A Facebook user can tell, out of all the people who’ve seen a post, who liked it and who didn’t. “It’s kind of disturbing, when you see that people don’t like what you say or post,” Carlson continued. “You change up what you say, really quick. You change yourself for the internet.”

Ultimately it’s a difficult balance, towing the line between gratuitous positive affirmation and basic Facebook usage.

Freshman Lutalo Jones posed an interesting philosophy: “I don’t post many things on Facebook, but when I do and I get a lot of likes, it makes me feel good,” Jones said. “It makes me feel like I have friends who listen to me.”

It’s perfectly fine to feel good about being liked, and appreciate the Facebook community for what it’s worth. “But,” Jones continued, “If I post something and I don’t get a lot of likes, I won’t let it bother me.”