Goodbye, Facebook, it is over. Using you makes me angry, depressed and anxious. It is a waste of life and purposeful living, so, I am done.
I just deleted Facebook from my phone, and it is one of the best decisions I have made recently. I did not delete my account....yet. I kept Messenger to stay in touch with friends whom I only contact through the app and I kept my Facebook account to use only on my laptop to promote my published articles. Aside from that, I have essentially left the Facebook world and it is a wonderful feeling!
There are a few basic reasons I decided to try life without Facebook.
1. It has become a cesspool of anger, hatred, mocking, and ignorance.
Facebook used to be an enjoyable social networking website. Now, it is a place people use to bash one another, make hateful comments, mock one another and quite honestly, show their ignorance. More and more commonly, within seconds of opening my Facebook app, I would find myself becoming tense, angry and upset by what people were saying and sharing. A good rule to remember is if you would not say something to someone's face, then you probably shouldn't be saying it to them on the internet. Sadly, a lot of people do not get this.
2. It is a huge waste of time and purpose.
Lately, I have realized just how much time I spend on Facebook. It seemed like any second I was not occupied with something else, I was opening it and scrolling through to check...what? What was I even getting on to check? Facebook had become a huge time waster for me. There is so much more purpose to life than scrolling through a social media app. This was a huge contributing factor to my decision to get off of it.
3. It has become a means of spreading rumor, bias, and bogus news.
If the recent presidential election taught us anything, it is that the internet has a wealth of terrible articles and news sources spreading rumors, bias and stories that have absolutely no solid grounding in factual information – and people buy into it! Facebook is one of the largest ways these things spread. I don't know about the rest of you, but I have no interest in seeing or perpetuating these stories. (Also people, please learn to fact check.)
4. Between ads, viral shares, and news, I would hardly ever see the things I wanted to see.
When I created a Facebook account many years ago, I did so because it was a great way to keep up with friends – especially ones who were far away. To me, that is still the purpose of social networking in general. I want to use it to keep up with people I care about. However, with how Facebook has transformed over the years, my home feed is now full of ads, viral shares and news stories that I have no interest in seeing. (Read more about Facebook and data mining here.)
5. Using Facebook takes away from quality time spent with the important people in life, in person.
How often do you visit with family or friends and try to have a conversation only to realize that everyone is absorbed in their phones. This was another major factor in my decision to rid myself of Facebook. Family is important. Friends are important. Real life and real, live people I am interacting with in person are important. If social media is pulling me away from quality time spent with the people I most care about, then there is a serious issue.
In the short time since I have gotten off Facebook, my life has been more pleasant, focused and less stressful. If you're still using Facebook, but are fed up with it like me, consider deleting it – even if that simply means removing the app from your phone or iPad. I think you will be surprised with how much happier you are with your life!
