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Today, I accomplished something.
I deleted everyone off of my personal Facebook account.
Me, addicted to Facebook since 2008 (and MySpace before that, which was so much better in my opinion!), no longer has a personal Facebook account.
I feel…..
RELIEVED!
I’ve been asked quite a few questions about my decision.
This most frequent one asked was WHY are you doing this?
There are a couple different reasons.
- I think social media is a great tool when used for the correct purposes. But for me, it became such a negative problem in my life.
I would check my feed a couple (hundred) times a day and would either end up depressed because I didn’t feel I measured up to some of my other “friends” (hello, high school again), angry because of the constant political drama or sad because someone was always sharing the most depressing things.
Why would I WANT to spend my time with that amount of negatively?
- I would rather cultivate actual relationships with a handful of people I truly care about than have 100 “likes” on a picture.
- I want to have more time to focus on my daughter and pursuing other interests.
What about Candy Crush?
I deleted all Facebook games/apps. I’m not a big gamer so I don’t think it’ll be much of a problem. My reading addiction is a lot stronger than my Candy Crush addiction 🙂
Why did I delete my friends instead of closing the account?
There are a handful of Thyroid groups and Homeschooling groups I belong too that I have found great support with and I want to stay involved with.
Does this mean I’m off social media for good?
Nope, I am still keeping the Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest pages for the blog up.
I’m still a part of a select few groups on Facebook.
I did, however, delete the enormous amount of “yard sale sites”, I found myself aimlessly browsing them for hours on end and finding things I HAVE to have. Luckily, I’m in a “I want to get rid of all the clutter in my house” mindset so that was an easy choice for me.
Temptation. Gone.
I wonder if there’s a support groups for that. I really need one.
Hi, my name is Mary and I have a yard sale addiction.
Am I worried that I will miss anything important?
No, my true friends will call or text me about anything important.
Do I expect to stay off Facebook forever?
I’m not sure; I’m doing this as an experiment for now and seeing how it goes.
Why not just limit the amount of time you spend on it?
Because I have a self control problem and I don’t want Facebook to be such an integral part of my life right now.
Are you crazy?
No, I didn’t delete Pinterest. Now, THAT would be crazy!
How addicted are you to Facebook? Do you find it to be a positive or negative part of your life?
Read about the 5 Lessons I Learned After Quitting Facebook on my guest post over at Money Saving Mom.
I completely agree with you. I did the same back in Jan. I ran into people that have been standoffish when I’ve seen them in person until I recall that deleting them must be the reason, but they go back to normal once we kick up a conversation again… Lol. It been great for me, my focus is now at home and with my kids. It is a relief.
You are waaaay stronger than I am! I find that, some days, I have to just close my feed, or I’ll never get anything done. Most of my FB friends are either too far away to see in real life, or marketers I’ve met along the way. Otherwise, I might seriously consider doing the same thing!
You make a great point. I’m glad I don’t easily get addicted to anything, not even FB LOL
Amen sister! I don’t have an issue with games, never bothered even trying any of them. Although I might have had fun with Words with Friends. However, I am such an information junkie! I could (and have) spent hours reading article after article. Interspersed with the occasional cat meme or video of course. I find myself needing to have facebook holidays. I may just institute fb Friday and only check for a certain amount of time on Fridays or something. *sigh*
I think you made a good decision. Personally, I do not like FB. I use it for 2 reasons, to keep in touch with family, and a couple of out-of-state friends and my blog’s FB page, which keeps me up-to-date with other blog friends. As far as a media tool for my blog, it stinks. I have over 100 likes on FB and less than 20 people see my posts. Compare that to ello, where I have one “friend” and my posts get seen by 35+ people consistently. I’m not sure if you allow url links in your comments, but if so, you can find me here: https://ello.co/inspiredbyjune
It’s not FB, but for me, that’s a good thing! Have a great week!
Good for you! I got off Facebook almost six years ago because of a minor stalking issue. Like you, though, if I had kept it, I would have been on it constantly. Now I just use G+ for my blog. Good job exercising some tough love on yourself. 🙂 Stopping by from Wise Woman.
Good for you! My solution was to shut it down and check it only at scheduled times. That works for me. I love that you know what will work for you and you are brave enough to do it!
Thank you for this post! I had similar issues with Facebook as you did and wrote about it a couple months ago on my blog as well. I feel so great having left the scene of it all. For me, I deactivated it but will use it for addresses temporarily if I need to since we move around often. Otherwise, I keep it off so I can focus on the important everyday life events around me.
http://unspeakablejoymovement.blogspot.com/2015/03/taking-stand-against-idol-of-technology.html
http://unspeakablejoymovement.blogspot.com/2015/03/why-i-dont-miss-facebook.html
I totally understand! I’ve been tempted to do the same for various reasons, however, there are several groups of people that I do not want to lose contact with and FB makes that easier since phone calls are not an option. But, like you, I do get sick of the junk. I don’t want to see one more “Open Letter to (insert I’m about to rant topic)”. I don’t want to see negativity, depressing things, etc… My way around this is using a Facebook groups app where I can just check in on the groups that encourage me, or develop me. Still, there may come a point where I have to let it go or start a dummy, no friend zone account.
I am not very active on my personal Facebook page, but as we have to have one in order to have a business facebook page, I still do. I post an occasional update/photo of my kids for friends and family who we don’t see often, but I am not a daily poster by any means. lol When it comes to the drama, negativity, and general “ugh”…I do my best to ignore it. 🙂