To give up Facebook?

[Namechange8471]

Finally realising just how much time i spend procrastinating and generally wasting time on it.

The only good thing is keeping in touch with family and friends.

Has anyone give it up?
Has it been a good thing?

I'm about to as well i think. I just helped my my delete her account and she's happy about it.
You can still use messenger to keep in touch. Just share photos privately.

I did it!!! What a relief not to see self promoting drivel on a regular basis.

If it’s upsetting you do it.

Although you’ll have to accept any resulting social isolation that comes as a result.

Thank you for your replies, i think because of all this covid 19 crap I've really started to evaluate who i care about (and vice versa).

I had a sort through my friends list a while back, and got sent lots of messages 'why did you delete me' most of these people i hadn't spoke to in years!

8 years ago I gave up Facebook and it’s one the best things I ever did. Facebook changed me as a person for the worst and I found I posted things that I wouldn’t normally ever post and got frustrated by things I wouldn’t normally get frustrated by. Everyone’s seeming perfect life does nothing to help you cope in your less than perfect life and makes everything 10 times worse! Giving up Facebook was the BEST thing for me and I have never looked back.

Have you tried deleting the app from your phone instead? I think if you've still got reason to go on there (to see friends and family posts) you could do that less frequently by just logging in the old fashioned way, without deleting your account all together. Say, once or twice a week? You could also unfriend all the contacts you don't really care much about so there's not loads of dross to trawl through.

I deleted my account at the beginning of the March lockdown for my own sanity, couldn’t cope with the hysteria. Best thing I ever did!

Ffs I can only assume you're a grown up, it's just social media!! I'd honestly be embarrassed to ask

The only thing keeping me to it at the moment is that lots of businesses use it and don't have their own websites so it's difficult to get any info apart from using it. Also local knowledge type stuff too

@Idratherbeinbarbados

I deleted my account at the beginning of the March lockdown for my own sanity, couldn’t cope with the hysteria. Best thing I ever did!

I did exactly the same! Once you are over the need to constantly check in you'll be fine! The only thing I miss is my children's school updates and some professional organisation groups.... 🤷🏼‍♀️

Do it! I never thought I could do it but have never looked back. I feel loads better. Much less anxious and also realise how many problems my friends have seem to stem from social media misunderstandings or stress. Unfortunately I have replaced it with a Mumsnet addiction but that's another matter.

If you need motivation watch The Social Dilemma and Screened Out on Netflix and read The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. These platforms are designed to be addictive and these companies are not accountable to anyone. I don't want to give them my data any more.

Good luck!

PS. I agree it is difficult not seeing what small businesses are doing. Social media has lots of benefits so it is best to do a cost-benefit analysis and decide whether its benefits outweigh the costs. I decided they didn't.

Littleposh

Just thought I'd gather other people's experiences and if it helped them.

I'm not embarrassed so no worries mate!

Sunday my facebook day, the rest of the week I have banned it - works well as feel up to date without being glued to phone.

The only thing I miss is my children's school updates and some professional organisation groups....

You see I don’t think that’s only at all? Surely it’d be easier to be on there for that sort of thing, and then delete/restrict posts from everyone you don’t want to hear from and don’t post yourself?

I too am Facebook free and it's great! Life continues quite happily without it I still communicate with friends - guess what txt messages and whatsapp still work! Enjoy the freedom.

I've just deleted my account. A time and money eater. Bad for my mental health, as "everyone" seemed much better than me! So pleased I did, and haven't missed any of it at all.

I deactivated my account about a week ago. I still haven't decided if I'm going to reactivate it or not. I'm enjoying not mindlessly scrolling in an evening but I've realised there's a few pages I need for work and I find the selling pages better than gumtree.

Do it, I deleted mine five years ago best thing ever.

I set up a new page for anything I am interested in like hobby groups/shops etc but have zero friends. Love it. I now can’t stand about 90% of the people I had on FB previously.

Keeping in touch with friends is actually better without Facebook (and Whatsapp if you can manage it!) because when you talk you catch up properly without already having a false and partial picture of what is going on with them. You also realise that there are lots of people you don't feel the need to keep in touch with as much but that's OK too. I think it makes for fewer but better relationships.

Before covid I used it daily. Now I barely go on. It's all covid, fake news stuff and adverts popping up

I deleted mine 4 years ago now - thought it would just be a small break initially - but realised i hate it and it brings no joy so never came back to it

I had a bad accident two years ago, stupidly documented my hospital stay on Facebook. Received loads of messages / offers of help... I was in hospital for 3 months . Deleted Facebook when I finally got home they weren’t anywhere to be seen.
Your real friends know where you live and have your number you will find your life a whole lot better without the virtue signallers

I've found that it's possible, with a bit of curating, to make FB work for me. I love FB for the fact that it keeps me in touch with distant family and old friends, when life gets in the way of seeing them regularly.

I have mostly actual friends as FB friends. I ignore requests from people I don't know and I unfollow anyone who posts the sort of thing I can't be bothered with, such as pointless quizzes, stealth boasts and posts with instructions to copy and paste X to show I care about Y.

That means I only see posts that I want to read from people I want to keep in touch with.