Why I Stopped Using Facebook – Reason #1
Update: I ended up creating a new Facebook account, here's why.
I couldn't control the news feed. It wasn't for lack of trying too. During the months leading up to the day when I deactivated my account, I put in a lot of effort to try to control my news feed. Here are some of the things I tried:
- I went through all the pages I followed and “unfollowed” those that didn't post worthwhile content, or those whose content no longer meant anything to me.
- I went through all the Facebook groups I was member of and left those that I didn't want to be a part of anymore. One group I was in had some form of online drama every month or so. I was surprised that I didn't leave that FB group earlier. I didn't just leave a group because of what showed up on my news feed either; I left other groups due to privacy and security reasons. Some groups I only became a member of, out of courtesy to the one who created the group. However if I didn't know the other members, that ends up as being a security issue for me.
- Lastly I did the same thing for my friends on Facebook. I went through all of the people on my friends list and evaluated whose posts get to show up on my news feed. I gotta be honest, while some people had really worthwhile posts, others posted or shared crap. The people that posted crap got “unfollowed”, sorry. However, just because they were “unfollowed” doesn't mean I no longer want to be friends with them; I just couldn't stand their posts. Which is sad really. Facebook is supposed to connect people, but here it is causing a rift between friends.
So anyway I did all that plus implemented a new rule for myself. Whenever I open up my Facebook news feed, I would go through the first 5-10 posts and evaluate them. If the post wasn't worth my time, in other words if it didn't add value to my life, the post will get blocked/hidden. If I notice that I keep blocking posts from the same person, I then “unfollow” that person.
All this worked for a week or two, but I still always ended up unsatisfied after browsing through my news feed. (Side note, infinite news feeds are evil!) After awhile I simply got tired of policing my news feed. Why was I wasting all this time trying to clean up my news feed, when I could be doing more productive things? So I simply quit. Deactivated my account and never had to deal with the news feed again.
Wow it feels good to write all this down. Thank you write.as!
Also thanks to bleak and pretty for the idea of using giphy to add memes on here.
#SocialMedia #QuittingSocialMedia #Facebook