A little over a month ago I decided to deactivate my Facebook account. This isn’t the first time I’ve done this, but I think it will be for good this time.
I find it funny that the morning I deactivated my profile, my mom sends me a text minutes later asking, “Did you deactivate your Facebook account?” as if my parents wouldn’t know what’s going in my life if I didn’t have it.
All I hear all day long is Facebook this, Facebook that. “Have you seen that meme floating around on FB?” Or “Did you see that funny video on FB?” Or “Did you see that picture I posted on FB?”
I’m so tired of it.
I chose to do this for a few reasons. The main ones being constantly comparing myself to everyone else and being obsessed with everyone else’s lives, seeing gory and downright awful pictures from random people, and spending entirely WAY too much time checking the “news feed” every day. The biggest reason I kept it for as long as I did was because of having family who lives out of state. That’s my favorite part about FB is being able to stay connected with those family members who live far away.
Even after blocking and reporting those random pages who posted awful pictures of dead babies on the ground or nude photos of women, I still kept seeing them. I reported numerous photos to FB for review and they “found they didn’t violate their community standards.” There’s something wrong with that “community” if they don’t see a problem with pictures of dead, mangled infants.
I’m the type of person who is constantly thinking about SOMEthing and my mind moves a mile a minute all day long. I also tend to get anxious about a lot of things and in turn that causes me to worry a lot (or vice versus). I spent so much time on FB worrying about other people’s lives that I felt as if I wasn’t tending to my own life internally. Constantly feeling the urge to see “what’s new” in the FB world left me exhausted all the time. It was like a nagging voice that tells you to go smoke a cigarette, “Check Facebook. You might miss something. Go check it now.”
This probably sounds bizarre that I thought this much into all of this, but it all boils down to spending more time in the moment with those around me rather than glued to my phone. Have you ever noticed that when there is a moment of free time or a lull in conversation, a person will automatically go to their phone to avoid sitting and doing nothing? Don’t get me wrong, I still do this. But I’ve become much more aware of when I do it so I can ultimately do it less.
Call me an old soul, but I would much rather sit in silence during a lull in conversation than feel completely ignored by everyone around me looking at their phones. There have been many occasions when I’ve went out to eat with two or more people and I’m left feeling ignored as they’re more into their phones than into conversing with me. It’s disheartening. And for someone who gets as anxious as I do, I start to wonder if I’m boring or if that person (or people) doesn’t truly want to be there with me (which further creates more anxiety).
I still have other social media such as instagram and snapchat, but I am more mindful of how frequently I’m on those platforms. I’ve become less involved with other people’s lives and have focused more on my life with my husband and being present in the moment with people around me. As for family who live out of town, we can easily send a text or make a call if we need to do so.
I’ve freed up so much of my time by getting rid of the biggest social media platform in our society and I can tell you it has never felt better.
xoxo
Faith, Love, & Dreams 