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I deactivated my Facebook account for over three years, reactivating about 18 months ago. There is an initial feeling of liberation, but I ended up regretting i
by lazzlazzlazz 10y ago
I deactivated my Facebook account for over three years, reactivating about 18 months ago. There is an initial feeling of liberation, but I ended up regretting it.
I realize now that I should have just shaped my use to fit my needs: unfriend or unfollow people I don't care to follow, write more messages rather than scrolling through the newsfeed, and join events and groups more deliberately. Deactivating was just an easy way to avoid the headaches rather than going through the work of curating what I wanted to see.
Now I actually use it to keep in touch with people I care about, rather than just pretend that's what I'm doing. I missed out on some things during my three years with Facebook off, and although I learned so much from having done it, I wouldn't do it again.
- jupiter90000 10y agoEveryone has different experiences with this stuff. I deactivated for a while, then went back and 'curated' the hell out of it. After I did that, I realized the only interactions I was getting from it for a while could mostly be had via other websites, in-person, by phone and text, and deactivated a few months back again. Although yesterday, I logged in solely to download a picture my wife wanted I had of her then instantly deactivated again, if that counts. Since I weaned myself down majorly by curating the content severely for a while, almost no one had been griping to me about 'why aren't you on facebook?' when I stopped using it this last time. And I feel even less compelled to go back on. I enjoy having a sense of privacy, free time to do other things (I have that 50 minutes a day/whatever to do other stuff with now), and I think a better respect for the value of the precious time left in my life. I hope I never get drawn back in to using it.