I have joined the ranks of people who are dumping Facebook, mostly because it’s a major time waste.
Source: gifstumblr.com
Recent developments in my life made me realize that I cannot be productive creatively if I’m spending most of my free time on Facebook looking at photos of people’s kids or pets, or being horrified or placated about someone else’s political or religious views. It’s a significant enabler to my own procrastination.
And there’s a greener aspect: jealousy. I have a lot of creative friends who have been up to all kinds of great things lately. They post about their achievements, sometimes a lot. I want to be happy for them, but I look at what I’ve done lately (nothing spectacular) and it kills me a little. Especially when I know that there’s nobody to blame but me.
So I decided to free up my time for creative things and get away from unhealthy comparisons that are seriously depressing me. Goodbye, Facebook!
While I didn’t delete my account entirely, I put a message on my Facebook feed telling people I was taking a break and if they needed to get in touch with me, here’s my email address. And then I deleted the app from my phone and iPad: no sticking around to see if anyone commented on the post. That’s not the point.
I do admit to being curious if anyone would respond outside of Facebook. So far, nobody has emailed me, but soon after I posted that message, I got 12 hits on this website. I guess that’s the Facebook way: getting a view on other people’s lives without having to actually communicate with them.
It’s been an adjustment. I no longer have the perceived comfort of mindlessly jumping on Facebook at lunch or after I get home from work. I had a few moments of withdrawal, looking for the little blue app button, but honestly, I don’t miss it that much. I still visit some websites that I’d consider to be time wasters, and I participate on Twitter, but I have better control over these. And I actually visit my friends’ blogs and read THEIR creative output, which I think they’ll be happy to know.
The upcoming week is vacation for me, and I plan to spend it working on an article I already did an interview for, and reading a book for a book review I committed to writing. They are oddly related, through no planning of my own, so the end result could be fun.
After some time, I may jump back on Facebook to check for posts to my page, adjust settings, or update my password. But the goal is to make it a rare experience, if that.
If you’ve read this and have had your own experience making the jump from Facebook, I’d love to hear it.
