TL;DR - I’m going to leave Facebook for an extended period of time as an exercise in self-improvement.

The Long Version

I have been wanting to take a break from Facebook for a while now. With the increase in political garbage, pervasive advertisements, and various vitriolic posts and comments, it has been a long time coming. I’d like to think that I’m not a source of these things that I loathe… rather I feel that my “personal brand’ on Facebook is to bring about some witty humor or share other sources of it. But over the years, I think I’ve just gotten weary of all the downsides of Facebook, and despite having user controls to filter out pages, people, and topics, it typically isn’t enough.

So why have I not pulled the plug on Facebook yet? There are more than a few reasons, actually. I do generally like keeping up with people and seeing what people are up to, even if it leads to the occasional case of FOMO or that weird feeling that you are spying on someone else’s life. Another reason is that I’ve been a member since 2004, the year it started. I still remember when it was only open to college students only and you had to go to “thefacebook.com” because the “facebook.com” domain was taken. Seeing as how I’m 32 right now, I’ve been on Facebook nearly half my life (!!!), and I felt that moving on would just be difficult due to how ingrained it has been in my adult life. Perhaps there’s a bit of a pride factor too in being one of the oldest members of a multi-billion user community. Anyways it’s hard to quit something when it’s been a part of you for so long, and you can identify the positives that come out of the service.

Earlier this week, I listened to an episode of the (highly recommended) Art of Manliness podcast that came out a few months ago about becoming a digital minimalism. Digital minimalism shares the minimalistic core values of getting rid of excess things that do not truly provide value or meaning for the owner, only from a technology sense. This can stem from streaming services, phone apps, social media platforms, etc. In the podcast, guest Cal Newport discusses various aspects and tricks of social media and why they play to our innate quest for pleasure and validation. An example would be fishing for “likes” on Facebook, or a specific emoji. I personally am guilty of keeping track of the increase of likes and/or comments for a status, and I will admit that it does make me feel like I struck gold or like I am more important if I get higher totals. It’s a cheap trick that I, and many others, fall for time and time again and it keeps us posting and exacerbating the cycle. This isn’t real interaction.

Another aspect Cal Newport brings up is that interaction on Facebook is not true social interaction. The same also applies for text messaging and email conversations. They each have their time and place (confirming plans, etc.), but real social interaction also involves little nuances like hearing the tone of voice and reading body gestures. I’d like to admit that I’m fairly social despite my introverted nature, but as others increasingly prefer to use digital methods of communication, I can’t help but feel that I’m being dragged down into it as well. I resisted texting for the longest time years ago because I would much rather talk to someone on a phone or in person, and I still prefer this today. But as I mentioned a couple sentences ago, I understand many people now would rather just do digital communication for the efficiency… it has to be a two-way agreement for two (or more) people to clear out blocks of time to meet in person or talk on the phone.

Anyways, listening to this podcast episode finally put me over the edge to take the plunge and deactivate Facebook. It will certainly create a void in my life, but I can certainly fill that void with some positive things. One thing I would like to do is to put my thoughts, photos, etc. on my website in an effort to be more active with adding content (right now it’s only tech tips, but I want to expand). I still plan on keeping Facebook Messenger since I do plan events with people through that, but perhaps some of these conversations can eventually be upgraded up to actual phone conversations. It isn’t my intention to go extreme with digital minimalism but I believe dropping Facebook will be a good step towards practicing the concepts involved.

So…. wish me luck and stay tuned!

Podcast episode on digital minimalism https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/digital-minimalism-cal-newport/