Angry? Depressed? Delete Facebook from your phone and thank me later.
When I first got on Facebook in the fall of 2007 it was pretty cool. It was all about the social aspect of the site.
You could easily connect with all your friends, family, and people around the globe using just a few clicks of the button. It was an actual social networking site and when you used it, you felt connected with the rest of the planet.
Fast forward to 2019.
Nowadays, Facebook has become an ad-ridden mess full of half-correct political memes. If you manage to avoid them, they’re likely to cover up something else.
Facebook isn’t just a social networking site any longer. It’s a corporate and political vomit-inducing billboard, saturated with more advertisements for brand names, retailers, and political parties than a roadside billboard.
Facebook is an amazing tool. I love it because it allows me to keep in touch with my friends and family members who live far away.
But if you’re not careful, Facebook can also suck your life dry! That’s why we’ve put together these tips to help you stay safe online.
Here’s a funny recap of it
Why You Should Delete Your Facebook Account?
Facebook isn’t good for us, and that’s something that even Facebook’s own developers recognize.
As I’ve known for a long time, Facebook has been able to evoke some pretty negative feelings in me, but it wasn’t until I began to look at the recent research that I understood just how damaging it could be — especially if you struggle with depression and anxiety.
Facebook is addictive and keeps us from developing healthy relationships with others. It makes us feel jealous and envious, which leads to a sense of false community.
We stay connected with old friends and acquaintances, but we don’t really want to talk to new ones because they’re trying too hard to impress everyone else.
And we become stuck in our pasts because we see so many pictures of ourselves looking happier than we actually were at the time.
While Facebook can be an important part of keeping up with friends, family, colleagues, etc., we tend to use it more as a means of connecting rather than as a tool for building real connections.
And when we’re using it to connect, we often end up isolating ourselves from people who might otherwise be important parts of our lives.
Ten minute daily use of Facebook may be associated with worsening feelings of sadness and loneliness.
How to Know the Time Is Right?
When I realized that Facebook had become an addiction for me, I decided that enough was enough.
As someone who has been caught up in political rhetoric before, I posted an inflammatory comment implying that the current President of the United States (who shall remain unnamed) had a romantic affair with Russia’s leader.
It didn’t help that I did it when I was angry and felt superior. It didn’t help that it came from someone who thought he was right.
Once I posted the blog, I immediately noticed a red bubble appear. Now battle would begin.
To my ultimate disappointment I saw that the email was from my own father. I got off the train, wearing my “Hi. Yes. I’m a professional. Get me a job please” outfit and looked down at my phone screen. He was just as fair a target as anyone else, right? I decided I’d take him on.
My thumbs thundering, I informed my dad – quite succinctly – that he was wrong in a number of ways; my hands shook; my stomach quivered; I was consumed by fury at his presumptuousness.
Then I realized…it was my dad. I was screaming at him in the comments section of a Facebook post
What am I? It was an eureka moment.
As soon as I finished writing this sentence, I decided not to send it because I realized it wasn’t necessary for anyone else to read it.
It was finally the right moment to uninstall the app.
What Will Happen to Your Mental Health Next?
After removing the Facebook application from my smartphone, I noticed an immediate difference in how I feel. I feel calmer, more focused, and more aware of what’s happening around me.
FOMO disappeared.
While I kept my Facebook account “alive” (and somewhat active in terms of posting content), I noticed an immediate curb of my fear of missing out.
When I was connected to a large group of people who were actively engaged with each other, it felt like my own personal world had been taken away from me.
Those emotions caused my anxiety to skyrocket and they also made me feel compelled to constantly check my smartphone. All those factors contributed to my social media addiction.
Start exercising again.
It wasn’t entirely Facebook’s fault that I didn’t go to the gym, but I could definitely say that it was partly responsible.
It was nice having some down-times where I could just sit back and relax without feeling guilty for not doing anything productive.
Instead of brooking in her photos, I used that time to exercise and get out of the house. By the end of the week, my anxiety had decreased and I felt like going out and doing more stuff.
Exercise is fantastic for making us feel good. I’d always known that, but now I was hooked on an app that made me sad.
Once the hook of Facebook was removed from my life, I was freed and my health and wellbeing seems to be improving with it!
Better sleep.
It may sound crazy, but removing Facebook from my smartphone actually improved the quality of my nighttime rest.
After leaving the Facebook app behind, I noticed that I slept better and had more energy during the day than ever before.
Turns out, this was happening because I wasn’t enough exposing myself to blue lights before going to bed.
Every day before I go to bed, I spend time browsing Facebook. However, after reading this article, I learned that all that blue lighting I am exposed to from using Facebook disrupts my ability to produce melatonin, which causes insomnia.
Once I stopped using Facebook at night, I started sleeping better and felt happier during the day.
Re-prioritizing what really mattered.
We believe that Facebook keeps us connected to the people and things we care about most, but it actually makes us feel isolated, depressed, and lonely.
When I first arrived in my new country, I found myself completely alone and isolated. So I turned to Facebook to connect with people who would understand me better than anyone else. But then I started feeling miserable and desperate. And so I reached out to them for support.
It took me no time at all to realize that what I got from these conversations was nothing but negative.
Social media has become an important part of our lives, but it’s easy for us to lose sight of who we truly are and what matters most.
After deleting Facebook, I was able take a step back and focus on the things that were most important to me.
With no distractions from social media, I was able to get back into a routine of focusing on my personal relationships and building my business. I was able to reevaluate my priorities and determine a new path for myself.
Within just a few weeks, I realized that there was so much else to life besides simply excelling at everything compared to everyone else.
Find yourself again.
After I cut back on social media use, I was able to focus on other activities that were important to me. Without that unnecessary diversion, I regained my passion for the things I used to enjoy.
Not only did I exercise again, but I wrote more than ever before, played some music again, cooked more often, organized my house better, and felt less stressed out.
If you want to stop using social media, then get off Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and LinkedIn.
We find our purpose when we find our joy. From there, we create our true worth.
Anxiety evaporated.
With social media, there’s always something new popping up that you’ve never seen before. It’s easy to get sucked into it and lose track of time. For me, this led to some pretty serious anxiety issues.
According to extensive research, using social networking sites like Facebook goes a long way in worsening mental health issues like stress, panic attacks, and even post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
When I stopped using Facebook during the day, I was able to alleviate my stress and immediately felt calmer. The constant communication and obligation that the social media platform forces upon us leaves us feeling confined and suffocated, unable even to enjoy our own downtime.
It was hard to keep up with everything that came at me, but once I got used to it, I found myself looking forward to responding to every message, post, comment and reply. Before long, that feeling of instant gratification far outstripped any perceived benefit I’d had before.
How to Kick the Habit of Facebooking?
When I was addicted to Facebook, I felt lost, hopeless, and angry at the world. If that describes how you feel now, it may mean that it’s time to get rid of your old Facebook habit.
You don’t need to remove Facebook entirely to see some results in your personal and professional lives. All you really need to do is learn to walk away from it a little bit.
1 – Try different platforms.
If you’re really addicted to the Zuck, then go ahead and get your fix elsewhere.
If you’re moving away from Facebook because of your mental health issues, then using other social networks as a replacement may help you feel less anxious.
Other social networks like Twitter, Reddit, and Instagram can be good alternatives, and platforms like Tik Tok can provide plenty of fun content too.
You don’t want to replace Facebook with something else right away because replacing an addiction with another one isn’t really helping. It’s just a temporary fix for a longer-term issue.
2 – Download your data and use it to create something new.
One of the reasons why I stayed so long at Facebook was because I depended on them to keep track of all my friends’ birthdays and contact info for me. You probably have too.
Before deleting your Facebook app, download its data from Facebook so you can keep using it for years to come.
Without the digital distraction of social networks, we’re able to pick up the telephone and call our friends and family back into our lives. And when we start to become happy again, we become healthier.
3 – Find other ways.
You may be shouting at your computer screen by now. “What about all my other applications that rely on Facebook for authentication!” I need them!
These apps ask for your personal Facebook profile as evidence that you’re not some sort of spammer or robot. Without it, they can be difficult or impossible to access.
If you want to be able to access your account without having to go through the hassle of logging into Facebook, look for loopholes on sites like these and take advantage of them.
Most websites will let you prove who you are in various ways, but they’re not always easy to spot. Spend some time looking at your most used apps and see if there’s anything you can exploit to get past the Facebook login screen.
4 – Prioritize relationships.
By taking a step back from Facebook, you get the opportunity to really prioritize what matters in your life. It’s this prioritizing that keeps you from slipping back into Facebook addiction.
Social media platforms are often used for self-promotion rather than meaningful communication. They can sometimes even be detrimental to our social lives.
We tend to get so engrossed in them that we neglect the people who surround us.
Instead of using a computer to recommend things for you, reach out and connect with real human beings.
Your social circle starts to change when you start to realize that there actually are people who genuinely care for you. You start to realize which friends you truly enjoy hanging out with.
5. Simply delete it.
The final step in leaving Facebook is removing the app. Breathe deeply and press the button marked “x”. You’ll see a prompt telling you that you’ve successfully deleted the app.
Delete the app and turn off your phone. Don’t worry; you’re not deleting your entire account—your Facebook profile picture will still remain online for eternity.
Summarizing..
When used innocently, Facebook is a database where we store our birthdates and a means by which we can connect instantly with people from across the globe.
We don’t need to pick up the phone (or write anything down) to reach out to someone else who lives far away, and tell them something personal.
At its worst, Facebook is a breeding grounds for insecurity, isolation and despair, as sad and desperate individuals scream out into the void, looking for any kind of justifications or meanings for their existence.
Ultimately, social networks are what we create them to be, but they’re easy to get addicted to if you let yourself become dependent on them.
When we use social media, we compare ourselves to others constantly. We develop feelings of lonliness, desparateness, isolation, and inferiority.
Our relationship degrade and our confidence degrades, which pushes us further down into a spiraling cycle of negative behaviors and beliefs..
Perhaps, instead of trying to connect with people through social media, we should try to reestablish our connection with nature. Let’s give ourselves a break and go outside. We may just find ourselves along the way.
I did.
