Last night, with no grand announcement, I deactivated my Facebook account.
Deleting seemed too extreme for the moment, so I decided on at least one month of deactivation, just to see how it goes.
The catalyst this time was reading some comments on a “community” page (community in air quotes because those pages are anything BUT my definition of a community) about our football broadcast. Something in me broke.
I thought about what I wrote earlier in the summer about quitting social media and what a privilege it is, but then realized that all the activism and educational accounts that mean anything to me are on Twitter or Instagram.
Facebook has become a time suck, a tool to stoke hatred, and a place for locals to criticize an amateur sports broadcast (which we broadcast for free for the first time, mind you) for a game they can’t get into anyway because of covid-19 restrictions.
When I realized a very petty part of me almost responded “Thanks for the feedback—we won’t broadcast any more football games,” I realized I needed drastic measures.
Hence the deactivation.
I’m 24 hours into it, and I am a little impressed with the time I feel I’ve had today. I had a long list of things to do, all are done. I colored. I read some of a book. I watched the entire first season of Cobra Kai on Netflix.
I’m writing.
All because at some point today, I looked around and said to myself, “Huh. What should I do next?” Because I was only doom scrolling through Twitter and for some reason, my stamina there has never equaled doom scrolling on Facebook. Curious.
I’m still on Instagram. And yes, I know that Facebook owns Instagram, but it’s a different platform. Maybe I’ve curated it more carefully than my Facebook feed, maybe the medium of photos lends itself to a different ambience, maybe the interface is such that utter nonsense doesn’t arbitrarily show up in my feed to derail me or make me angry. I get the irony of quitting Facebook and not Instagram, so no need to come at me. I’m already at myself with that one.
Anyway, I’ll see how the next month goes, but if today is any indication, my best guess is that Facebook account deletion is imminent.
We had a run. Not always a nice run, but a run nonetheless.
Instagram, for me, is a journal of sorts. And I don’t get the crazy and political rants. What you have described is the reason I am rarely on FB and why I still feel ok with IG.
Definitely noticed your absence, but I’m also a little envious. I deleted FB, twitter, and instagram off of my phone and that’s been really nice.
Julia–it was very much an impulse decision and I didn’t want to make the sweeping “Farewell cruel site” announcement I’ve seen others make for a couple of reasons. But I am sorry for not saying goodbye/leaving contact info for a chosen few…you included…