My life without Facebook
It doesn’t suck.
Nowadays everyone’s into it. People use it to waste time, to talk to each other, to share their selfies or to find information. Facebook came slowly, but managed to penetrate so deep into our routines that we just see it like a normal thing. It’s ‘uncommon’ not to use it.
As a student, Facebook was a big deal in my daily life. I used to scroll tons of content at the morning, at the school, in bed before sleeping (which isn’t a good thing). Every time, everywhere.
My decision of giving it a ‘pause’ (let’s put it like this) was kind of unexpected. The main reason is because people’s going nuts about politics — being offensive, really. In Brazil, it’s a very peculiar situation, that I don’t want to explain right now. It’s just that I don’t want to see the words “robbery, impeachment, Dilma, Aécio” and blah blah blah. We’re on Feb. 2015, the time for discussing polictics is gone. And still people keep doing it (and also, saying bullshit).
So, I’m away from Facebook for a while.
Ok, so what do I do now?
On the first days, I was really misguided.
For everything I’d want to do/see, I would go on Facebook.
Talking with friends? Sure, Facebook.
Keeping up with my favourite bands? Facebook.
Reading news? Facebook.
So, I needed to find alternative ways to do ‘my things’.
News
Took some time until I’ve felt comfortable. But anyways, the Flipboard app for Android gave me everything I needed. It took at most 5 minutes setting up, and I was ready to go. Thumbs up for user experience, aswell.
A few swypes in the main screen and I’ve catched the last news — without any cat pictures or annoying ads standing in my way. That’s all I need. Next.
Communication
The first thing I’ve done before quitting Facebook was to tell a couple of friends that I’d be only on Whatsapp and Hangouts for a while (apart from regular email and phone). So far, so good. Whatsapp just works, and Hangouts offer a good experience on both PC and mobile phone.
Entertainment
Ok, this one was tricky. I‘ve always tracked my favourite artists and had a couple of interesting pages I’d follow on Facebook. So, as of now:
Music: I’m a lot into progressive rock, so Prog Archives is now my go-to place for music reviews and news.
Tech: The Verge, Android Central and of course, YouTube.
Photography: Tumblr and YouTube.
“Random” Content: Tumblr, Medium and reddit. (Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy)
In fact, if you organize your subscriptions on YouTube, it can be a great source of information. I now categorize them into tech/photography, music, fun and friends.
Conclusion
Being away from Facebook isn’t a bad thing. In fact, I can feel the side-effects from it.
Both my mood and my self-confidence are currently better than it was 2 months ago. Just a mere coincidence? I don’t know. But the internet says, maybe.
My phone also runs better without the Facebook app hogging all my RAM with it’s side processes (thus giving me a little extra juice to go through the day).
I’m also less time attached to a computer or my phone (I also decided to use it less), and this extra time have been used for more useful things in the day, like going out for a run, playing the guitar or even reading something that will be actually useful for me. Time on the PC is also better spent.
But, with all those “benefits”, am I ever going to go back to it? Yes. But I’m not going to spend my whole evening browsing Facebook anymore. This (bad) habit is gone for good, and it’s better this way.
Take this as a challenge: Take a month off Facebook. Unninstall the app from your phone, and remove it from your bookmarks on your PC. It can be hard in the beggining (really), but once you get past the “what should I do” phase, you will see it’s not hard, and life can actually be better.
