No Facebook in 2016

Since start of this year, I stopped visiting Facebook. Not a switch to any other platform, I literally stopped spending my time on Social Media.

Since the birth of my son Alton, I learnt a lot in effectively using my time. Like my friend Kevin said, before having the kid, one has more time and try out different things. Once the kid is here, you value time and only choose a handful set of things to do. It increases the productivity naturally.

One thing I saw on Facebook (and other Social Media platforms including Twitter, WhatsApp etc) was a lot of buzz. They are composed of news that are not related to me, complaints, sales on products I’m not interested in and so forth. It annoyed me so much, and I didn’t reply or like at all. Then I thought if I don’t like these things, why did I bother to check everyday and sometimes every half hour?

The reason being was boredom in the daily routine. The routine every day was going to work in the morning and back to home at night. There was no clear goal. In such case, Facebook was the place to bring in variable rewards (the term comes from the book Hooked). No wonder how many people in the World are so bored with their life and live in the virtual world.

After my son was born, I spent time in baby care. At the same time, I talked to my team and started working at home. Even that, I was not catching up at the beginning. I looked for ways to increase my working time, and gradually switch to higher productivity. I learnt from a bunch of books about success and effectiveness. The common suggestion is to define a clear goal and remove distractions.

I thought about my goals. There are a few, like creating a great company and travel around the world. None of these requires Social Media platforms directly. In fact, what I should do is to spend more time in practice my professional skills, like programming and making products. Thus, social media is merely a roadblock to me. I should try my best to get rid of it. I started to setup a plan.

1. Facebook can be eliminated
2. I don’t visit other public platforms much, so just stay away from them
3. Check WhatsApp once a day, in the morning, and after the morning ritual
4. Check email once a day, only on the morning after the morning ritual
5. I don’t read news
6. For any appointment, including family gatherings, has to schedule at least one day before

I started some tests a few months ago, and found out nothing bad happened. So I decided to proceed further. In starting of 2016, I put these rules into straight execution. The results are:

• I may visit Facebook occasionally as Google search result may sometimes lead me to there, but I closed it immediately
• I may have some messages coming from Facebook Messenger, just follow the WhatsApp rule
• For other Social Media, I just turned them all down
• I’m taking time to educate my family in respecting my time, and I respect them of course

Some positive effects exist as well

• I made couple apps in iOS and OSX. They will be released soon
• I made a video tutorial on developing Mac Apps using Swift. It is ongoing and available on YouTube (only visit the social media that can help getting to your goals)
• I started writing (including this and this) and published on Medium, read a lot in specific tags as well (the response reminds me this)
• I spend more time with my son
• I feel more available
• I enjoy this very much

To conclude, Social Media is nothing wrong if you use it wisely. Don’t complain your life, you should take control of your own time and be responsible to success.