I deleted my Facebook account a year ago… Here’s what happened

And how it changed my life

A year ago I DELETED my facebook account. Not deactivated, but deleted everything that was on the facebook servers (allegedly). Plus my Whatsapp.

I took this decision after the last year’s fiasco when they decided to send all their data from Whatsapp to Facebook (from battery life to signal strength, language, timezone etc).

I took it because it was too much. They wrote in their privacy policy exactly what they are going to do with said data. Now, I already had a lot of moments where anything I wrote in Whatsapp, I would get an ad afterwards for that specific thing, so I was not completely clueless. But this time they said: “Look, we will get your data, and you will accept our terms and conditions because we say so”.

Facebook (Meta now) is one of the biggest companies in the world. Also one of the most influential. They have the most used social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram) and communication services (Whatsapp and Messenger). This means that a lot of people and businesses operate on those platforms.

I have to be honest with you, it was not a very simple decision to delete Facebook and Whatsapp. FOMO is real. And because of it I still couldn’t take the last step I wanted, to also delete Instagram. But why is that?

The world has changed. A lot. If you had written on the internet something remotely controversial, nothing would happen. I mean, sure, you would lose a few follows, but nothing drastic. Today, there are bigger complications. You get #canceled. This has multiple consequences.

Firstly, depending on what you said, you lose your business partnerships. People will not want to be part of the shit you are going through, so they will do everything they can to not be associated with you anymore, because this would hurt their brand. Which is the logical action to take in today’s society. And the funny part is that it doesn’t even matter if your account was hacked or it was misinterpreted. Nobody cares for the truth.

Secondly, your life will be affected. Because of the actions that you took on the internet, a place that for so many years was considered different than the real world (i.e. your mom telling to go outside to live in the real world) your actual real world is affected. A digital place is affecting your real life. Which brings me to my next point.

There is no more the idea of a digital place. Especially since the word Metaverse has been popping everywhere on the internet lately. This is the real world now. So if you are not on it, do you even exist? Are you sure you will not be forgotten? That people will still ask you to meet up with them?

Now back to my original question of why couldn’t I delete Instagram as well. The answer to that is:

“I still want to exist”.

Which is crazy, the idea that if you don’t have an online presence you are forgotten. But it’s the truth. This is what happens if you delete your social medias and you stop posting.

Now, I still have a Linkedin account and more recently, Twitter. I don’t really spend a lot of time and those, because I am new to them.

But what I found interesting is that after I deleted Facebook, I still had the urge to “scroll” something. Realistically speaking, those apps are designed to make you waste as much time as possible on them. After I got rid of it, I kinda felt an empty space inside me. It sounds weird and horrible at the same time, that the app with the idea of “connecting people” (Nokia slogan) actually just used you for its own benefits. You become addicted.

So in this time, I had a SMD (Social Media Detox). Gladly, I have to say it was worth it. What started as a privacy concern actually made me realize I had an addiction problem.

I also felt like I had more time, so a lot more stuff was done. I also felt really good about it because I felt productive, a sentiment that was long gone.

Of course, I could spend that time on other social medias, but I think my main issue was with Facebook. The others just didn’t seem that appealing to me. On Instagram I just post a funny meme now and then and instead of Whatsapp I use Signal, which I whole-heartedly recommend.

So, if you are ready to take a big leap towards privacy, productivity and feeling better with yourself, take the hard necessary steps to make that happen!

Thanks for reading!