Why I Deleted Facebook and Instagram
Ya, I deleted Facebook and Instagram. No, i’m not better than everyone else because I did so. I just wasn’t getting any value from both platforms and wasn’t enjoying the things I was reading and seeing on both apps.
Looking at my Facebook feed, I saw posts related to people’s political views, pictures of pets, random status updates on people’s lives, videos of people doing epic fails, etc. None of that stuff really interested me. If I want to know more about what one of my friends is up to, I’d rather just message or call them.
Also, I’m not a huge fan of having likes associated with posts. It almost feels like some sort of fail when your post doesn’t get a good number of likes. Who the hell I was trying to impress, I do not know. I also felt as though other people might not like me as much if I didn’t make an effort to interact with their content on the platform. I know, I sound like a crazy person.
I ended up using a Chrome extension that completely blocks anything from showing up on my newsfeed. I also deleted Facebook from my phone, so I was no longer looking through my Facebook newsfeed. This was actually a nice improvement to my social media experience, as I was spending less time on Facebook because of this. However, I was still making the occasional post myself and with posting comes likes and comments. I found myself frequently checking Facebook just to see if I got more likes on my post or to see if anyone commented on my stuff 😐.
It seemed strange for me to not consume any content from others on Facebook, but I was still posting stuff myself for others to look at. The only thing I was doing in the app was posting the occasional life update as well messaging people.
After doing a bit of research, I found out you could still use Facebook messenger if you deleted your Facebook account, so I ended up deleting my Facebook account. Before I deleted my account, I made sure to download all my data so I could keep the pictures and videos I uploaded to the platform.
Even after deleting my Facebook account, I kept Instagram on my phone for a bit. After all, it’s just your friends sharing pictures, right? Well, I opted to eventually delete Instagram as well.
I found myself browsing Instagram like I use to browse my Facebook feed. I would also often go into the discover tab to find stupid videos I couldn’t stop watching. Instagram has the same problem for me with their like system which often leads to comparing my posts with other people’s. When I was posting my pictures, I didn’t feel as though I was really appreciating the picture I took and the memories associated with it. There was always that lingering thought of how others would react.
So ya, I downloaded all of my Instagram data and GTFO’ed.
What Now
I bought a cabin in Tasmania and I am now planning to live the rest of my days there, feeding off wild game. Ok, that’s a lie. I’m still using social media in the form of LinkedIn & Twitter. I’m also working on completely redoing my website and I’m hoping to have a Life Updates page where I can post some of my favourite pictures that I take as well as keep a record of some of my major life milestones.
