I’m just now reading your post, and just want to send a mega-huge virtual FISTBUMP to how joyous it is/was to flush FB out of my life and down the virtual toilet of unhappiness and wasted time. I became pretty disgusted and disenfranchised with it back in 2013, after having only been on it for a few years. Even in that time, I found the limited time I spent on it generally made me feel unhappy.

I also realized that what it really did was showcase two things about my so-called “friends” that I confidently extend to FB users as a whole: 1) how uninteresting most are, and how goddamned boring their lives must be; 2) how incredibly self-absorbed people are to think anyone cares about most of the garbage they are posting on FB. And, yes, 99% of the things people are posting to FB — endless selfies/crappy phone pics of their meals; their forays to the coffee shop, and endless pics or vapid updates about their baby, or just any inane thought that pops into their head at that moment. Sharing very likely uninformed, uneducated and shallow-minded political opinions and spreading toxic conspiracy theory crap — all complete garbage.

I honestly cannot ever recall coming across anything posted by anyone that was insightful, entertaining or educational, or helping me become a better version of myself in some way. For me, these are some of the only reasons to ever spend time doing ANYTHING. I seldom posted to FB lest I be seen as someone who was also a self-absorbed bore with no life. Because, let’s face it, most of the things we all do in our day-to-day lives just aren’t worth sharing, or that your thoughts/opinions on most subjects have any need to leave your private brainspace. And, I get that; most people clearly do not.

Anyway, a few years ago, I gutted all photos, posts, and other personal information from the account, turning it into an empty and mostly invisible “shell”. I unfriended everyone save for my sister, but hid her feed because it was also boring garbage…and I never logged in. I only kept the shell because I stupidly had signed up for Spotify using the FB account. Once I decided that Spotify’s non-stop ads could go suck it and that Amazon Prime Music could meet my ad-free music needs, Spotify got the boot to the curb. Podcasts are much better anyway!

The CA bullshit was the final straw I needed to delete my account for once and for all. Admittedly, my presence and information sharing on FB was so limited as to be of no use to the Russian bots and CA disinformation campaign/data breach during the 2016 election that it didn’t matter, but from a moral and personal convictions standpoint, it felt great.

I’ve never had a Twitter account, and I do have an Instagram account — that I have never posted to — that I like because I have it tightly curated to follow a handful of accounts that inspire, educate or entertain me in some way. Adblockers on my desktop strip away that unwanted garbage. I actually forget it exists until I get the weekly notice of new posts, then I spend about 2 min. browsing through the feed, and I’m done for the week. What I find truly bizarre, however, is that I actually have strangers that follow my IG account despite me never having posted anything, ever, to it.

Phew….long reply. Hopefully, for anyone reading, it was fast and not a complete waste of your time :).