Goodbye Facebook, it’s been fun
How changing simple behaviour patterns has made me more productive, both in work and in my personal life.
Sitting at the foot of the Brecon mountains in southern Wales, I had something of a revelation regarding personal privacy and the role of a smartphone in my daily life.
Why you ask? Well for the first time in over a year I was totally disconnected. No iPhone, no Macbook, no iPad… Nothing.
My daily life is full of noise — a constant dripping of content, be it emails, Facebook notifications, tweets or a multitude of other distractions that invade my mind and vie for my attention. I decided to do this ‘switch-off’, in somewhat of an uncharacteristic move, and I can honestly say it has been one of the most important things I have done.
As a result of my self-enforced technological denial, I am leaving Facebook for good. This article explains how I came to this decision. It is not meant as a nag, but as a personal tale that might help others who feel similar — and from recent conversations, I know I’m not alone.
Facebook is not evil, it’s just become all consuming
I want to preface my explanation with a statement regarding the world’s largest social network. Facebook is a tool. It is not inherently evil. There are some concerns around personal privacy, and working in the tech startup scene — I understand the need for data acquisition through advertising content. It’s a tradeoff. The consumer gets a tool to connect with the world around them, and the company is served with vital data on how to market their products.
However, I’m not here to talk about that. It is not why I have left Facebook. I will leave the big privacy debate to greater minds than mine. My reasoning is much bigger than advertising, data privacy or ownership — it is about time.
My name is Will and I am addicted to my iPhone…
As I have previously stated, I work in the technology industry, so of course the majority of what I do revolves around staring at a screen at some point. To better understand my behaviour, the week before I left for for my Wales trip, I tracked each time I checked Facebook, Twitter and email. While not 100% scientific (I probably missed a few times) it shows that actually I have a bit of a checking obsession.
Over the week I tracked 211 separate instances of checking one of the accounts. Lets assume I spent an average of three minutes reading every time I checked (it was probably more). That equates to over 10 hours of my life spent checking something on a screen. Every week. Thats 20 full days a year. Yep. Needs to change doesn’t it?
Looking at the way I work and the tools I use on a daily basis, I needed to find a way to cut down wasted time. Email is the most important thing I use— so that had to stay. Twitter is a source of inspiration for writing and a vital tool for finding contacts, companies and journalists and for following trends in my industry — so really, that couldn’t change either.
Facebook, I realised was pure timesuck and one that could easily be removed from my daily routine. Or so I thought.
Quitting the news feed was easy. Going cold turkey during my vacation broke the checking habits that had formed, and posting statuses and pictures followed fairly easily afterwards. I actually ended up enjoying things rather than living vicariously through my iPhone camera!
It was only after I deactivated my profile that things got really interesting. I suddenly realised that Facebook was no longer a website I visited, but a platform that was entrenched in my everyday activity.
Nearly every app I used, and a large number of websites too were plugged into my Facebook account, and once I deactivated my profile, my logins stopped working too. It is quite amazing to see how huge a part of my digital life Facebook was. Damn scary too.
Finally, after a week of reassigning accounts to traditional email logins or by using my Twitter credentials, I am at a point where I can close my account — something I will be doing in the next 12 hours.
Early lessons in a non-Facebook world
Its been nearly three weeks since I went on Facebook for anything other than to edit a setting or respond to a message and I can honestly say I don’t miss it. It’s early days, but already I think I have a couple of views on life post FB.
I know nothing!
I’m writing this post on a Monday, and I have absolutely no idea what my friends did over the weekend. Well, I know what my closest friends did, but not the diaspora of Facebook contacts that I have amassed over the years.
Brilliant isn’t it. Last week I actually phoned someone and had a great conversation with them about what they had been up to — previously I would have known all of this before I called (or perhaps I wouldn’t have called at all?) It added a level to our conversation that I didn’t even realise was missing.
The point here is that if I want to know what one of my friends is doing —I have to take an active role and find out, not just sit and wait for their status to update. Relationships, be they corporate or personal should require effort.
A change in lifestyle.
They say it takes three weeks to break a habit and so being that far in, I can safely assume my FB habit is now broken, but it has had an unexpected effect on other aspects of my digital life too.
Facebook was my biggest checking addiction by far, and became the reason I would pick up my iPhone. Once I broke the cycle, I found I was using my device far less overall.
I know it is a negative reflection of my own personality, but I used to actually get worked up if I hadn’t checked my phone for an hour. This addictive behaviour pattern was created by an always on lifestyle — and now I revel in leaving my phone at home when I go out, or charging in my home office whilst I watch a film with my family.
Even having the new iPhone 6 hasn’t disrupted this mentality. Previous iPhone launches would mean far more screen time!
Any downsides?
Overall my disconnect from Facebook has been successful, and the full story probably won’t be apparent for a number of months after I flip the final off switch, however it has not been without its initial problems.
The aformentioned multi-platform integration has been one of the biggest headaches, and has made me wonder if we need a better solution for connecting ecosystems. But that is another topic entirely! If anyone is in the market for founding a startup, I have an idea that I’d gladly share over a coffee ☺
What’s next?
Well, I am not disconnecting from every platform. I am still very much active on Twitter (@clevercode) and you can easily reach me on my personal email will.moore@clevercode.co.uk.
I am very interested in Ello, and will track what happens with that, however I now know how to keep my digital habits in check. If you see me oversharing again in the future — feel free to call me out :P
My iPhone is now in its place. It is a tool that makes work and play far more enjoyable, however it is important to keep things in perspective. We lived for millennia without smartphones and tablets — and life still exists without them. Even in tech.
As a parting remark I have this cheesy one liner for you:
Life is more than what happens on your phone.
If any of this has resonated with you, please feel free to find me on Twitter (@clevercode) or drop me a message on my personal email will.moore@clevercode.co.uk.
