Why I Deleted My Facebook App

Yesterday morning, my husband asked, "Hey did you see [this thing] on Facebook?"

"On Facebook?  No... I deleted my Facebook."

"What!?  Are we not married anymore?  If you took your ring off there wouldn't be nearly as many questions as there would be if we weren't married on Facebook!"

Now obviously he was joking.  But the reality of "Facebook-official" still exists.

Side story: Five years ago my teammate was trying to take attendance and Luther (a student) was absent.  "Has anyone seen Luther today?"  Replies of course varied but there seemed to be some confusion about if he would be coming in late or not at all.  The student that ended the argument?  "I saw on Facebook he wasn't coming today."  Really.  You can't argue with Facebook official-ness.

Anyways... technically, I did not delete my Facebook. (I don't even really think you can delete your Facebook account anymore... I think it always exists, you know, just in case).  I simply deleted the app on my phone and my iPad.

Source

Why?

Well, after I wrote this blog post, I realized that I don't really use Facebook that much.  Not as a poster at least.  I rarely post photos (usually just changing my profile pic, but even that not frequently), I rarely post a status, and I rarely use it to "share" anything I find.  But I find myself on Facebook all the time.

So what the heck am I doing on there?  Well... mostly looking at other people and their lives.  Which means, esentially, I AM comparing myself constantly with them.

Facebook is an overwhelming corner of the Internet.  I have pared down my friends list frequently, but I still feel like there are too many people on there, people who were very much a part of my life at one time, but now no longer are.  I unfollowed a TON of people, but now I see everything that someone likes or posts of the few people that I do follow.

And I realized... I don't need to.  I don't really care that much.  I know if there is something substantial, my husband or mother or brother will make sure I know about it.  But for the most part, it is just a time-suck.  I still have an account and can easily still access it.  But I realized I'm much less likely to do so when I don't have it on my phone.


Granted, I'll still be using it for Little Mama Bee stuff, but it isn't quite the same.  I haven't given up my other social media outlets.  I'm still on Twitter, Instagram, Blogger (obviously), and Pinterest, but all of those are different.  With Facebook, "friendship"must be mutual.  With the other social media sites, you have "followers"which means I can keep my own circle as small as I want while still allowing everyone else to "follow" me.

Currently, I haven't been on Facebook in 3 days.  Not a huge accomplishment, but I feel like, as someone who probably checked my Facebook 10+ times a day, it kinda is.  We shall see how this keeps up.