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Deactivating Facebook was the best thing I ever did for my mental health (and you should too)

NineConsonants

NineConsonants

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
5,210
Static_Void said:
I completely deleted my Facebook a few years ago, and I absolutely don't regret it. I honestly think that life in general was a lot better before the ubiquity of social media.

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What if your life isn't unbelievably boring and/or you do t use it to broadcast your life to the world?
 
clearacell

clearacell

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,654
Yeah I just unfollow annoying people, choose who gets to see anything I post (of which I barely even do) and I use it mostly for the messenger app and events, along with using it to friend people so I can put a face to names...probably the #1 reason I still have a facebook actually
 
Feep

Feep

Lead Designer, Iridium Studios
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
4,596
Common Knowledge said:
What do you mean? It's better to keep racist people in your life and remain friends with them?
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Oh, the way it's worded makes it sound like he regrets finding out his friends are racist and homophobic and would prefer to live in ignorance of those facts, but I think it can be read the other way, too. I want to know! And then kick those people out of my life!
 
NineConsonants

NineConsonants

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
5,210
Static_Void said:
Delete your Facebook anyway. Your non-boring life will thank you later.
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This prescriptive attitude always comes across as so weird to me. I acknowledge that social media can be harmful, but it's weird to act like you know the cure for everybody. I found it helpful for me to cut ties with people on social media if there are issues and use social media as an enhancement to my social life, and not a replacement.

This forum is also social media. It's like me telling you that you're better off not posting here because I think 4000+ posts in 15 months is too much. But in reality, I don't know you and it's weird for me to try and tell you what will be best for you
 
Deleted member 49179

Deleted member 49179

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 30, 2018
4,140
NineConsonants said:
This prescriptive attitude always comes across as so weird to me. I acknowledge that social media can be harmful, but it's weird to act like you know the cure for everybody. I found it helpful for me to cut ties with people on social media if there are issues and use social media as an enhancement to my social life, and not a replacement.

This forum is also social media. It's like me telling you that you're better off not posting here because I think 4000+ posts in 15 months is too much. But in reality, I don't know you and it's weird for me to try and tell you what will be best for you
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Well, of course what I'm saying is only my own opinion. What else could it be? Me saying "delete your Facebook" is only an advice I'd like to share based on my own experience, all of this specifically in a thread about deactivating/deleting Facebook accounts. What you personally do with this advice is exclusively your prerogative, and you're absolutely free to disagree.
 
Qasiel

Qasiel

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,330
I deleted my Facebook account back in December, just after the UK General Election. I got sick of seeing both sides viciously tearing each other apart, including friends and members of my family. Also, the number of groups I belonged to on there kept posting the same stuff over and over again and I found myself repeatedly looking at it with very little changing.

Since deleting it, I've been much more productive and quite possibly more happy. Sure, I miss seeing what my friends are up to, especially now because I've got a kid and I don't get to see them a lot these days, but again, it's giving me less time staring at my phone, or computer screen and more time with my son and doing things that need to be done.

I'm not going to say that deleting your social media is going to cure all of your modern-day ills, but its certainly working for me.
 
nekomix

nekomix

Member
Oct 30, 2017
472
Facebook is the only place where I can keep in touch with my friends scattered , get updated on events happening in my town and my favourite artists that still use FB. I don't give a damn about what my "friends" think, I don't even look at the main page, I never post anything on it so... use it as you want it, FB is a pretty great tool in itself.
 
Zebesian-X

Zebesian-X

Member
Dec 3, 2018
19,695
Deleting instagram and Facebook did wonders for me. I made a standalone messenger account to keep in touch with my friends, and it feels like a layer of stress has been lifted. I didn't even realize how much it was affecting me until I cut it off

Social media CAN be a positive thing tho, the cons just outweighed the pros for me.
 
Advance.Wars.Sgt.

Advance.Wars.Sgt.

Member
Jun 10, 2018
8,828
User Banned (3 days): Inflammatory generalizations
texhnolyze said:
Facebook is just a tool. Like any other tool (knife, guns, etc), it's how you use it, not how it uses you. You can get a completely positive feed if you know what you're doing with FB.

This forum feels like full of boomers at times.
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Less so boomers and more like a collection of socially maladjusted individuals who conflate introversion with low self esteem and a penchant for perpetual.withdrawnness.
 
Grayson

Grayson

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Aug 21, 2019
1,768
Ryuelli said:
No thanks, my facebook feed is pretty awesome. Have a lot of artist friends, it's cool to see what they're up to and it's the easiest way to keep up with family members.
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Exactly. Choose who you follow and friend. There's no reason to ever read shitty things from shitty people.
 
NineConsonants

NineConsonants

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
5,210
Static_Void said:
Well, of course what I'm saying is only my own opinion. What else could it be? Me saying "delete your Facebook" is only an advice I'd like to share based on my own experience, all of this specifically in a thread about deactivating/deleting Facebook accounts. What you personally do with this advice is exclusively your prerogative, and you're absolutely free to disagree.
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You don't see how me saying "You post here a lot. Stop posting on Resetera. You're mental health will thank you later" is being very prescriptive to you without knowing much about you?

Like, you don't see the assumptions made in that statement?
 
Deleted member 49179

Deleted member 49179

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 30, 2018
4,140
NineConsonants said:
You don't see how me saying "You post here a lot. Stop posting on Resetera. You're mental health will thank you later" is being very prescriptive to you without knowing much about you?

Like, you don't see the assumptions made in that statement?
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Look, I only said "delete your Facebook anyway" in a "prescriptive" way in my reply to you because you commented about the gif I posted earlier that was saying "delete your Facebook". I like this gif, and I posted it mainly in jest. To know what I think about the subject, I'll quote what I said in my first post:

Static_Void said:
I completely deleted my Facebook a few years ago, and I absolutely don't regret it. I honestly think that life in general was a lot better before the ubiquity of social media.
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Again, it's my own opinion, feel free to disagree. I'm sorry if my reply to you offended you, but you seem to keep arguing just for the sake of arguing. Let's agree to disagree, and let's move on.
 
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Dragon1893

Dragon1893

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,446
Your experience on social media is shaped by the people you follow.
Just block or hide people whose posts you don't want to see.
 
NineConsonants

NineConsonants

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
5,210
Static_Void said:
Look, I only said "delete your Facebook anyway" in a "prescriptive" way in my reply to you because you commented about the gif I posted earlier that was saying "delete your Facebook". I like this gif, and I posted it mainly in jest. To know what I think about the subject, I'll quote what I said in my first post:



Again, it's my own opinion, feel free to disagree. I'm sorry if my reply to you offended you, but you seem to keep arguing just for the sake of arguing. Let's agree to disagree, and let's move on.
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I'm not really offended. And my comments to you were more about signaling a trend I see on here. Your post was an example of that to me, not the worst case at all or anything though.
 
Grayson

Grayson

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Aug 21, 2019
1,768
Interested Observer said:
I don't really use Facebook but this is exactly what I do with Twitter. I follow a few accounts to do with sports, games, and a few journalists who I like and it's absolutely fine.
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Same. I've got a Disney fan twitter and a gaming/music twitter and they both bring me nothing but joy.
 
regenhuber

regenhuber

Member
Nov 4, 2017
5,202
Deactivated my fb a year ago and haven't missed it at all.

If you are in the EU facebook is required to let you download a backup of ALL your data, in case you want to look up sth a few years down the road.
In case you think you need fb to "keep in touch", that's also easy to solve. Syncing the contacts to your phone takes seconds.

Better way:
A month or so before I deleted my account, I sent a PM to certain friends asking for email or phone#.
I quickly realized that while I had 500+ friends on there, I didn't really need the phone number of some guy I hung out in college with a few times. Same goes for some random woman I met a work conference.
Using this method I ended up with only like 50 fb friends I care about, 90% of them were in my phone anyways (because I care about them, I interacted with them outside of fb duh).
At the end of the day, I found out that most of my friends didn't even log on to fb or messenger anymore.

I will always have fond memories of the "peak facebook era" (from roughly 2008 to 2012 for me) when it was so fucking exciting to add friends, play stupid java games, poke and check for those red little notifications.
 
Benzychenz

Benzychenz

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 1, 2017
15,383
Australia
My facebook feed is like 99% puppy pictures and dumb memes.

And I only really use it for messenger.

So nah, I won't deactivate any time soon.
 
Spinluck

Spinluck

▲ Legend ▲
Avenger
Oct 26, 2017
28,434
Chicago
Facebook is only good for the marketplace to me nowadays. For following people it's pretty garbage. Most of my peeps have moved over to the Gram.
 
davepoobond

davepoobond

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,557
www.squackle.com
years ago i would have said that the experience you have on Facebook is essentially a curated one due to the kinds of friends you have.

it still holds true, but there are a lot more intrusive ads/news articles comparatively if you tend to cast a wider net out there to friends who like to post things like that. then there's the whole "privacy" thing they're involved in and that's another issue completely.

it can be a bit overwhelming, and the simplest solution may be to just stop going all together (aka nuking your profile). but it is still largely a problem of your own making. you can easily remove people whom are posting things you are not agreeable with.
 
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