One week after leaving Facebook: happy or sad?

So, one week has passed since I deleted my Facebook account. How am I doing, “cut off from the rest of the world” as FB wants me to believe?
Surprisingly well, I must admit! I was expecting some severe withdrawal symptoms, like sitting in front of the Facebook login screen , with my fingers itching to go back in, but nothing of the kind has happened…so far. Granted, I miss quite a few things, but on average it has been easy to stay away. I also feel much more relaxed about what’s happening around me in the world at large, as I am no longer exposed to all the outrage that often runs rampant on social media. So, in short this has been a happy week!

Here’s a few tips I found very helpful last week:
1)    Prepare your leave, just don’t delete your account in an emotional state or on a whim. Make sure you have a download of all your stuff somewhere on your computer or backup system. It is also a good idea to scroll through that once before leaving, so that you see that all your FB efforts are still available to you.

2)    I might be helpful to a include a  mild ‘aversion therapy’ into your preparation to leave. I do not advocate physically punishing yourself each time you visit Facebook, but reinforcing the belief that this is no longer in your interest will make it easier for you to stay away. While scrolling through your timeline, ask yourself questions like: Am I really interested in what this person has to say? Is what he.she/they share really something that I enjoy seeing? Are these ‘friends’ really that important to me to stay in touch with in this way? Is this group page a source of pleasure or toxicity? Since you’re already made up your mind (somewhat) to leave it all behind, you’ll be surprised how often you will answer such questions in the negative.

3)    Find something else to do –maybe temporarily- for those times to get the urge to go online for social media use. I have restarted learning Welsh on Duolingo in those moments, which in my case happen on a daily basis, so I can really make some progress there! There are all kinds of useful and fun things to do and learn online, other than ‘zombieing’ on social media!

4)    Beware of peer pressure! You know, people who are trying to convince you to stay or come back, because they ‘ will miss you so much’. If that is true, try to find another way to stay in touch. In my case, I opened a WhatsApp group as a substitute for the Messenger function of Facebook. Don’t be surprised, however, if all those who ‘are going to miss you’ will not take the effort to join such a group (or read this blog). That is also the nature of social media contacts: pleasant but ephemeral.

5)    Tell as many people as you can that you quit Facebook and why. This will make it more difficult for you to ‘fall back’ as that might be seen as a sign of weakness, also by yourself. You will find out that many people around you never had Facebook and they are still happily living their lives.

I don’t know if I ever posted my tips to quit smoking, but those are similar and to me quitting smoking and quitting social media are very much alike: getting rid of an addictive behaviour. Next report on this will be in a month, after my account has been deleted permanently. But don’t worry, I’ll write about other things in the meantime!