I deleted Facebook

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After being given various suspensions by Facebook due to my idiosyncratic forms of expression (on one occasion for saying 'hang the consequences' for crying out loud), I deleted my Facebook account. Not deactivated, not merely removing the app from my phone, but demolishing the account. All over, Red Rover.

As I said, I didn't get rid of Facebook because of any high-minded principle but here's the thing - my anxiety levels have dropped and after initial worry, I feel like I did when I stopped drinking and smoking. A huge addiction has been lifted and I'm so much happier. I was more addicted than I thought.

I wonder if my autism is cushioning any blow. Maybe because I don't need so much connection it is easier for me to do without Facebook than do gregarious neurotypicals. At any rate, I felt coerced into taking action and the action I took was so worth it in the end.

My departure from Facebook in 2015 had different details but that same result was soon noticed.
And it was quite a drop.

I had been really active in some incurable illness support groups and that loss really hurt, but the dramatic lessening of overall general anxiety quickly impacted my decision whether or not to ever try FB again.

I'm not on Facebook, not on Twitter, not on Instagram, not on TikTok, and not on all the ones I don't even know exist.

You just have will power.

I wish I did. Facebook is causing me depression right now but at the same time I can't live without it. It takes 14 days for your account to permanently delete, so you've basically got to stop yourself from accessing your account for 14 days. It's harder than you think, especially if you have a mobile device right in your pocket that you use a lot. It's too easy to just log back into Facebook to check stuff.
Also Facebook is useful because I belong to groups and I also like to search for different people I used to know just to see what they're up to. So Facebook can be timeless but can cause depression when you see that your peers have more of a social life than you do.

I've never used it but I'm glad you're out and seeing improvements.

As I said, getting rid of my Facebook account wasn't an entirely free decision - I was being restricted in what I could say. As such, I could see no point in hanging around. I guess the moral of my story is to show how life can massively improve after something happened that you didn't consciously choose.

I also saw what an addiction Facebook was. Instagram and this website don't seem to have the same addictive powers for some reason. For me, at any rate.

I'm more addicted to this site than any other sites!

Hopefully Wrong Planet doesn't cause you as much anxiety as Facebook did.

IMO Wrong Planet is much better, for several reasons:

1) WP is much smaller and run by moderators who actually care about the forum, and who are actual, live humans whom we can communicate with.

2) WP is organized by topic.

3) Social media platforms allow and encourage people to block or mute other users, as their preferred way of keeping the peace. On WP, on the other hand, we can't do that. Instead, here on WP, we are expected to either (a) discuss disagreements in a civil manner or (b) avoid controversial issues by staying out of the PPR and news sections. Either way, we don't have to worry about getting blocked/muted, nor do we have to worry about getting shadow-banned.

4) We can use pseudonyms here. So we don't have to worry about prospective employers or landlords judging us by our interactions here.

Good decision.

I had Facebook from 2007 and deleted it in 2010. Lack of inclination in keeping in touch with people I never cared about (e.g. old high school friends, random people you met in a bar or through a university event). From what I heard about FB in the decade that followed, reasons to sign up again seem only to have become fewer.

If social media is causing you anxiety, it's not worth being on.

I’m happy you have found a release from an addiction/compulsion. The lightness of being that ensues.

And also you have seen and shared with us the value of being open to the possibilities that arise when things don’t go the way we want.

I have to be reminded of the latter over and over again. Thank you for being my reminder for today.

Facebook has it's good and bad points, just like Wrong Planet.

On WP it is harder to share pictures or upload a decent-looking profile picture (unless it's from one of the site's options).

Also WP doesn't have a 'like' feature. Sometimes I just want to let others know that I have read their post without having to make a post myself. I don't like making too many one-worded posts here because I don't like my recent posts going on to the second page too quickly. A simple 'like' feature will solve this.

I don't like WP's emoticons. Most of them just don't express the emotions I'm feeling as strongly as the emoticons you can use on Facebook directly from your phone.
<-----------I hate this smugface piece of s**t
<------------Angry faces need to be red and really frowning. This looks more like a jokey sort of angry face that doesn't illustrate how angry you really are.

I've argued more times on WP than I ever have on Facebook. Maybe I just clash with other spectrumers.

It is easier to have backwards and forwards conversations on Facebook than it is here. Here is more like a discussion style, like most forums. Facebook is a more idle chitchat sort of place.

I don't like the way Facebook lets people get away with personally attacking you yet they put you in Facebook jail for something stupid. At least on WP personal attacks are actually dealt with.

Also hackers on Facebook are becoming more and more frequent, so even with all the privacy/safety features activated there still seems to be a chance of being hacked into.

I Feel the same way with discord

My FB is deactivated but I'm still using messenger, but I am very close to just demo'ing the whole thing.

Since I've deactivated it, my stress level has decreased a bit.

Where do I begin about my many reasons for hating Fakebook. Way too much drama, one sided opinion's, some of those awful memes, and people spreading misinformation (i.e Vaccines cause autism). The whole " I'm ugly and no one loves me" " If you don't say hi I will delete you". Seriously STFU.


https://thoughtcatalog.com/lorenzo-jens ... k-account/

It's whole point in existing is to enrage people so they don't leave the site.

Facebook is the only means of communication I have with at least 3 friends.

Suggest moving to email, or a private whatsapp group. If they're real friends, they'll be fine with that.

Yes, not just that, but what happens if they move off of the platform? Regardless of the answer, FB has way too much control over people's social lives. Ultimately, it likely will require more work to keep in touch, but if that's too much for the folks involved, it was going to end eventually anyways. It kind of reminds me of somebody I thought was one of my best friends that turned out to barely think of me as an acquaintance.