Why I left social media.

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I have logged out of Facebook and am planning my exit strategy. That is place is a major contributor to the unpleasant state of my brain this past couple of of years. In theory it's good for staying in touch with people, but somehow that isn't what actually happens.

^ It is perfectly reasonable to deactivate or delete your account on Facebook, either temporarily or for good.

One thing that's bothering me - the main alternative for the hobbyist stuff I'm into is forums, and forums are an absolute crapshoot. There are lovely forums, and there are forums that make social media look enlightened. I walked out on a forum for pianists after only 2 months - I'd never met such a bunch of insanely quarrelsome and arrogant nitwits before, and I was HERE at the height of the far-right troll boom. Say "good morning" to some of those specimens and they'd crucify you for it.

Yeah, unfortunately, the alternatives to places like Facebook often are not much better, but at least forums are relatively anonymous compared to Facebook and its structure which seems to encourage personal data to be shared.

On Facebook, if you choose not to have a profile picture or share much personal information including photos, you are sometimes viewed by other people as a suspicious account.

I remember on new year's day in 2014 I deactivated my Facebook account because I had a meltdown at seeing all my cousins had gone to parties with their friends the night before and had met a boy/girlfriend and was announcing it all over Facebook. I should have been happy for them but my heart just broke because it was a reminder that I had no friends, never went out to parties, and didn't have a boyfriend.

But it said that it will take 14 days to be gone, which made it really hard because the temptations of returning kept nagging me before the 14 days were up. I felt lonely and like I was missing out, so I gave in and logged back in. I was still depressed at seeing everyone's happiness in their timelines but somehow I managed to stay on Facebook.

They must have been different in 2014. I wanted to delete my account but it would take 14 days to go unless you logged back in before the 14 days are up. I tried deactivating my account but kept getting the urge to log back in every day. I do have addictive behaviours when it comes to socialising online.

Maybe the rules are different now, but I haven't attempted to deactivate or delete my account for a few years now, as I haven't had much grief on Facebook and people don't really post about their social/love lives any more, as we're all older now and settled into adult life. Back in 2014 all my cousins were young (teens and 20s) so going out clubbing and meeting new people was appealing to them. The novelty of all that finally wore off before age 30.

Yeah, it must have been 14 days not 30 days, back in 2014.

I think the pressure on young adults on social media is quite high and like you say, the whole competition of social media seems to be less as people get older and care less about what other people think of them or grow out of the childish social competitions for who looks the best on social media?

When I need the number from somebody, I register on facebook and delete my account after getting the number from him/her
I see no other use of facebook, than to find people by name.

I'm new here and also new to hiki App. Both was recommended by Grok.
So far I like it

I've just wiped the Facebook account I've been using since early 2020, and gone back to an earlier account I was locked out of for 10 years. I'm mainly keeping it for self-promotion reasons: I'm a musician, and the account can be used to manage an artist page I have. I intend to be EXTREMELY wary about how I use this account. The 2020 account had turned into wall-to-wall ragebait, and turned me into a raging a$$hat in the process.

I don't really like social media. It's messing with my head and I'm basically torturing myself by constantly logging into Twitter to get updates on how bad everything is getting. It's getting to the point where I'm starting to want to do volunteer work just so I have something kind of structure in my life to distract myself.

I can't bring myself to give it up, however. Family is on Facebook and there's news on Twitter you won't get anywhere else on other platforms despite all of its suppression and censorship, so I've been trying to tough it out.

Hopefully, this place will be a nice last resort and I can make some real friends over this forum.

Haven't logged onto Facebook yet this month. While the account I kept is much emptier of engagement bait than the one I got rid of, I've realised I don't actually like using Facebook to talk to people I know from real life. And I never did like it. It always felt really weird and public and uncomfortable, which is how I got suckered into using it for other stuff instead. Plus, the last couple of years on there were so unpleasant, I bring up the login page, shudder and close the tab again.