Quitting Facebook the Right Way

Are you thinking about quitting Facebook? Of course, it’s very easy: just don’t ever look at it again. I’ll get back to that later. The very first thing to do is make sure that quitting Facebook is what you want to do. Facebook is a bad thing; how much convincing do you need of that?

Why Quit Facebook?

First, it is a major distraction and a time suck. A half hour a day on FB is nearly half of a working day per week, every week. If you are watching your child play, are you really engaged if you are trying to take pictures and write a FB post? Real life is best experienced without being concerned about how it will look on your FB wall.

Quitting Facebook

Second, social comparison is bad for the spirit. I have a few friends (and they truly are my friends) whose relentless humblebragging has just gotten old. It’s human nature to wonder why YOU are not always standing at a podium receiving awards or watching your child hit grand slam home runs or seeing sunsets in tropical paradises. Finally, FB is a risk to your privacy – you are giving a lot of your personal information out for free.

Quitting Facebook, the Wrong Way

Actually, you can do whatever works for you. The advice you’ll get will range from cutting down the time you spend, either on your own or with software like FB Limiter, to deleting your Facebook account entirely. They have the drawbacks of being either not enough or too much. If you limit your time on Facebook, you will still waste time and continue to have FB’s other drawbacks. If your goal is to leave FB forever, it may seem like too drastic a step to actually take.

Quitting Facebook, the Right Way

Just stop going there. That’s it, that’s all you have to do and you won’t miss it. A few important suggestions, however:

  1. Download and save your Facebook data. That way, you won’t worry about losing anything. Here’s how.
  2. Start using email to keep in touch with your real friends.
  3. Use Instagram or Twitter to have an idea what’s going on in the world.
  4. Rely on other sites for news – your hometown newspaper page, the New York Times and the Huffington Post are all good places to stay current.
  5. Keep your pictures and video somewhere else in the cloud. Gmail and DropBox are good places with a lot of storage.
  6. Pick a date – a Monday or the first day of the month are good times to remember as the beginning of your new Facebook-free life. Or binge on Facebook in advance of your New Year’s resolution.

That’s it. How to quit Facebook. Try it out, see if you miss it and enjoy the hours you get back!

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