Why I Deleted My Facebook Account

For me, Facebook has run it’s course, so I deleted my account. Sure, it’s a great place to connect with your family and friends and stalk that old crush from high school, but does it really benefit you and your family? One of the reasons that I’ve waited this long is because my mother joined Facebook a while back and I love my mommy! She loves seeing pictures and videos of her grand kids, but is that enough for me to continue to steal time from my children and bring stress and anxiety upon myself? Is Facebook the only channel in which to share your life with family and friends? Does Facebook have a monopoly on social interaction? I don’t think so.

Political Rants And Religion

At the beginning of this year, I decided to take a break from Facebook and I did pretty good at not logging in for a couple of months. Then I said that I would log in and check out the feed until I saw a political or whinny post, then log off. I never made it past 1 hour old posts. Sure, I could have fidgeted with all the privacy settings, but who’s got time for all that? I don’t.

The reason I decided to take a break in the first place was because of all the political rants during the elections. I actually deleted some people because of their in-your-face political views. Is that what Facebook is for? Pushing your political and religious views onto your “friends”? For some people it is. Why do you want to jump down my neck because I don’t agree with Obamacare or because I hit the “like” button on a picture of Jesus? I’m allowing people into my life and they’re making their own judgements about me, my actions and my beliefs. You’re not gonna change my mind, so let me have my say and I’ll let you have yours. I never engaged in embarrassing political or religious debates in public only to ruin my friendship with that person. I’ve seen this happen during the big gun debate after the Aurora theatre shooting.

I have plenty of friends that don’t share the same political or religious views as me, but our relationships are not based on common interests alone. I consider myself to be a very open-minded and diverse person and have a diverse set of friends. If I sound like a grouchy old man, it’s because that’s what I was becoming. It’s easy to say “why did you let this bother you so much Chayo?”, but people that know me well know that I’m a very passionate person and I believe that is the reason why these things bothered me so much. I’ll put money on it that I’m not the only one who feels this way.

Boo Fuckin’ Hoo!

This is where the stress and anxiety comes into play. I couldn’t stand anymore depressing status updates. Facebook has become a place for people to bitch and moan about how bad their depressing life is. Truth is, if you’re so bored that you’re posting pictures of what’s on your plate, then you got it better than a good majority of the world! It really bothers me for people to blatantly take what they have for granted. Give thanks for what you have for goodness sake!

Then you have the passive aggressive friends that never post on your wall or comment except when they want to call you out or correct you on something. The know-it-all. This type of behavior use to really get under my skin and ruin my day. Not anymore.

You may or may not have heard of “vaugebooking“, but I know you’ve all seen it! Vaguebooking is defined as: An intentionally vague Facebook status update, that prompts friends to ask what’s going on, or is possibly a cry for help. An example of vaguebooking is a status update that goes something like this: “Oh no, not again!“. Oh no what?! What the fuck happened? Why would you do that? Obvious crys for attention and super annoying.

Here’s 20 more things that annoy me about Facebook.

Privacy Concerns

Privacy concerns definitely factor in to my decision. There are over 177 privacy settings in Facebook. Again, who has time for all that? I don’t. Facebook knows more about you than your own family. For the sake of my own privacy and sanity, I’m out!

Before You Delete Your Account

If you are going to follow my lead, here are a few things to keep in mind before you delete your Facebook account:

• Make an announcement on Facebook so that you don’t appear to have psychological issues by just disappearing one day. I know a few people that have done this and the gossip was through the roof!
• Make sure you log out of any connected apps such as Instagram or Foursquare. If your apps are synced and you post something, you will have to wait another 14 days before your Facebook account is deleted for good.
• Backup all your Facebook info. You can do this by going to Account Settings > General > Download a copy of your Facebook data.
• If there are friends that you don’t want to lose contact with, get their contact info.

Can you live without Facebook? Would you ever consider deleting your account? What are some of the things that bother you about Facebook? Please let me know what you think in the comments below.