Why I Deleted my Personal Facebook Page

Why I Deleted my Personal Facebook Page

A few weeks ago, I made a decision to really only allow positive influences and people in my life. That big decision has trickled down in different ways throughout my day-to-day life, I've been more focused on being with my family and avoiding technology on the weekends. I've fostered relationships in my actual, living, breathing world that build me up and bring me happiness. I've listened less and less to the influences of things that don't really matter to me and started tuning in to opinions of people and ideas that actually matter to me.


One of the major effects of this decision was that I found myself less and less enjoying logging in to Facebook to check for business notifications. I've had a personal Facebook page for 10 years or so, and over that time the platform as a whole has really deteriorated into a place where people can anonymously vent from behind a keyboard and say whatever they want, no matter who it hurts, as long as it makes them feel better. I found it was not a place I wanted to go to check in on my family and friends because there was never anything positive or meaningful for me there.

So I tried to stop. I deleted all but about 150 people (and really - does anyone really know 150 people? No.) But it was mainly family and people that I actually knew in real life. I unliked almost all of the pages I followed because they really only shared stories with click-bait titles that sucked me in. That lasted about two weeks and I figured out that even these people that I supposedly love and cherish in real life (because why would I keep all of them around on Facebook if we weren't really friends?) weren't worth all the hatred and negativity and drama that came with the platform.


I did something crazy. I decided to disable (not delete - so yes I've left myself an out because I can go back and enable it at any time) my Facebook page. The problem is - I really do need it for business related purposes. I am the admin on several of my client's pages and I also run a couple of Facebook groups that I need to be able to moderate. I created a different profile, with a different email address, and took over all of my business related information there. It took a good month for me to transfer everything over (and after I did, I realized that I had forgotten a bunch of stuff that now I have to go back and fix!) but after getting everything set up, I just bit the bullet and disabled it.

I did tell a few people via text, but other than that I didn't make a dramatic statement about it, warning people before I left. I honestly just didn't care anymore. There are SO MANY OTHER WAYS to get in touch with me that if you can't figure it out outside of Facebook then I am sorry but I can't help you. I have not looked back and I do not miss it one bit. I do have this other account that I am logged in to, but I have no friends on there and very rarely do I get a notification. It is so freeing and so glorious to know that I can go about my day without being badgered by my Facebook "friends" for having an opinion different from theirs.

To be clear - there was not one single incident that made me decide this - nobody in particular hurt my feelings or upset me - but it was just that I was seeing a horrible pattern emerge. I would jump on Facebook to check my notifications, decide to "just scroll through a few things in my feed" and before I knew it I was 30 comments deep in a political Facebook debate or I'd clicked on a stupid article that really added nothing to my life. It was wasting precious time every day, and I never left feeling better than I did before I logged in. I always felt worse: angry, upset, sad, frustrated, and utterly disappointed in this world we live in.

The amazing thing is, no one requires you to have a Facebook page. You're not required to keep anything in your life that brings you down and makes you miserable. You just really have to have the cojones to get rid of it because it goes against the status quo. It was like cutting our cable - we were nervous we would miss out on so much but now that we have been without it for several years (close to five now I think), our lives have been just fine and we have definitely not been deprived of television.

There are plenty of other ways to keep up with the people in my life that really matter to me and lots of less combative ways to get the news. I no longer need Facebook to make these things happen and it is kind of nice to be honest. I've had to make a list of people I need to remember to check in with (which is really sad when you think about it) and I know I'm going to forget a heck of a lot of birthdays... but it probably means more that I'll be really intentional over the next few months to rebuild relationships and write birthdays on a calendar and overall be a happier person because I've gotten rid of the thing in my life that probably brought me down the most.

I'm not writing this to challenge you to get rid of your Facebook or to stand on a pedestal and look down my nose at anyone. Everyone is different and everyone handles things differently but Facebook was becoming a poison in my life so it was just time to quit drinking it. It may not be Facebook for you, but what is the poison in your life that is really holding you back from living intentionally and being a better person? I challenge you to get rid of that.

Many thanks to Stephanie of Atascocita Photography for the beautiful photos, shot at Chateau Polonez at the Bloggers Meet Photographers Meet Up organized by The Pink Envelope.