I definitely lost my audience, any alleged clout and plenty of work and payment by quitting Facebook this year. I thoroughly recommend it, don’t miss the platform, am possibly a nicer person, read more books and have more time - or more time phone free. There’s no catch and no actual loss.
Urgh I honestly wish it would just die and I wish I wasn’t so addicted to it. We’re currently having a horrible neverending row with my nearly 13yo who keeps asking “when can I have TikTok, when can I have Instagram? My friends have it. I’m the only one who doesn’t. You’re so mean. You’re so unfair” … rinse and repeat. She is already highly sensitive and a worrier (and in therapy). We’ve already had run ins with self-harming and stopping eating because someone called her fat at school. If I had my way I would never let her near them. Ever. Equally, she is in the full throws of teendom and has honestly become quite horrible of late and the thought of giving in on it to stop her being so mean is, purely selfishly, very tempting. Anyway, I wish it was just taken out of my hands and taken down!
I'm a nobody with nothing to say, and lucky enough to be paid properly for my work as an employee. I quit Instagram and Facebook last year: my PMDD makes me want to self harm one week out of every four anyway, feeling inadequate and lonely scrolling the apps was not helping. A few people (hi Mum!) have had a whinge at me about not being in contact, but what they really mean seems to be 'when I see you like my posts I feel like we're in touch'. We definitely have more phone calls than we used to, which is better, I think. But I also use a range of small local businesses I first found on Facebook, and these changes do make me worry how they'll get on. Shout out to AWWA, Abstract Design, Smooth Pens and (not local but amazing) Snag Tights for amazing products and services! And obviously Substack is a must have.
I feel conflicted. I hate it with a burning hate. But I couldn't have gone to Substack without building an FB following first. So I do wonder how other writers will get on. 😒
Read blogs and newsletters is my solution. Though I avoid insta and loathe to love FB. But I"m really here to give you a heads up that your Tarzan review is one of the best things that ever happened to the Frock Flicks writers and they just did a Man candy Monday on Alexander Absgard, and you are quoted, quite aptly. <3
My husband just had a Facebook ad pop up featuring a very graphic giant erection next to a woman's face and some other details which are too gross to mention here. He'd never seen anything like that before on his feed, is that kind of stuff getting worse too?
Also, birds are awesome. Paying attention to them has a significant effect on wellbeing, I highly recommend it!
Thanks for this post. A few months ago I quit scrolling. I got super into newsletters and that is a really good thing. I deleted instagram from my phone. But now I check instagram and facebook on my computer every day, sometimes multiple times a day, and I want to stop
And your writing is a welcome break from the algorithm ❤️. I just got TikTok (why) and my friend asked me if I liked and I said (out loud) “yeah it’s cool, I’m just trying to beat the algorithm” 🙄🙄😂😂 what is my life?
I am now dreading working out FB for work. I mean, it was in need of an overhaul (in my opinion) anyway, but I'm not great at that stuff. Give me the content and I'll load it though!
I, too, have been shown bird photography on Facebook and because I've joined at least a couple groups, now have 50% wild bird photography on my Feed - not complaining. I haven't updated Instagram for months now, no new photos on Facebook either which will probably change soon as it's our family's birthday season but yea, I only ever browse Stories thumbnails and watch maybe the first ten people on the scroll-y thing up top. I guess I need Facebook to keep updated on whatever's happening in the home country but a lot of times it's just a lot of politics and noise and fighting so I'm not sure if it's worth the trouble really.
I wish that they didn't exist and I wish that they had never existed. But I still can't bring myself to quit, because it feels like cutting off contact with anyone who's not in the same city as me.
I definitely lost my audience, any alleged clout and plenty of work and payment by quitting Facebook this year. I thoroughly recommend it, don’t miss the platform, am possibly a nicer person, read more books and have more time - or more time phone free. There’s no catch and no actual loss.
Urgh I honestly wish it would just die and I wish I wasn’t so addicted to it. We’re currently having a horrible neverending row with my nearly 13yo who keeps asking “when can I have TikTok, when can I have Instagram? My friends have it. I’m the only one who doesn’t. You’re so mean. You’re so unfair” … rinse and repeat. She is already highly sensitive and a worrier (and in therapy). We’ve already had run ins with self-harming and stopping eating because someone called her fat at school. If I had my way I would never let her near them. Ever. Equally, she is in the full throws of teendom and has honestly become quite horrible of late and the thought of giving in on it to stop her being so mean is, purely selfishly, very tempting. Anyway, I wish it was just taken out of my hands and taken down!
I'm a nobody with nothing to say, and lucky enough to be paid properly for my work as an employee. I quit Instagram and Facebook last year: my PMDD makes me want to self harm one week out of every four anyway, feeling inadequate and lonely scrolling the apps was not helping. A few people (hi Mum!) have had a whinge at me about not being in contact, but what they really mean seems to be 'when I see you like my posts I feel like we're in touch'. We definitely have more phone calls than we used to, which is better, I think. But I also use a range of small local businesses I first found on Facebook, and these changes do make me worry how they'll get on. Shout out to AWWA, Abstract Design, Smooth Pens and (not local but amazing) Snag Tights for amazing products and services! And obviously Substack is a must have.
I feel conflicted. I hate it with a burning hate. But I couldn't have gone to Substack without building an FB following first. So I do wonder how other writers will get on. 😒
Read blogs and newsletters is my solution. Though I avoid insta and loathe to love FB. But I"m really here to give you a heads up that your Tarzan review is one of the best things that ever happened to the Frock Flicks writers and they just did a Man candy Monday on Alexander Absgard, and you are quoted, quite aptly. <3
My husband just had a Facebook ad pop up featuring a very graphic giant erection next to a woman's face and some other details which are too gross to mention here. He'd never seen anything like that before on his feed, is that kind of stuff getting worse too?
Also, birds are awesome. Paying attention to them has a significant effect on wellbeing, I highly recommend it!
PS for other Skarsgaard appreciators https://www.frockflicks.com/mcm-alexander-skarsgard/
Thanks for this post. A few months ago I quit scrolling. I got super into newsletters and that is a really good thing. I deleted instagram from my phone. But now I check instagram and facebook on my computer every day, sometimes multiple times a day, and I want to stop
And your writing is a welcome break from the algorithm ❤️. I just got TikTok (why) and my friend asked me if I liked and I said (out loud) “yeah it’s cool, I’m just trying to beat the algorithm” 🙄🙄😂😂 what is my life?
I am now dreading working out FB for work. I mean, it was in need of an overhaul (in my opinion) anyway, but I'm not great at that stuff. Give me the content and I'll load it though!
I, too, have been shown bird photography on Facebook and because I've joined at least a couple groups, now have 50% wild bird photography on my Feed - not complaining. I haven't updated Instagram for months now, no new photos on Facebook either which will probably change soon as it's our family's birthday season but yea, I only ever browse Stories thumbnails and watch maybe the first ten people on the scroll-y thing up top. I guess I need Facebook to keep updated on whatever's happening in the home country but a lot of times it's just a lot of politics and noise and fighting so I'm not sure if it's worth the trouble really.
"Even if it takes away our ability to discover our cousin is an anti-vaxxer who thinks Jacinda Ardern is a communist who hates truck drivers."
OMG, Emily, you nailed it again - I'm snorting with laughter in the office - I didn't even know you knew my cousin! :-D
My husband quit Facebook and started a new account under a fake name that’s just for marketplace. He doesn’t use it at all otherwise. I’m so jealous.
I agree with everything you said. I use these platforms daily but I will rejoice when they die.
Haha, I too get beautiful birds on Facebook and, being overly cynical on all aspects of life think, look at the wonderful photoshopping
https://sparklefuck.substack.com/p/everyone-log-out-i-want-to-be-alone?r=1vgkr&s=r&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=direct
I wish that they didn't exist and I wish that they had never existed. But I still can't bring myself to quit, because it feels like cutting off contact with anyone who's not in the same city as me.