Amerrir the social network was easier than expected

I stopped using Facebook in 2016 and not once, not even a second, I regretted my decision.

Like you, I was addicted to Facebook and, like you, I was fed up with Facebook. But I was fed up with getting fed up, so I decided that it was time to stop using it. And it was easier than I expected.

Let's go back. My first experience with social media was when a friend told me about Friendster in 2002. "We need to use Friendster to be friends there!" He explained. "But … we're already friends … in real life," I thought. Ah, to be so young and naive.

Then came MySpace (R.I.P.) and finally Facebook became the new brilliant toy that everyone had to have. At this point, I was quite in place, so I created an account as soon as I could do it and I collected "friends" as if I were there. tried to get a high score. (In a sense, all social networks are video games.)

Soon, I reconnected with all my old high school and high school classmates, as well as their friends and some of the people I spent at a music festival, and some random work relationships, until I have a network of them that I knew or interacted with in real life. But it was good. I was an active user, sharing statuses, posting photos, getting likes. I must have the tastes.

Likes are a form of connection, and that's what social networks provide: a form of community, as superficial as it is digital. They provide a feeling of comfort and allow us to feel as if we are not alone, even if we are alone, with a bright screen, scrolling endlessly or sweeping the ether.

Then Twitter became the new thing, then Instagram became the new and new, and Facebook, by default, became the old thing. These new networks each had their own goal: Twitter was a great way to receive and digest news, Instagram was a great place to share photos.

It was distilled versions of what Facebook was proposing. Twitter and Instagram are works of art that value a keen mind and a keen sense of design. Unlike Facebook, you do not have to "follow" everyone you've met. There is not much art on Facebook, it's more a low dump. As a result, it became much less interesting over time, and I ended up using less.

I could still browse it, but I was blocking more and more people updates from my feed. (I'm sorry, a friend from elementary school, that someone cut you off in traffic, but I no longer feel the need to read about it or any of your other complaints.) Advancing and "catching up" felt like a burden, and my scrolling became endless and witless, a function of habit rather than true commitments. I did not find it cool or interesting anymore. But everyone was on it, so I felt that I needed to be too.

My breaking point came during the Orlando Nightclub shootout in 2016. One of my friends used it to present his thoughts on gun control, which I agree on. but I was immediately struck by the reality of what Facebook had become. : a sounding board for people to rant at an audience of friends and acquaintances. Everything seemed so stupid. I have therefore deleted Facebook from my phone and after a year of no connection or even need to login, I deleted my account.

It was not because of Facebook's litany of privacy breaches or the spread of Fake News, although these things did not help. I just thought it was nil, so I dropped it. And I never felt the need to join the group.

In doing so, I lost no friendship in real life. I am always in touch with all the people with whom I want to be in contact. I do not lack stories. There is no Facebook offer I can not get elsewhere. Our world has convinced us, in a sense, that we need to engage with Facebook to feel alive, to know what is going on in the world. The connection is everything. Except that it is not.

I am not a high and powerful being who puts down his phone and makes contact with his inner self. I am always on Twitter and Instagram all the time. I have what I consider to be a healthy relationship with social media: I see its values ​​and flaws, and I am at peace with them.

But Facebook? No thanks. Some things are hard to give up, it was not one of them. I said goodbye and I have never looked back. If you want, you can too.

[email protected]

@grahamorama

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