I deleted my Facebook account a few weeks ago. Not set it to inactive; I actually deleted my account. It’s all flushed down the memory hole now, after using it fairly actively since 2006 (I set up my Facebook account when I started law school, a few months before I started this blog).
Honestly, I haven’t missed it. And I haven’t regretted it even a little bit.
As a general matter, I am extremely unhappy with how much my life is dominated by gadgets and technology (yes, I realize that the fact that I am writing that on the internet right now is sort of hypocritical, but I’m prepared to live with that). I resent my iPhone. I resent the amount of time that I have wasted as an adult on the internet. Some of it has been valuable, but the vast majority of it has just been a complete and total waste. And wasting my life on the internet is just completely incompatible with the kind of active, passionate authentic life I want to live.
But the proximate cause of my decision was this video, posted by my pal Kaosaur:
I watched it, and I couldn’t get the thought that I had to get off Facebook out of my head. I realized very quickly that it was inevitable–I couldn’t un-think it. I needed to get off Facebook. The idea of deleting my Facebook account actually made me panicky and that in itself actually strengthened my resolve. For gods’ sake, five years ago I had never even heard of Facebook, and now I am having an anxiety attack at the thought of getting rid of it? Facebook had to go.
Think about it. Only five years ago, most people, like me, had never even heard of it. Now, a massive amount of our society is funneled through it. Life happens on Facebook. That is extremely alarming to me. Like, red-lights-and-klaaxons alarming.
But what about the people I keep in touch with on Facebook that I would lost touch with otherwise? Honestly? Friendships have life cycles. You don’t stay friends with everyone forever in real life. It’s okay that I ma not in touch with everyone I went to high school with. Without Facebook, I am still in touch with maybe a half-dozen old friends, and thats really the way it should be. You keep some good friends, others fade away. That’s how life goes. That’s real life. That’s real relationships. Instead, like everyone else, I am having e-relationships with 100 to 500 people based mostly on whether they use Facebook a lot and whether they annoy me enough to make me hide their feeds.
That’s not real life. That’s not authentic. That’s not something I value.
We were perfectly happy before Facebook. So why can’t we live without it now? What does it really add that is valuable to our lives? For me, the answer is “not a hell of a lot.” So I bit the bullet and requested deletion. I still have a blog. I still have an e-mail address. I still have a phone number and a street address. You can still get in touch with me. But I’m not on Facebook anymore, and I think I am better off for it.
Edit: While I appreciate that this post nets something like 90% of the traffic that ever sets e-foot on this blog, I do hope that people who read it at least take a peek around the rest of the blog to see what else there is. To get you started, here’s a list of what I think are my best posts. After that, why don’t you check out what I’ve been thinking about and writing lately.
Sailing to Byzantium 
A wise decision, my friend.
I can’t go cold turkey, so I decided to first delete 90% of my “friends”. Your decision gives me courage though – how sad. 😦
Well now you’ve got ME thinking about it. Crap… I’m probably going to do it now. Good video. Thanks for posting.
Kind of a mindworm, eh?
While I will loose a some respect, I must say that I am on Facebook and I am on it for social purposes. I live in a small town 100 miles away from most of my friends and all of my family. It is a great way to stay in touch with them.
However, I don’t play farmville, cafeworld, zoo world or any of the other time eating games. I do get some interesting news articles off of there and coupons that I can use. I do play a few solitaire games for decompressing. I do go in from time to time and reduce the size of my friends list which is currently less that 150 people. I even have (Oh horrors!) a page in honor of Zeus. [shrug]
Like anything, Facebook is what you make of it. Twitter, however, I’m not on and never plan to be…heck I don’t even have internet on my cell phone.
I don’t judge. All of my family are still on Facebook including my beautiful and sexy wife.
Couldn’t agree with you more. I kicked the habit back in November and haven’t looked back.
This sounds exactly like my story. I got FB in 2006 and I just deleted it permanently yesterday. Though I had originally just wanted to wean myself off it, I accidentally ended up not logging in before the two weeks were up. Pictures, comments, wall posts, gone. And you know? I’m happy :). Your post only reinforced that feeling.
I just deleted it its been 5 mins since i deleted it…. And It Feels Awwessome
.
I can’t view the video…link?
I want to delete FB too, but I’m scared…
Nevermind, the video loaded. Also, I recently met your brother. We attend the same school. He’s a cool guy.
My brother says you are trying to make him laugh in class right now instead of paying attention. GET TO YOUR STUDIES, YOUNGUN.
I would never do such a thing. BLASPHEMY!!
when i saw this video last week, i was also encouraged to delete my account finally.
i don’t regret it at all i feel free without the useless information. 🙂
happy to see this video is spreading.
Despite me sending them requests to delete my account, they haven’t -.- I ‘m desperate to find out if it’s been deleted! Anyway to know?
I read somewhere, some conspiracy site, that facebook is just a dossie to gather people’s profiles for Big Brother. Not sure about that, though. But, with everyone there and their friends, it sure looks like a huge database that could be snooped on.
Ahmadblues, try to log in to your account. If you can, it hasn’t been deleted.
Beebee, I don’t believe there’s a Big Brother, but I don’t think you need that for there to be a problem. Increasing voluntary surrender of privacy is a mark of our generation, for better or for worse. It’s not Big Brother that you have to worry about so much as it is all of the little brothers and sisters in the world.
You’re my hero!
I’ve been wanting to delete it for a number of months now. You have inspired me and I plan to do it this week.
I’m setting a cut off date.
THANK YOU!
Just requested that my account be deleted. Two weeks until I’m officially free!!
Hey thanks man, I just posted this on my facebook n tomorrow I’m gonna delete it! Soon everyone will join us on the outside
I just sat at the PC going through the endless pages of Youtube links, news links, random status updates and photos of some of my friends I met in college. Their status updates were always about the same topic- religion, sports, Tv shows, politics or video games. I didn’t find any of the apps or games on FB appealing. And when I did write about my achievements, only about 20 of my 100 odd friends replied back with positive feedback. There is now a growing conviction that FB is the only way that I can keep in touch with my friends. Only by weaning ourselves from FB can we truly begin living life and getting back to work.
Oh no worries; you can and probably will still find infinity ways to be distracted and unproductive. Brteaking away from that takes more than just blocking websites and deleting accounts. It takes a change of mind.
Just deleted mine about an hour ago after wanting to for months. Yay…FREEDOM!!!
Love this blog! The video is absolutely genius 🙂 Thank you x x x
Man, I’m so glad someone besides me knows this.
Also. I can’t stand Facebook. But I’m shilling a book or three. And they tell me that’s what I have to do to help market it. But I can’t stand it.
Well, that’s the reality of marketing in the 21st century.
//Friendships have life cycles. You don’t stay friends with everyone forever in real life.//
This statement is very true. I have never been on facebook and have no plans to join it or any other fancier social networking site like the google’s latest one. We often find that we suddenly have very less to talk to friends who were so close to us just 3 months before. This happens if we move away from them into another stage of our life. There are people who frown upon even sites like linked in.
Thank you so much for putting it out there in such a frank and straightforward manner. It’s exactly how I feel.
I deactivated my Facebook account earlier this week, only after deleting all of my friends, photos, information-everything (which probably wasn’t necessary but it certainly felt good)
But anyways, I have a younger brother who is in primary school. He came home telling me the other day that his friends told him they were on Facebook. They’re 9.
What do 9 year olds have to do on Facebook?! I could have dropped dead right there out of sheer bewilderment. I just cannot get my head around it. I know that it really is how you use it, and everything in moderation blah blah blah. But before we had it, we all got on perfectly well. It’s simply so necessary.
I have NO plans to create a new account. When my brother asks me about making an account for himself (which I believe may be sooner than I’d like), I can tell him that if I can do without it, so can he.
Sure, it’s not damaging to have it, but there’s nothing wrong with living life the way everyone else did before it came around. Perhaps I’m just old-fashioned, a little backward. I fear my best friends will see me as pretentious, but I just don’t like being on it. Was so glad to read your post. I feel a little less worried about being seen as a hippy-wannabee now.
Apologies, “simply so unnecessary” is what I meant.
Best decision I have made, as well as to keep text to a minimum on my phone and IMing brief, real life is so much better. People in the flesh, intelligent conversation, meaningful exchanges. All worth the price of instant gratification. >:-) give it a try, it’s truly painless, and much more rewarding.
I deleted my facebook account tonight. First I deleted my friends. That way there was no real reason to go back. Ever. I didn’t have any personal info on there that you couldn’t find on the internet some other place so I didn’t bother deleting pics or posts. Too many anyway. I got annoyed on there too much and I annoyed myself as well due to feeling like I had to come up with witty things to say and often found myself at a loss. Also, I don’t want to know about people’s bad days or any other drama people go through and I don’t want to have to hide and unhide people because of this. I will enjoy my new freedom. Yes, I will.
I really enjoyed the video you posted. I deleted my account today too, definately a few withdrawel symptoms but suddenly, I have some space. And I don’t feel stretched anymore, weird, but true. It’s like I’ve snapped back into myself.
From the Onion: New Facebook Feature Allows User To Cancel Account.
Why I deleted my FB account
Uninspiring and uninteresting posts, FB tends to draw people to a lowest common denominator with superficiality and banality often the norm. I noticed interesting or inspiring articles often went without comment while trivial ones would get a lot of attention.
Many posters appear not to engage brain before posting.
Mundane content, why should I care if a ‘friend’ is on a bus or in a coffee shop or has only two hours to go until they finish work?
The FB business agenda is about gathering your data to sell, it is not about FB’s users.
FB is ubiquitous and intrusive and I have concerns about both privacy and security. There is a risk of being lured by scams or invited into questionable games.
Ultimately the fear that if I make a mistake I will lose control of my computer or of my finances.
In my opinion Mark Zuckerberg appears not to be the sort of person I would either like or trust.
FB language is irritating, I did not have 48 ‘friends’ any more than some people have several hundred or even thousand. ‘Like’ is also used in a limited sense, if I want to signal I agree or approve of a comment about a fatal road accident does that mean I should ‘like’ it? And as for ‘poke’ – how annoying!
The layout, colours etc. are about as boring as Mark Zuckerberg’s grey hoodie.
The comments look undifferentiated unless people have chosen to place an eye-catching picture. In a room full of friends and acquaintances I will probably be mutually drawn to those I am closer to, they will look bigger or brighter or more attractive in the room. On FB everything looks the same.
It is far harder to permanently delete your account than to start one up and FB will hold onto some data ‘for technical reasons.’
I instinctively distrust anything this big and powerful. FB is an enormous company but it appears to lack transparency or listening ability.
I’ve been thinking of deting my fb account for a while now… I waste valuable hours on Facebook, mainly looking at people’s profile that I haven’t seemly in line 2 years, since high school. I talent about 3 to 6 friends on Facebook.. And I can perfectly talk to them in real life. I juat figured, I have a phone number, I have an email adress and as you said people will still be able to contact me.. Besides those who really want to talk to me will have the decency to call me or if they don’t feel like calling they can always send me a text.. I’m deleting my Facebook account tomorrow. I might miss it for few days but I think I’ll feel like I have regain the privacy that I have somehow lost because of Facebook… And I will use this valuable hours to do homework and other stuff, like going to the park .. Thanks your blog was the last drop of water in the glass…
So I guess its been a year or so since I deleted my account. I still haven’t missed it. I didn’t even remeber how long it had been until I just happened to be sorting through the last 12 month’s blog posts here.
I haven’t replaced it with something else on the itnernet either, which basically means I have gotten back an enormous amount of time per day. As a result, I have read a lot more books, listened ot a lot mroe music, and learned to play the guitar, even thgough I am a junior associate at a grueling Big Law Firm.
Its a sham anyway, its not for you to keep in touch with friends, it is for selling marketing data, No big loss.
Yesterday someone came onto my blog by googling “how to keep in touch without facebook.”
Facebook has only existed since 2004. It’s only been open to the general public since 2006. How do you keep in touch without Facebook? All the same ways you kept in touch for your entire life before you were on Facebook.
I just deleted facebook too… awesome, awesome feeling. Hoping the withdrawals aren’t too bad tommorow haha. I quit once before but my whiny friends dragged me back, oh how I regret going back!! I’m out for good this time. 🙂
Awesome.. you are an inspiration buddy 🙂
Never wanted to use FBI-book.
Then after all my peers going on and on I opened an account in 2010 and wasted so much time on it!
Then on my birthday with 10 real life friends discussing fb, I just deleted it and the app on my iPhone.
I created a new account with my hobbies to show any future employer who wants to look me up and I don’t post or add friends to it.
500+ friends when I only know 110 of them and rather meet real life people, go out and have fun – not sit at a computer all day!
No wonder the developed world is so obese!
Ooh raining, better post that on farce book…
I agree. It is pointless and stupid. Instead I found a hobby. Piano and I hope to excel at it. Mebook . .bragbook . .crapbook. Everyone is seeking validation . .it is stupid. Rather take a walk outside and enjoy the sunshine.
Update: Now over two years without FB. Don’t miss it ever. I have even stopped impulsively wishing I could publicly put up some kind of status message.
Good to hear. Its been about 6 months for me. What has surprised me (and it shouldn’t) is how little my “friends” seemed to care. No emails asking me why – nothing. Just further confirmation.
i think its been over a year since i used facebook
no more distractions.
I certainly wouldn’t go so far as to say that.
I’ve been clean from facebook for three months? I totally agree with you!!!
I didn’t know there was a function to delete it and not just deactivate that. I’ll have to find out how to do that – I’ve been looking for it for a while now.
[…] via Why I Deleted My Facebook Account | Sailing to Byzantium. […]
That’s so true : I’ve putted my own account on “off” and saw the number of friends (I mean people whom I know in real life and with I had good contact) seem to have totally forgotten me. They had my mails, my phone number, my blog… everything you need -and more- to stay in touch but… nothing. It’s exactly like if you have never met each others. -___- “You’re not on FB anymore ?” “No” And so, hop, suddenly everything disappears. ( * grumpy cat mood * : FINE I DIDN’T NEED YOU ANYMORE TOO)
[…] I read this blog this morning about someone who HAD deleted their account, I was relating to everything he said about […]
I wiped my facebook yesterday, I agree mebook,bragbook,crapbook …..really like that saying. Cant believe i have wasted so much time staring at pointless comments.
I deleted my account 5 months ago and since then my “friends” have fell off the face of the earth. Facebook has become a life line for social interaction so many people are so stuck in their virtual world they can’t talk outside of cyber space. because of Facebook I have no friends and it’s all because they don’t talk or socialize outside of it.
Were they really your friends in the first place?
Deactivated my account after months of thinking about it. Won’t delete it because I have some photos I need to save but can’t be stuffed reactivating it.
Feels so nice not to be tied down to facebook!
Print the photos out.
I got rid of it two years ago to get the heck away from the drama all these morons from high school and who know where esle i met crying and complaining to the world. It was very depressing and i must say i am so much happier now with out it. Seruously, you dont need 500 friends and you dont need to keep toxic friendships.
I deleted like 2 years ago and 6 months I recreated another account. And then now I’m free from it again for like 3 hours. Let’s hope I don’t relapse again
I have implemented a better solution, Instead of deleting my facebook account, I removed all of my information, likes, pages, friends (Except family). books, photos etc and My profile is actually now a ghost profile. Which I only use to chat with family members from phone.
Suddenly deleting facebook account will make a vacuum in your life and you will end up relapsing, instead make it bare minimum and slowly stop using it. The world will not end.
Nonsense. I suddenly stopped using it over two years ago now. No relapse.
I’ll be deleting mine. I feel like my life would be much better if I weren’t on Facebook or any social networking site. I don’t want to look back on my life years from now and regret the fact I let technology rule my life. I want to communicate with people how majority of us did 10-15 years ago. I also think getting rid of FB will strengthen the bond between my significant other and I, and our children.
Thanks for this blog. I’ll check out the rest of your stuff.
Good for you!
I just found this. I have been toying with dumping FB for months now. I don’t like how it puts me in a bad mood, makes me envious of friends (that just makes me sick to even write) and just sucks away my time–that I will never get back. It was a great video too.
I glanced through your site and pray you are closer in your journey to find God. He loves you. More than you can ever imagine. 🙂
Thank you for posting this.
You know what time you can still get back? The time that hasn’t happened yet. Dump Facebook and don’t look back.
I felt exactly the same! I found I was actually becoming depressed whilst on FB because everyone else seemed to be having such fun-way more fun that me anyway… Or were they? Are they? Is it one big load of BS? I also feel like society has become so self-obsesed due to fb. Why should anyone else care what you’re doing 24 hrs of the day, and why does it matter if they ‘like’ your status, photo, general being?! I started worrying I wasn’t liked as a person because no one had ‘liked’ certain status updates.ridiculous.
I feel so free now without the burden of constantly having to update and check my page. I talk to friends way more than I ever used to and find out their news from them actually telling me face to face. I love that. They can see a genuine reaction. It means so much more than them telling me something and me responding, ‘oh yeah, I already know. I read it on FB 2 days ago’ In short, my life has begun again.
My real, in the moment, exciting at times, but sometimes mundane (but that’s OK u know) life. I would never go back. Ever. And as for FB on your phone… Oh. My. God. Look around you people-the world is a beautiful place. See that person sat next to you? Strike up a conversation. I did and we’re now engaged. Life. Real life with real people.
i am currently going through the two week deletion process. i have been on the fence for the better part of the year, and deactivated a couple weeks a while back before a friend reeled me back in.
i went against my own rules…friended a few people i work with amd it bit me in the behind. while my profile was locked down from non friends, apparently a post or two was brought to somebodies attention and i am currently looking for work. it may be a blessing in disguise. i didnt like the job and it was the final straw to not only delete facebook, but instagram (its amazing how long a phone battery lasts when you arent on those apps when you are “bored”).
a good friend gives me crap about it, but whatever. it was time to tighten my circle and only trust those that i let in that circle. sometimes it takes something really unfortunate to happen to remind you of that.
the only thing i will miss is updates from band and venue pages for releases and shows, i will just have to check their lages regularly.
I quit Facebook nearly two weeks ago. Truth to be told, I haven’t looked back. I’ve started living a better life. Not comparing mine with others, and ‘worrying’ how mine is going compared to everyone else’s ‘perfect’ lives that they portray to live. The more I don’t know, the less I care about everyone else and I feel better for it.
Quitting FB is one of the best things I’ve ever done. It gives me a better perspective on myself and my own life. It’s refreshing to say the least. I haven’t felt any need or urge to go back on Facebook at all since quitting it either.
When I see my friends and update them how things are going. There’s no more ‘oh yeah, I saw it on Facebook’. They seem to be more interested in how I’m doing because I’m NOT on Facebook. It’s actually a lot better and is more personal texting, ringing them and seeing them in person than doing it on FB.
Since quitting FB, I’ve also been more driven and motivated to do other (and better) things in my spare time. I’ve quickly realised how much I’ve wasted it on FB. I’ve been using more time to concentrate and improve my life.
I quit facebook about two months ago after toying with the idea for years and each time I think about it, a huge wave of relief comes over me. Although I think about people from time to time and after moving across country four times I miss my friends in far away places but this feels far more natural of a way to live. I found this website because I wanted to read about others’ experiences in quitting because I found such a sense of freedom.
I love reading all of these success stories. I wish I could delete my Facebook. After watching the “Look Up From Your Phone” video earlier this year, I made the decision to leave Tumblr because it was eating too much of my time (and causing me to actually feel depressed, more often than not). I haven’t looked back and I don’t miss it. I found myself posting on Facebook a bit more after deleting my Tumblr, and tweeting a bit more often too. I also use Instagram and Snapchat.
I think we have convinced ourselves that these social media sites keep us “in the know” and “connected” to people, when in actuality they don’t cultivate authentic relationships (although there’s nothing more authentic than seeing a Snapchat video of one of your kids at a party!). Still, I can’t seem to let go. Maybe I’m afraid I’ll feel left out of the “family,” or that I’ll be the only person who doesn’t know what John and Lisa are doing Friday night.
Because my son is in a band and my daughter attends college out of town, I also justify that being on Facebook is an easy way to keep up with what’s going on with them. We are close, and we talk and text often (as well as see each other and spend time together). I guess I see Facebook as another view into their lives. Honestly, I think what I’d miss most is seeing all of their photos.
I’m really struggling with this. I deactivated my account a couple of years ago, and ended up back on it within a week or so. I guess I need to decide how badly I want to live life, rather than reading about everybody else’s. Wish me luck! 🙂
I tried to get it all out but ‘word press’ stopped responding. I think I’ll do the same. Goodbye my 2 acquaintances’. I’ll keep in touch with one if he will keep me in mind and e-mail me. As far as my family, (kids), they 86’d me more or less for using the word FUCK. No sweat off my balls actually. Your video was great. Loved your expressions. That’s what got me. I love you too. Buh-bye.
[…] https://byzantium.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/i-have-quit-facebook/ […]