Reasons To Quit Facebook

All of us are, on some level, aware that social media isn't good for us. We know that spending too long scrolling through statuses sucks up time that we could and should be spending working. We know that it amplifies feelings of loneliness and jealousy, and we know that it holds far too much information about us for our own good. If Facebook was blown wide open by hackers tomorrow, those hackers would know almost everything about your life and the things that have happened in it since the day you registered for an account. None of us should relish that thought.

Despite that, we persevere with it. We worry that we'll miss out on something important if we delete the app. We're concerned that we'll lose touch with our friends if we can't see what they're all up to every moment of every day. Against our better judgment, we stick around even though we're dimly aware that our data is being used against us by advertisers, and there are issues in our non-virtual lives that we should be paying more attention to.

What if you didn't do that, though? What if quitting Facebook was actually the right move, and you just need some encouragement to do so, backed up with good reasons? We're here to nudge you in the right direction. If the thought of quitting Facebook for good has occurred to you in the past few months, here are a few good reasons to listen to that thought and act upon it.

Your Communication Skills Suffer

The longer you spend on social media, the worse your real-world communication skills become. This negative impact is especially profound in younger people. We become accustomed to responding to people through text rather than through the spoken word. Worse still, we say things through social media that we would never dream of saying to someone face to face, and over time we teach ourselves that these responses are acceptable. Communicating exclusively through writing means that we miss out on silent cues, like body language or facial expressions. If a child doesn't develop those skills when they're young, they might never develop them at all.

It Sucks Your Time Away

Hands up if the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning is to reach for your phone? OK, that was a pointless suggestion because we can't see you, but we suspect that a lot of you would have had to put your hand up in response to that question. Rather than getting up and preparing yourself for work - perhaps even getting a head start on a few tasks you've been meaning to get around to - you're spending your time scrolling deeper and deeper into your news feed. You reach posts that were made two or three days ago, and you're still going. There's nothing exciting there, but you're addicted to scrolling, and you can't stop. Try to make a note of when you log into Facebook and when you log out again. Add up all the time at the end of the week. We think you'll be shocked by how much of your life you're sinking into an app that gives you very little in return.

It's No Longer A Social Media Website

Facebook was once - a very long time ago now - a social media website. It's not anymore. It's an advertising agency masquerading as a way of staying in touch with your friends. Facebook exists to sell you things that you probably don't want. As an example, there's now an official Facebook online slots page. How many of you signed up for a Facebook account in the hope that you'd be able to play online casino on it one day? This isn't a complaint about online slots websites, which by and large are very good at what they do, but it's hardly what anyone joined Facebook for. It's not just online slots either - Facebook wants to become the place you buy your goods from, watch your television through, and search for employment on. Even if you do none of those things, you're still subjected to an endless stream of advertisements. We skip the commercials on television. We should skip Facebook entirely if that's all they want to serve us.

Fake News

We're all sick of hearing about the concept of 'fake news,' but it doesn't make it any less of a potent threat. No matter how much Facebook (and other social media websites) say they're doing to control the spread of fake news on their platforms, it's still everywhere. This isn't about censoring information that anyone disagrees with - it's about allowing the unchecked publication of dangerous outright lies and encouraging people to agree with it. When you're exposed to this kind of nonsense constantly, it can seriously warp your perspective on the world and the things that happen in it. It isn't good for us, and we should try harder to steer clear of it.

Your Data Could Still Be At Risk

We believe Facebook when they say that they're trying harder to protect customer data since the notorious Cambridge Analytica scandal and the accusations of election interference, but there still appears to be a few risks associated with allowing Facebook to have access to so much data about you. A worrying number of seemingly-accurate Facebook usernames and passwords have appeared for sale on the dark web during the past twelve months, and that information has to be coming from somewhere. If that data is accessible on the dark web, Facebook ought to know that it's out there, and should be taking action to secure any account that's potentially affected. Think of everything you've ever said and done on Facebook. Think of all the apps that you've allowed to have access to your account and the data contained on them. You're potentially just one compromised password away from all of that data falling into the wrong hands. If that doesn't worry you, you're not paying enough attention.

The fear of missing out on important information will stick with you for a while once you've closed your account, but it will soon pass when you speak to your real-world friends and realize that nothing significant has happened at all. There will never be an 'ideal' time to quit Facebook, but any time is a good time. If you think you might benefit from walking away, walk away. You can always go back to it later if you decide you can't cope without it, but you'll never know what life is like without it unless you try.