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by plahteenlahti 2742 days ago
Deleted my account permanently two months ago. In the beginning it was interesting too see how it had become a habit to write the url almost without thinking, and for three weeks I found myself opening a new tab and writing the Facebook.com address every time my mind started wandering. Also deleted my Instagram account at the same time and currently in the process of deleting WhatsApp as well, as soon as some projects depending on it as the communication platform conclude.

Can’t say I missed it. The things I’ve lost in terms of communication power are far outweighed by the positive effect it has had on my wellbeing and time management. Other than that the effect has been relatively small on my life.

At the time of deletion I had around 700 “friends”, most of which I hadn’t seen in years and many of which I had had no connection after becoming friends on Facebook. Now two months after is feels weird to have used this service daily, when in reality it worked mostly as an address book than a communication platform.

Another thing I noticed was how invested I had become in other people’s lives by mostly just consuming their status updates, stories and pictures. This combined with lack of updates from my side had really distorted my relationship with people, and had me feel more connected to people than I really was. It has wonderful to notice how much more interesting and easier it has become to converse with people when you don’t know what they’ve been up to recently

2 comments

> Deleted my account permanently two months ago. In the beginning it was interesting too see how it had become a habit to write the url almost without thinking, and for three weeks I found myself opening a new tab and writing the Facebook.com address every time my mind started wandering.

I've deleted my account in 2017 when I realized that I only care about ~10 of my ~1,000 friends. The behavior you described also happened to me -- a lot. It was quite scary to realize how often I absentmindedly type in Facebook's url every day.

The hardest part about deleting my account was that I had a few deceased people in my friend list. That held me back for a good while (years actually) – because it was a terrifying thought that, no matter if I change my mind and come back, they could never accept a new friend request by me and I would never be able browse their profile again.

I understand the desire to delete FB and IG (I did the same in 2018) but why get rid of WhatsApp? Isn't it just a communication tool rather than a social-media site?