[corodra]

PSA for anyone who does this, regarding the friends part. Hell, works well if you happen to move to a new place too.

Go join a hobby club of some sort. Even if you're introverted. A structured "social" activity makes it super easy, approachable and everyone (in my experience) is welcoming.

Meetup.com is a pretty good place to start. Even the generic social groups are fun too. Try your local library and rec center too for get togethers near you. Or if you do have a decent friend circle already, do the leg work to coordinate something. Doing a structured social activity helps a lot. Even everyone bringing a random bottle of whiskey and watching a movie while you all try different whiskeys is better than being home alone.

Having a real social network you meetup with, makes it real easy to cut back on the addiction of social media.

[woodrowbarlow]

in my experience (4 years without "friend"-based social media), becoming disconnected from friends is temporary. during the first year after quitting social media, you will have to work hard to maintain relationships; you will have to instigate social time with your friends through other channels. but after a while, it will start to work in your favor. when those same friends are setting up events on facebook, they'll start to remember that you can only be reached through other channels and they'll start reaching out to you even when they might not have thought to invite you via facebook. and when they want to have a conversation with somebody but don't feel like opening the facebook app, who will they reach out to? you.

my approach was to keep my facebook account, but strip it of everything except my name and a profile picture that says "i don't use fb, please text me". that way, people can still be reminded that i exist and they know i'm always a text message away.