Facebook is one of the most addictive social media sites out there, sure. It helps us stay in touch with family, far-away friends and people we went to high school with who never left our hometowns. Yet there are plenty of studies that show using Facebook makes us less happy, less productive, and less satisfied with our lives in general. There are so many perks to quitting this social media giant, but if you’re hesitating for any reason, here are ten things that will convince you to shut it down immediately.
- You’ll no longer measure self-worth in likes. The number of “thumbs up” you got on your latest status update should not dictate the level of your self-esteem.
- You can finally get stuff done. We all know Facebook is a huge time waster, and even the most up-to-date productivity apps can’t keep us off of it. The solution? Shut it down, immediately.
- You can be happy with what you have and where you are in life. The number of graduation, engagement and pregnancy announcements – not to mention job offers, wedding invitations, over-sharing rants and everything else passing through your newsfeed at any given time is a recipe for disaster. Get off Facebook and focus on you and yours. Do what you need to do to be happy in life, not what you see everyone else doing.
- You’ll curb your urge to over-share. Before social media, private business used to stay just that: private. Now, we tell all to those who really have no business knowing what’s going on in our lives. Hopefully quitting Facebook will leave you with little desire to rant or spill personal details to people not involved in your struggles.
- You’re no longer a victim of third party advertising. Once you understand that Facebook is literally selling your information to advertising and marketing agencies, you may find that you don’t really want to use it after all.
- You won’t be bombarded by irrelevant posts and game requests ever again. Do you really need to see videos of cats making ridiculous faces as they ride through tunnels in their owner’s car? Or endless notifications that your friend “needs a life!” in Candy Crush? No, no you really don’t.
- You won’t be afraid of your boss finding out about that wild party last Friday night. Everyone talks about all the social media mistakes that can get you in trouble on the job; well that’s not an issue if you have nowhere to make those mistakes in the first place.
- You can finally stop stalking your ex. How are you ever going to get over that jerk if you’re constantly checking up on his Facebook profile? Get off of it and get over him!
- You’ll be much less stressed. The arguments that get started in the Facebook comments are the literal definition of “losing faith in humanity.” Wouldn’t life be so much easier if you just didn’t have to deal with that?
- You’ll know your true friends. Everyone always says that not having a Facebook is the death of your social life. Well I’m a firm believer in knowing that the people who really want to talk to you will find a way to get in touch, whether you’re on Facebook or not.