Hellobee Boards

Deactivate your account would be the best way to cut off from FB. You can reactivate any time.

I deactivated when I was job hunting but couldn't stay away. So I created a new account and friended my close friends. That got old and I missed out on keeping in touch with friends so I reactivated my account.

I deactivated 2 days ago because an ad popped up to rate where I had just had dinner and I didn't even get on my phone the entire time I was out! Too Big Brother.

Also, I defriended an old girlfriend's husband and he re-requested me (and I accepted)! Awkward... even more so when I ran into him at the farmer's market and he didn't even say anything to me. Sorry, if you're not going to acknowledge my presence IRL, you gots to go.

I really want to deactivate! I did it a couple of years ago for around 3 months and honestly was fine. But I have such a hard time convincing myself to deactivate now that I have a lot of distant relatives that I keep up with on their and stuff like our church group meetings only get updates there. Ugh such a struggle!

You can also unfollow people, which means they just won't show up in your newsfeed. I've been doing a lot of that! And you can limit who can comment on pictures and comments.

I've been also thinking of taking the nuclear option though and quitting altogether. There are a few things I love, but so much that bugs me.

I deactivated back in April, and it's been great! I felt overwhelmed by all the sponsored ads, random links, and annoying updates.

I just post pics on Instagram, and I still keep up with my personal blog, which my mom reads. Sometimes I'll email her pics of the kids too since she's not on IG.

I have a difficult time understanding why anyone would do this, is it because you are friends with people you don't actually know in person, or because you just don't like the random ads?

I just use groups and block people. But if you deactivate, chances are most people on your FL won't even notice or care.

The final straw for me and facebook was when that's how I found out my sister was engaged. DONE. I sent a message to everyone I thought would actually care I was off FB and basically said "FB makes me crazy and I can't handle so how such personal information is treated so non-personally. If you've got something you want me to know rather than something you want me to find out, call me or email me". This was 5+ years ago and I haven't looked back. My online communication is much more personal now.

I rarely post anymore. I mostly use it (like others have mentioned) to stalk people.

But occasionally purging my friends list keeps me the most sane. For those I can't purge (family) I hide.

DH has something like 900 friends and I just don't get it. I don't care what that many people are up to...let alone want them all up in my business.

I've been on a defriending binge a couple of times in the past. Then when someone I went to high school with killed themselves recently, I regretted defriending all those people. I remembered they were originally there for a reason, even if I don't have a connection to them now, I did in the past. And I liked that facebook could reconnect us when such a tragedy occurred. I actually ending up re-friending a lot of the people I deleted and they accepted.

On another note, I found facebook too distracting while working on my dissertation, so I deactivated temporarily...but since I used it to stay in contact with local friends, I made another account and added just the people I message with in my city. Then I hid them all from my newsfeed so I wouldn't get distracted by their posts. I basically just used it for the PMs.

For your case, you could just make another account or delete the people you don't want to keep in touch with. Or hide them all from your newsfeed. It depends what your reasons are I guess.

@MsLipGloss: "Then people could go back to being people instead of some weird online version of themselves."

Yes to this!

I, too, deactivated my account over a year ago. I don't miss it one bit. I have other social outlets online. I didn't like the time-suck, or mindless brain-suck that FB was on my computer and iPhone.

I'd just deactivate! People will find other ways to contact you! Maybe you can do IG and only allow family members so you can share pics of LO still?

i keep it for business and mostly friend everyone (except for randoms in south america that tag me in weird posts). i need to update my feed though because i really don't care about most of the things in there.

I deleted mine completely at the beginning of the year thanks to too much drama for my liking.

I recently went back on but I'm not posting anything, and have very few friends. I really prefer IG.

@LulaBee: oh my god. I don't pay attention to the ads usually but that would trip me out too....no way. I keep the location services turned off on my phone but I'm sure it does no good

You know, I honestly resent the suggestion that those of us who enjoy facebook are some 'weird version' of ourselves. I've been on the internet since about 1989, and I've found the social internet to be utterly crucial to my life as a stay at home parent - I get as much or as little casual social interaction as I want, I get to share both the good and the bad about parenting. I get to use my brain and engage with my old academic community when I want to. I get to form new community around shared interests. I get to keep up with my family.

If you're not into facebook, then don't use it. But let's don't assume that everyone who uses it fits into some fake, artificial box.

@Mrs. Sketchbook: I'd just go on a defriend binge.

@JennyD: I found out my grandfather died via FB because my aunt couldn't wait for her siblings to tell their kids before posting about it. I woke up at 7:30 am and found out on the site that he passed overnight. I was (and still am) pretty upset with her.

@Mrs. Sketchbook: Good for you for knowing what makes you unhappy/depressed.

There is life after Facebook!