Why I Quit Facebook

In this video, I’ll talk about why I quit Facebook. Please subscribe and leave comments below!

Hi, everyone! This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and today I'm going to talk about why I quit Facebook.

I joined Facebook back in the early days and was immediately delighted by the ability to instantly contact people from different eras of my life. I never posted much, but I was a promiscuous friend acceptor -- accepting requests even from people I couldn't place immediately. My rationale was that my memory is terrible, so I probably knew them, right? I soon amassed hundreds of friends -- each from different eras of my life. Which brought me to my first problem:

Diversified Audience - I believe strongly in tailoring my message to my audience. This might sound inauthentic, but I believe that it is easier to build understanding by first establishing common ground. For me, there were too many disparate groups among my Facebook friends. I grew up in a rural, conservative area -- and as a result many of my high school friends hold very different views from mine. These are good people, whom I had no interest in offending. And I certainly didn't want to start any arguments on Facebook -- those never seem to end well. I could sit down with any of these folks and have a wonderful, long conversation, but Facebook has a short, one-sided, opinionated format. And I didn't feel comfortable posting about things that were meaningful to me -- lest my views offend others. My next issue was . . .

Branding - what do people post about on Facebook? My favorite posts are like tiny stand-up routines -- some piece of inanity about daily life (like my friend who posted about the UPS package with the wrong address that kept turning up for 6 days straight in increasing battered shape on her doorstep). And some folks do post about sad, life wrenching moments, but those are usually reserved for big painful events like the passing of a loved one or a scary diagnosis. But most of what you get on Facebook is a branded, glossy version of who we want to be. The presentation. The fancy wrapper. The awesome things your kids are doing. The fantastic vacation. The beautifully lit and carefully orchestrated family photo. I don't love this in real life relationships. Obviously, I love when things are going well for my friends -- I'm not a monster! But with Facebook, many times you don't get the backstory that your kid struck out 5 consecutive times at bat before hitting that home run or that despite the gorgeous family photo, 3 of the 15 people in it aren't on speaking terms. There is no texture. And worse, I started seeing people arranging life to look better on Facebook. Don't even get me started on Promposals, but my favorite example is when I reluctantly participated in a Warrior Dash -- which is a muddy, climbing 3 mile event capped off with a trudge through a waist deep mud pit. I watched as people flung themselves in this mud pit to ensure maximum mud coverage -- not because of the challenge or the actual fun of it, but for the photo op afterwards. For someone who has actually been cave spelunking complete with nasty mud creatures and bats flying overhead, this felt extremely contrived. And finally,

Is everyone hanging out without me? I'm quoting Mindy Kaling here, but FOMO is a massive weakness of mine. I don't love it about myself, but i can't pretend it's not there. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has gone onto Facebook, seen a fun picture of all of your friends hanging out and been like, "Why didn't I get invited to that? Where is everyone hanging out without me?" I had one too many dark spirals of craziness zooming in on photos to glean location clues and nonchalantly asking friends afterwards -- so, what did you do this weekend? Ugh. I hate that about myself. It's not even rational sometimes. In my mind, it's one thing to hear about events in passing -- it's quite another to be subjected to other people's social feeds constantly. It was nurturing a dark, vulnerable part of myself that I really would rather starve to death.

So, I quit Facebook. I still have a personal account, but I never check it and somehow have stopped receiving email notifications as well. I no longer have dark spirals of FB craziness and I don't have other people's glossy, branded lives to compare my own messy life to. I rely on actual human conversations and prefer the richness and texture of those most of the time. I don't lose scads of time down the Facebook rabbit hole and I don't have to witness the mean-spiritedness that some choose to uncloak on social media. . .

[TheVCRTimeMachine]

I quit Facebook and now I am addicted to YouTube videos of people explaining why they quiet Facebook.

[BrighamYen]

I hate Fakebook. Deleting it was the best thing I've done all year.

[Wubby]

I watch a LOT of "Why I Quit Facebook" videos. This and one other are the only two I find remarkably well done and aptly spoken.

[stemikger]

Wow! This was one of the best why I quit FB videos I have watched! I loved your honesty about FOMO and one of the many reasons why I quit. After I quit, I found myself enjoying things more. Now when I go on vacation, I don't care about the photo-op I have to take to put it on my FB wall. I no longer care about how many likes I am going to get and I no longer care about trying to impress people I never really liked all that much anyway (from high school). I feel like a free man. lol. Now, grant it I'm a sensitive guy, my wife and daughter have none of these problems on FB, but I did and now that I'm off it, I am so much happier.

[cindybaker]

Fakebook....I quit recently and feel better!

[dblhlr]

I never joined....why? never felt the need to be that fucking social....wanna see my food? wanna see it 4 hours after I ate it?

[johnrider]

I quit Facebook in March and have never looked back,

[AzizLondonUK]

Social media is not social. It is just typing on a screen.

[lilnitenurse]

Like you, I joined Facebook when it first started so I could connect with distant relatives and long-lost friends. Then over the years, things got real ugly! People I didn't even KNOW, much less never friended, would dis me over stuff I posted on my FRIENDS' posts. Plus I'd get junk ads and weird posts wanting me to "type amen or you're heartless"! The last straw came when they disabled my account for standing up to a bully (yep, a total stranger!)! I finally quit it, and Fakebook can just go pleasure itself!!

[tafadzwamunezvenyu]

I love your frank assessment. I feel the same way and it's nice to know there are others who are not feeling what facebook has become. I also like the idea of having the account and not checking it often versus going cold turkey

[Satan]

I quit Facebook over a month ago gotta say I agree with someone in the comment section Facebook is being controlled by liberals, sjws and 3rd wave feminists its like you post your own political opinions they block or report you. Reasons why I left Facebook is because it got too political, people kept crying because they're single and people posting their relationship issues. Now over a month without Facebook I feel better and happier no more waking up to people crying about our President, crying because they're single or their relationship issues now I feel my life is more productive and positive.

[QuittingYoutube]

I deleted my account just last year after having it since 2008.
Edit:I actually quit Facebook very early on but instead of deleting my account I had it deactivated just in case I decide to come back but ended up completely forgetting about the platform intel 3 years ago.

[thinkingjohn]

I left over Climate Change, I had a FB account just groups only no friends however every group no matter what topic someone would mention CC then it all turned nasty

[dapc]

~I left facebook 2 years ago~before I did after being on it for 9 years~I said to myself~what is this proving and why am I here?~no answer came back so I just did it cold turkey after many attempts of trying that was my salvation in those two questions~I am a writer and a poet and give wisdom from what I hear through ZEN* meditations and had a great following being there~but seems I was shedding another layer of ego by leaving and I feel a lot better that it is now gone outta my life~to me anything that is like that is suffering because of an attachment to it and desire to continously be there~that is a Great Mayahana in the wheel of suffering~as the ego loves to keep you its slave in suffering as well~

[aquilhall]

Im ready to quit facebook because it seems their censorship is out of control. It seems that they will block or disable your account for any reason they arbitrarily decide and don't really give any clear communication as to why. I don't use facebook to store any important information and i refuse to allow them access to my phone contacts. I stopped using facebook to log into 3rd party applications because when you do, they can restrict your ability to use those applications if and when they decide to block or disable your account.

[Danymity]

Great reality check on the deceitfulness of FB.

[Jcandy]

I understand how you feel. I still have Facebook. But i love it for all the food videos. And i am in a craft group. It's really turning into groups now. I just share food stuff and my crafts