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Why I Took a Break From Facebook

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Why I Took a Break From Facebook

Facebook collects personal information of anyone who creates a profile on their website. They provide options to add your favorite movies, musicians, restaurants, and products to your profile page. Moreover, they have been doing this for more than a decade. Simply stated, Facebook knows more about you than you yourself do.

You may not see anything wrong with this. But think deeply about it. What would someone do by keeping track of your hobbies and the places you visit? The answer is quite simple. They sell you unnecessary stuff that you may not need. For instance, just because you support a certain sports team doesn’t mean you need to buy all their merchandise. But Facebook bugs you with cleverly placed ads every time you login.

How popular is Facebook?

Statistic: Number of Facebook users in the United States from 2017 to 2023 (in millions) | Statista
Find more statistics at Statista

Have a good look at these numbers from Statista. In 2023, the number of Facebook users in the United States is predicted to reach a staggering 223.2 million. Currently, in 2019, it is 221 million.  

Facebook has reached every corner of the world. Moreover, to increase its popularity in poverty-stricken nations in Africa, they have also started to provide free access to Internet services.

How it negatively affected my life

As I got more acclimated to Facebook, I started to post every significant and insignificant event of my life on my profile’s timeline. I didn’t even check whether it was adding any value to my life or not. Like a sheep, I just followed the masses. I can’t see how Facebook can help a person live a better life.

In fact, it creates mental health problems like anxiety, inferiority complex and internet addition. Over time, these seemingly minor problems can lead to depression and melancholy. I only became aware of these problems by taking a break from Facebook. Otherwise, I was lost deep into the rabbit hole of social media marketing and infomercials.   

Data theft

Facebook has been stealing your personal data in numerous clever ways. It all begins when you create your account and accept all their term and conditions without giving a second thought. This way, they take your legal permission to store your data even if you delete your account.

Moreover, they also track the activities that you perform online. They use browser cookies to store your information in their own database. Facebook keeps your browsing information like your date, time, URL and your IP address. All this information is either sold to e-commerce companies or stored in their database to understand your buying behavior even better.

Taking a break from Facebook turned out to a great decision. Here how it changed my life.

New and Better relationships

Why I Took a Break From Facebook

Let’s be honest with ourselves. Most online friendships are shallow and untrustworthy. How can you trust someone you haven’t seen in person. By taking a break from Facebook, I had ample space in life for real and authentic people that I met at a bar or in other social events.   

I also started going out a lot as I felt the need to socialize and connect. Especially, meet someone I have things in common with. Earlier, it was very easy for me to skip going out on weekends and stay home texting with an online friend or binge-watching the latest TV series.  

More time for hobbies

I replaced Facebook with new interesting hobbies that I had always wanted to try but never had the time to. Quitting Facebook allowed me to be free and explore places. I only captured moments that I knew were worth keeping.

I also quit playing Facebook games like Criminal Case and Candy Crush Saga. Such games are highly addictive and can eat up your precious time.  

More privacy

Why I Took a Break From Facebook

As I stopped posting every detail of my life on Facebook, I felt more safe and secure. Also, by turning the privacy settings to private I was able to keep my friends list and images protected from scammers.

It is a great thing to let your near and dear ones know about new happenings in your life. So, If I want to share something I either call them or text them privately. This saves a ton of time.

Clear thinking

Taking a break from Facebook also cleared the brain fog I used to experience. As the unnecessary thoughts began to declutter I started to focus on my work and other important things in my life. So, Facebook also stops you from progressing in your professional life.

Furthermore, I felt less anxious after taking a break from Facebook

It has been an hour that you posted your new picture on Facebook that you took on a recent vacation and no one has liked it yet. What kind of thoughts run in your mind in that first hour of posting an image or a status?

Excessive Facebook usage gave me nothing but anxiety and fear. Also, I felt like I am missing out on something if I didn’t check my news feed once every couple of hours. This kept my mind busy and lead my mind to escapism. Since I took a break from Facebook, I feel more in control of my current and future life.

Don’t forget the fact that, Facebook was started as a social experiment but got commercialized later. It doesn’t make any sense to live your life knowing that you are a just a guinea pig for a –now–large organization like Facebook. So, take a break from Facebook and make the best of the one life that you have.

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