Yesterday, I did something that I have been meaning to do for quite some time. I pulled the plug on my Facebook account. No, I didn’t delete my account, and the Natural Family Today ‘page’ is still there. But I logged out, uninstalled the Facebook app from my phone, and said goodbye to my Facebook friends for a week long sabbatical.
Why a Week Off from Facebook?
For some of you reading this, a week may not seem like a very long time to give up Facebook. For others, you may sweat bullets just thinking about not being able to access your friends, Facebook messaging, and Facebook groups for a week.
I am a little embarrassed to admit that I was of the latter group. I have been saying, “I really need to take a break from Facebook” for months. It has been eating up way too much of my time. I have wasted too many moments checking and rechecking my feed, my wall, my groups, and my blog page for new replies and ‘likes’, as well as funny or interesting status updates, articles, and memes.
It’s not that I don’t think that Facebook is a valuable tool. It’s just that the tool had been consuming more and more of my time and my creativity.
Even though I knew that I needed a break from Facebook, I made many excuses. I told myself and others that I needed to be able to access my Facebook groups and pages. I am an admin for several groups and pages, plus I use Facebook to connect with my readers on my blog page. “I would give up Facebook if I didn’t have so many people counting on me,” I said.
But is it really true? Sure, it would be nice to feel that I am missed, but everyone would be just fine without me on Facebook for a week. Most of them would hardly realize I was gone. Maybe some of them would even text me or email me. As for my fellow bloggers, I would miss exchanging a few shares, but maybe a break from Facebook would force me to actually visit and read the blogs I like the most and start commenting more.
The Benefits of Giving Up Facebook
Whether you decide to give up Facebook for a day, a week, a month, or more, is totally up to you. I have a feeling that once you get a taste of the freedom of going ‘no Facebook’, you will want more. However long you decide to leave the social network, you will reap some of the benefits.
Here are just a few:
- More time for reading books (remember books?!)
- More time with family
- More time to cook real food
- More time for gardening
- Less jelousy of others and more thankfulness
- A less cluttered mind
- More creativity
- More exercise
- A cleaner house
- More time for devotion, meditation, and prayer
We all have our own reasons for wanting to take a ‘time out’. The things that are important to you may be a bit different from my list, but the goal is to make more room for the things that matter.
If nothing else, some time away from Facebook will allow you to clarify and think about what does matter to you. Perhaps you do not know, and you need to clear your mind to find out.
What To Do Instead of Facebook
If you currently fill up a lot of your social time (and other time) with Facebook, you may be wondering how you will connect with your friends and what you will do in place of the time you would normally be on Facebook.
Here are just a few ways that you can connect instead:
- Email – ask your friend to email you if they want to chat or if they have something important to tell you. The bonus to this is that emails are sometimes longer and more thought out than Facebook messages, and email is easier to file and sort through.
- Text or Call – Texting or calling generally requires a bit more etiquette than a Facebook message, but it can also be a bit more personal. Challenge yourself to pick up the phone and call a good friend or family member. Sometimes it’s just good to hear someone’s voice.
- Write a Letter of Send a Card – Letters and cards, remember those? There is something special about receiving a card or a letter in the mail these days. It says to the sender that you cared enough to take the time to write something out and put a stamp on it just for them.
- Blog Comments – Instead of relying on your Facebook feed to tell you which blog posts and article to read, seek out your favorite blogs and topics. Leave a comment and start a discussion on these blogs. Trust me, my fellow bloggers and I will appreciate it!
- Chatting in Person – Something happens when you are not bound to Facebook as your means of social connection. You actually begin to strike up conversations with family, neighbors, and complete strangers. Challenge yourself to get to know someone better, and maybe exchange emails so you can get together more often.
Whatever you choose to do, I think you will find that it’s nice to connect with people outside of Facebook and that you won’t be lost without it.
Tell Me: Have you ever taken a break from Facebook? If not, what has held you back?
Vanessa integrates EMDR, sandtray, and attachment-focused approaches in her work and is completing credentials toward Registered Play Therapist and EMDRIA certification. With a background as a certified birth doula and a passion for making healing accessible, she writes and teaches on the intersection of trauma, neurodevelopment, and story-based therapy.
At first it was difficult: maintaining an off-limits approach to FaceBook, which I try to practice every other week or so. I must agree that FB limits it’s users in creativity and spending quality time living life in general.. now, to me, FB is merely a tool which allows me to stay in contact with close friends and family. I also encourage any FB user to periodically go through their contact list and DELETE with impunity…too many people just use FB to collect friends…it’s a sad substitute for the real thing.
Oh, Facebok! About a year ago, I was completely fed up with this darn social network that I decided to cut it out of my life for a week. What is more, I decided not to use my computer for the whole week, unless I really needed it. What happened? I lived! 🙂 And had an enjoyable week. I read a few editions of a social sciences newspaper and I also read some other books! Not to mention the walks in the nearby park and the gardening. But the week flew by quick and I was back to my old habbits. Reading your article, I might actually give it another try in the near future.
That sounds wonderful! I am hoping to experience much the same this week, and may even extend my sabbatical even further, or at least cut back on my Facebook usage considerably.
i don’t really use facebook that much so i can take week off from my fb friends
I am not a great fan of Facebook but I still keep my account. That said I am addicted to another social network and literally feel sick if I cannot access it for a day. I visit that site first thing in the morning and last thing before I go to bed. It actually determines the mood of my day. I agree with all the points you have given as the benefits of walking away from Facebook for a week.
I know from experience that Facebook can become a pretty serious addiction, which is why breaks are so important. These are some great tips, the only one that I would add myself would be to give some attention to other social media sites while taking a break from Facebook in order to diversify and prevent a strong attachment to Facebook or any other one network.
Good tip Patrick. As a blogger, I do spend time on other social networks, though much less than I did on Facebook. I am still using a few of them, but still trying to keep my time on them to a minimum. I do the basic interactions on them and then go about my day. For me at least, other social networks just don’t suck me in like Facebook does.
I try to limit my time on Facebook and did a purge of friends about two years ago. I think it’s strange how people feel so hooked. I think that humans are naturally interested in others’ lives and this allows us to creep around with out looking creepy. I attempted to disconnect from Facebook earlier this summer but then I started my own business and Facebook is a must.
I recently read an article about Facebook and how what’s in the feed impacts our emotions. The fact that something as simple as a news article or status update on a social network could impact the outlook of my day is alarming! I am so guilty of checking and re-checking facebook. It’s worse now that I’m in so many groups and that my smart phone is constantly at my side. One thing that helps is going through and removing notifications from all the groups you’re in (unless it’s vital). That way you’ll be less tempted to check for updates throughout the day.
Wow, you are so right! When I really stop and think about it, it’s so true. Various news articles or comments would show up in my newsfeed and instantly irritate me. I am on day 3 of no Facebook and it has been great. I have had more time for housework, family time, and of course my blog. I plan on writing a post about all of the things I had extra time to do when I was not using Facebook. I hope you will come back in a week or so and read it!
I used to dislike Facebook, but I “had” to use it so that “other people could stay in touch with me”.
In my opinion, if people care enough about you, they can keep in touch without using FB. What happened to phone, email, normal mail? I have a bunch of “friends” on my account, but I rarely talk to any of them.
It’s nice for keeping up to date on public news like though, like posts by companies and random world news pages, so I guess it’s not that bad after all.
Ahh Facebook… I’m completely addicted. I have thought about doing this a lot but I just don’t think I could make it a whole week. Maybe a day or two. Maybe in the near future I’ll give it a try. I agree with a lot of the points you made. It’s kind of crazy to think how much a site can almost brainwash someone:/
It is very true that what we see posted on our Facebook feed can impact our outlook on life. There is so much negativity. Some people seem to go on Facebook only to complain. It can really have an impact on your entire day. It is so much better to fill your day with positive thoughts so that you can attract more abundance to your life.
I’m so glad you shared this at Motivation Monday. As a blogger I struggle with spending time on Facebook. I use it for networking and learning stuff about blogging, but it can be a time suck if I’m not careful.
I take regular breaks from Facebook, particularly when I need more time for creativity, or when I want to read a book or catch up on some stuff in the house. I was getting really frustrated with my inability to stop reading other people’s ‘news’ that I knew I had to reclaim that time for myself and my own work.
A huge negative with Facebook, for me anyway, is not only the time that can fritter away when you’re reading everyone’s news, status etc, and looking at pictures, it’s also the question mark over what you’re reading. Do people really tell the absolute truth about themselves and their lives on Facebook, or is just a lot of showing off and competition to be popular?
Nowadays, I look to Facebook for interesting posts and articles on health issues, fitness, books, and music. The rest I take with a huge pinch of salt and a heavy dose of “whatever” thrown in!
Facebook certainly has its uses, but I can’t allow it to use me for more than half an hour every other day now.
I take breaks from Facebook quite frequently, for a number of reasons, it allows me to get away from any drama or distractions so I have more time to focus on the things that really matter, it gives me time to focus on work and keeps me from slacking off. So I definitely see the benefits of taking breaks from it, but it makes me question why I used it to begin with, as I’m much better off during breaks than I am when I’m scrolling through my news feed reading up on pointless garble. I’ve been much happier since I’ve reached this epiphany.
I went 2 weeks without Facebook, but eventually i started back using the site when my dad was in a car accident and it only took seconds to inform my family and church members-Facebook really helped in that crisis. That being said, the 2 weeks that i stopped using FB i took up knitting something i never thought i could do. Knitting is so much fun and now when i finish a knitting project i post it to Facebook for my family and friends to see. I also love the games on Facebook my sister and i love to compete against each other, and of course i am winning in one of the games. There are some things that i do not like about Facebook like certain pictures that some of my friends post or the language they use-i have blocked a lot of friends because of pictures i would not want my kids to see and harsh language and racial slurs. But, all in all, i do love FB.
For interesting things to read I would recommend an app called Zite. It is wonderful and the more you use it and like stuff you like the better it gets. Zite and the article saving app Pocket have become two of the most important apps on my phone. There is literally not a day goes by that there are not 10 – 20 articles I want to read on Zite. And if I don’t have time to read them or want to save them for later I just save them to Pocket and read them later.
Facebook is a take it or leave it app for me. i check it every few days and use it mostly to keep in contact with those friends of mine I live far away from more so than those I live close to.
Thanks for the tip about the App. I will definitely check it out!
Thanks for the tip on the app, it looks pretty cool and now I’m stuck! 🙂
I think this may be really difficult for many individuals. I am a member of facebook, but I never spend time there. I only use my account to connect and circulate the articles I write and publlish.I belong to several social media sites, but I do not spend time on any of them, except to place links of the articles I write and publish.
I only use my facebook account to connect up and publish my work. I hardly ever spend any time there. So, this is not a problem for me. I am connected to several social media sites, but they are all the same to me, just tools. I use them for work only. However, I do appreciate your article and know that many will benefit from it.
I am on day two of my social media holiday and I’m surprised at how easy it is to stay away. I have to admit that I’m totally addicted to it, but by deactivating my account the urge to login and waste time just isn’t there. My main reason for doing it was to remove myself from a situation I was finding uncomfortable with someone. But, since I hit the deactivation button I have realised that the real issue was facebook and how it allows you to see things you’d really rather not. Since I started my holiday I have felt more relaxed and my brain feels less cluttered. I don’t know how long I’ll stay away, but at the moment I’m enjoying the peace from it. I have also decided not to tweet, although that wasn’t an issue for me. It’s great going old-Skool and dropping off the social media planet for a while.
I am currently taking time off from Facebook due to the drama of others and overall ridiculousness that is on my feed. It has been 5 days but I already feel better and have spent more time with my mom and pets that I would normally be spending on Facebook. I have watched more news programs and caught up on news related things online. I’m not sure when I’ll go back. My birthday is next month and its a big one! 30! So for selfish reasons I will reactivate but I’m staying off until at least the end of the month. Everyone should unplug every once in a while. I know I’m missing things but if its super important I’ll find out eventually.
This is a fabulous idea and one I think I’m going to take you up on. Facebook can be a very useful tool until certain opinions are shared and then drama ensues. Last time I heard we had Freedom of Speech but for some folks, they just don’t agree. Woooooo! So yes indeed this is a most fabulous idea! Thank you for sharing it with us!
I’ve taken much longer vacations from Facebook — sometimes nearly a year off — and found it to be very helpful. As freelance writer, I was told that social media posting would boost my career, but instead, I found that it drained much of the time I needed to write and pitch articles. And none of my social media postings brought me as much “audience” or readership as publishing columns and articles in newspapers. So, I got busy and did just that. Staying off Facebook, ironically, also improved my real-life social life. It made me arrange get-togethers and lunch or dinner dates with people in my community.
As for Facebook in particular, I found that in order to do it successfully, you have to reciprocate by “liking” a lot of other posts, writing comments on other pages, and so on. This takes (or wastes) a tremendous amount of time if you’re trying to work from home! But if you don’t pay attention to other people’s posts, you come off as self-absored or “all about me.” Who has time for all that?
As an aside, not long ago I wrote a feature about the problems with spending time on Facebook. Research shows that people who use it too much — several times a day — are much lonelier than people who don’t use it much, if at all. I found that interesting.
I’ve been wanting to take a break from FB for a long time but just couldn’t do it because of addiction. I mainly use FB to keep in touch with my relatives who live in a 3rd world country. FB was the cheapest/fastest way to keep tabs on them to make sure everyone’s okay. Big mistake! Ever since I opened FB, all my “needy” relatives have used FB to basically keep in touch with me so they can ask me for money. While there are legitimate financial needs for a few of them, some just take for granted that I’m in America with a full time job so they think I’m rich and have an endless supply of money. Every time I see a new message in my inbox, my stomach starts to hurt and I would get extremely anxious. So you see, FB has even affected my health (mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically). Today, I finally deactivated my account. I know I will get tempted to login just because it’s been my routine. Like one of the people who posted here…FB is the first one I look at as soon as I wake up and the last think before I go to bed. I no longer want to be a slave to it so I need your prayers to help me resist the temptation to look at FB again. I don’t know how long I can last but I’d like to take at least a month or longer break. Thanks for “listening”
Ive taken about a week off of FB, and havent used IG since October. I just (re)joined twitter only for sharing my blog posts. I think im going to limit the fb use to a couple of days a week & only during certain times of the day. Not first thing in the morning nor right before bed. I think im gonna limit my twitter usage as well