It’s been a month since I uninstalled Facebook, the most popular social media app on the internet and believe me, I am completely sane.
For those of you who have already started jumping to conclusions, I would like to clarify that I didn’t commit digital suicide.
The most addictive website – Facebook is a place where people love spending time at. You can meet and connect with your friends, colleagues, or anyone; tag them for stuff you did together, share relationship status, post random stuff, advertise your business, and do all sorts of things. There is just so much. Think about it, you can learn about this new girl you recently developed an infatuation with, see who your ex is currently dating, find out how many of your friends are still single, which friend gifted a car to his mum or dad, who lived, who died, who reincarnated.
Yes, it’s the most interesting thing that has happened to the Internet after Google and YouTube. Interestingly, it is also third most popular website to these two, in the same order.
But,
It recently started bugging me a lot!
Apart from all those notificational pokes that urge you to open your wall every nanosecond, the desire to open the app when you’ve posted something was pathetically high.
And, that was not just enough! I would meaninglessly scroll through my feed and watch cute animal videos, often celebrate my 3 or 5 year friendversary with a person I have not met in the last 10 years, comment on the photos of friends whose latest passion will be trekking and rock-climbing. One thing will lead to another and before I would know it, 30 minutes of my life will be gone.
Deeply disturbed by the loss, my brain started thinking of ways to stop this.
I couldn’t delete it the first time
The thought of deleting the app did came to my mind, but I couldn’t muster up the courage. So, I started taking baby steps.
First, I worked on its proximity. The app used to be on the first tab of my mobile screen and was only a fingertip away. I moved it to the last one, which was five screen slides away. Facebook’s real estate was now sold to Twitter.
Result: Nothing changed. Facebook was still getting more me-visits.
Next, I created a folder in the last tab and saved the app inside it. That would increase the amount of effort I needed to put in.
Result: slightly effective. But, still didn’t work.
And, it happened that fateful morning
It was 7:55 a.m. I was in the middle of my workout. The first set of 50 crunches was over and I was simply lying, regaining my strength for the second set. This barely takes 10 minutes. To utilize that ten minutes, I unlocked my mobile and logged in.
The next thing I remember is getting a call from my mom. She usually calls when I am en route to the office at 9 everyday. In other words, it didn’t even occur to me that I wasted a whole hour doing nothing on Facebook.
Enough was enough! I have had it. I went to playstore and uninstalled the app right away!
Can i uninstall Facebook and live peacefully?
That would be saying like, “can I leave my job and be happy about it! Well, that is one way of saying quitting FB wouldn’t be easy.
Facebook is like a synergy of all the apps where you spend most of your time. You can find videos here like YouTube, play with photos like Instagram, find latest news like Twitter, even play Games and do stuff like Snapchat. They sure know how to keep someone hooked. In other words, Facebook does not has an alternative. This will make you miss Facebook even more.
Also, you won’t be able to view notifications instantly.
But, here are some good things that will happen for the first time:
- You won’t start your morning with mindless scrolling
- Shorter loo times
- You will realize you can actually find, like, and comment real people
- Unlike your friends or colleagues, you will be the one enjoying most in the group during weekend getaways
- Amount of time you spend looking at your mobile screen will come down to 50%
- You won’t have to be the one to check-in whenever you are out watching a movie
- Guaranteed savings on net-usage bills
- You will spend more time on other meaningful apps
Also, there are technical benefits to it:
Frees a lot of memory – Facebook uses almost 2% of memory space in a smartphone. And, that’s not the regular updates or the data that keeps getting added; it’s just the app. Go figure!
Phone won’t run out of charge soon – A smartphone without Facebook is like America without Trump. Both will last longer if the latter was removed.
Should you uninstall Facebook too?
Don’t, if you are not a voracious Facebooker!
Don’t, if you have a perfectly balanced life!
Don’t, if you still call to wish “happy birthday” to your loved ones on their birthdays!
Otherwise, click here and take a decision.