Quit Facebook

Facebook is wonderful, but it can be addicting. If you find that you are spending too much time on Facebook, you may want to consider quitting it. This article will give you some tips on how to quit it.

10 Second Summary

1. Figure out how much time you spend on Facebook.
2. Think about other things you can do in that time.
3. Turn off any Facebook notifications and save any important contacts.
4. Quit for a short time before quitting for good. Post an announcement when you do.
5. Leave Facebook, block it, and find other hobbies.

Steps

Reflect on Your Facebook Use

  1. Track your usage for a day (or a week). Keep tabs of what you actually do on Facebook. After every session, ask yourself, "What did I just accomplish by checking Facebook?" Odds are, you're probably just logging in to see if you've been poked, check for updates, write a new note, add a song, and other mindless tasks you do to waste time — even if you logged in for a set purpose, like accepting a friend request.
    • Recording your Facebook activities can help you realize how much time you actually spend getting nothing constructive done.
    • Mark the time when you log in and when you log out or download an app for your browser that will track how much time you spend on various sites.
  2. Think about the things you can do with this time instead. If you find yourself spending, say, 10 hours a week on Facebook, make a list of all the other things you could accomplish in that time. Seeing this number of hours written down can make you feel the harsh reality that you're wasting your life away on Facebook. Here are some things you could do instead:
  3. Try to remember your life without Facebook. If you only joined Facebook a year or two ago, or if you got through all of high school and college before Facebook was even introduced, try to think about all of the things you did before Facebook. Maybe you spent less time in front of the computer in general and more time outside. Make a list of all of the positive aspects of your life without Facebook to motivate yourself. Here are some ways that your Facebook-free life could have been like:
    • Maybe you spent less time stalking your exes, caring what your photos look like, or comparing yourself to all of the "friends" you haven't seen in five years.
    • Maybe you spent more time playing soccer or tennis with your friends.
    • Maybe you spent more time actually interacting with people in person instead of just checking up on them online.
    • Writing down all of the positive things in your life before Facebook will make you see that you don't really need Facebook to be happy. In fact, if you have an addiction, it's likely that it's making you depressed.
  4. Think of how you can get the benefits of Facebook without it. Write down all of the things that Facebook has done for you, and the things that you'll miss the most when you delete your account. Then, think of a way that you can still get these benefits without feeling the soul-crushing feeling of being chained to your Facebook account. Here are some ways to do it:
    • Some people say that they're only on Facebook to remember their friends' birthdays. Well, if that's one of your reasons for being on it, mark a calendar up with all of the birthdays of your actual friends so you don't forget them, or just write them down on a piece of paper you hang up on your desk. You could also create a birthday chart that is organized by month.
    • Some people are on Facebook because they love sharing photos. Instead of using Facebook, you can share your photos by starting an Instagram account and only connecting with the friends and family members that you'd really like to share with.
    • Some people are on Facebook because they want to know what their friends are up to. Instead of being on Facebook to check up on your five closest far-flung Facebook friends, make a goal of calling them or emailing them once a week or once a month to see what they've been up to.
    • Some people go on Facebook to have the feeling of a social interaction when they're feeling lonely at work, or when they're stuck at home or too busy to hang out with people. Instead of interacting with people online, grab lunch with a coworker at lunch, or get your work done earlier so you can go home and hang out with your friends.
    • Some people like Facebook because they like to see the articles that people are posting and commenting on. Try checking a popular news source instead of Facebook to gain more knowledge and still be in the loop. Some of the sites that people post from the most are The Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, Jezebel, Slate, The New York Times, Gawker, College Humor, and The Onion. Pick a new -- and more informative -- website to read instead of Facebook.

Take Action

  1. Turn off all of your email and phone Facebook notifications. Part of the reason you're on Facebook is because every time you check your phone or email, you get a notification that someone posted a photo or a comment about you, or that it's the birthday of your third cousin's second best friend. This kind of message inevitably causes you to click on Facebook for "the purpose" of seeing whatever has been posted, but it leads you to inevitably waste your time browsing through random photos.
    • Turning off the notifications is the first step to making Facebook less appealing.
    • To do this, click on the lock, press "See More Settings", find the Email tab, press Edit, and select "Only notifications about your account, security and privacy".
  2. Save your important contacts. Before you delete Facebook, you should keep the contact information of the people you actually want to stay in touch with if you don't have them already. Save them to your email account so that you can continue to stay in touch with the people you really care about. If your only interaction with someone was through sending Facebook messages, then chances are that it wasn't a real friend anyway.
  3. Try to quit for a short period of time. Just like smoking, quitting cold turkey will be the hardest approach. Instead, try quitting Facebook for a day or two, and then work your way up to quitting it for a week. During that time, make a list of all of the things you accomplished because you didn't waste your time on Facebook. Set more goals to meet for your next week without Facebook and try to meet them.
    • Once you've been able to go two or three weeks without Facebook, you should work your way up to a month. After that, it may be time to quit for good.
    • If you're staying on Facebook because you're worried you'll miss important updates from friends or that you won't get invited to parties, have a close friend in your inner circle keep you in the loop about what's going on with your friends without talking about how great Facebook is.
    • Alternately, you can tell your friends to stop talking about what people are doing on Facebook completely instead. Remind yourself that if your "friends" had something really important to tell you, they would just call you or tell you in person -- not post it on Facebook.
  4. Make an announcement that you're quitting for good. Write a simple post telling all of your friends that you're quitting Facebook for a while. This will give them a nice heads up if they're used to connecting with you on Facebook, and it will also make you more likely to keep your promise. Once you announce that you're really quitting Facebook, you'll be more likely to stick to your promise.
    • If you're really serious, tell your friends to not tease you for not being on Facebook, and to stop telling you that you need to give in and get back on Facebook.
  5. Leave Facebook. Once you've announced that you left Facebook, it's time to take measures to actually leave it, and to tie up any loose online threads that you've left behind. Here are some things that you may need to do:
    • There are two options here: you can either deactivate your account, which lets you take a breather without losing any information, or permanently delete your Facebook account, which is the real deal.
    • If you've started any groups, transfer admin rights to someone you trust.
    • Send an email to your Facebook contacts explaining your decision to leave. Include your current contact information so they can get in touch with you without Facebook.
    • If you plan to permanently delete, clear every last bit of information from your profile. Don't forget to remove your photos!
  6. Block Facebook from your computer (optional). You can turn to this step in a moment of desperation if you're worried you won't be able to control your impulse to go on Facebook -- even after you deleted your account. Check out How to How to Block Websites on Firefox or How to Block a Website on Internet Explorer for assistance.
    • You can use free "self-control" programs, available for download online, to temporarily disable your access to popular social media websites.
    • Parental control programs can also help; various ones are available and allow you to set limits on who can access Facebook (or other sites) and for how long.
  7. Find alternatives to using Facebook. A lot of people get addicted to Facebook because they check it when there's nothing else to do, like in between classes or during a lunch break; then the curiosity spills over into time that should be spent doing other things, like studying or working. Find something to do during those little windows of time in order to prevent relapse. Here are some great ways to fill your time instead of being on Facebook:
    • Stay away from the computer as much as you can. For many of us, getting in front of a monitor is a default activity. Try to find other things to do that'll keep you away from the computer and therefore, Facebook. Keep a notebook. Meditate. Finger knit.
    • Learn to do impressive tricks with a tech deck.
    • Make a goal of reading one book a week instead of spending that time on Facebook.
    • Call your friends on the phone or do something fun with them in-person. Anything that you can do anywhere and for short periods of time is good.

Tips

  • Stop using Facebook Mobile to update your status or do things like that. Uninstall it from your phone if you have a downloaded version (i.e. iPhone, Palm etc.)
  • If you are looking for a way to actively decrease the frequency of your Facebook visits, change your password to a long string of numbers. Write this down on a piece of paper, and place it somewhere that is annoying to reach or out of reach. This way, whenever you want to log on, you will need to dig out the paper for your password. This is to deter you from logging on by making it a chore. If you start to remember the numbers, just repeat the process.
  • If you can’t resist reactivating a deactivated account, try this before you deactivate: open up notepad and type in some random text (lskdjfd). Login to Facebook and change your password. Copy the text that you just typed in notepad in the password fields and change your password. Deactivate your account and clear your clipboard history.
  • Once you've discovered your capacity for being addicted to Facebook, you should probably avoid other social networking sites like MySpace.
  • Stop clinging yourself to the computers or phones just locking you out from the societies. Try to resist it!
  • Keep a list of your Facebook schedule (if you have one) and your non-Facebook goals with you and in front of you at all times.
  • As with any task that involves discipline, it always helps to do it with a friend. One option is to have a trusted family member or friend do this for you.
  • To keep updated about your Facebook friends' status updates, subscribe to your friends' status updates RSS feed in your email program or other RSS reader that you already use. For example, you can get this feed in MS Outlook 2007 where you can read what your friends are up to along with your email. This eliminates one major reason people regularly log in to Facebook.
  • Try to think for your health, the computer is useful (Yeah! Right ,just to surf on some mindless sites) on the other hand, looking at your screen, typing, sitting for hours, clicking by just 1 or 2 fingers. These are the causes of sicknesses and problems to your bodies.

Warnings

  • You might think that your friends will hate you for this. (However, you are making your life much better).

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