Life Between 0 and 1

Ever since I deleted my Facebook account, I’ve found that I look at my phone so much less than I used to.  I was never really into Facebook or social media that much, but I did find that I became a lurker.  Someone who read everyone else’s posts but rarely commented or posted anything on my own.  Deleting my account was a multi-step process that shouldn’t have been necessary, that’s a post in of itself.

The time I spent on Facebook, Twitter, etc. was an unknown to me until I finally got rid of them.  It would be the first thing I checked in the morning, thumbed through at random times through the day, spend at least a half hour at bedtime. It’s all time I won’t ever get back and it was time I could have been talking to my wife (but she’s on her phone too).  I’m hoping that not having my nose to the screen will prompt her to not do as much of that when I’m around and willing to talk, with my voice, in real life, no virtual keyboard required.

There are other benefits as well, such as my mobile phone.  I started this morning with 100% as is typical with a nightly charge, but at the end of the day, I still have 72% with moderate to heavy use.  I’ve deleted Facebook, Twitter, and Messenger from my phone.  Seeing the amount of data that Facebook alone used, it was #2 in my most used data list behind the Google store.  I listen to streaming music almost 6-8 hours a day and the data usage for those apps didn’t even break the top 5.  Social media and its “always on” applications are a battery vampire apparently.

I’m still using Twitter, but only for political posts and to follow my third party candiates.  I’d share my handle, but that would remove the anonomity I enjoy on this blog.  As I don’t have the app installed on my mobile, I am forced to read updates only when at a real computer, mostly at lunch or during boring bits in meetings when I’m not sharing my screen.  Social media is a drain on time, productivity, and mobile batteries.  If you’ve been playing with the idea of taking a break or deleting your account, I’d take the jump.  Facebook has a “deactivate” feature where you’re account is put into hibernation but not deleted.  It will give you a trial run to see if deleting is the right thing for you.  Stay tuned for my experience in deleting my Facebook account.