I’ve decided to deactivate my Facebook account. The straw that broke the camel’s back was this article in the New York Times which suggested Facebook isn’t taking its privacy problems seriously, and is in fact actively working to dig dirt on its opponents instead of changing its business model.
I want to see how difficult life is without it.
I’ve been feeling uncomfortable keeping my account for a while now, but whenever I thought about the stuff I use Facebook for it keep me there. For example, my book club is a Facebook group so I’ve had to ask them to text me whenever they organise a new meeting.
Even though I’ve deactivated my account I’m still deeply enmeshed in their ecosystem. I’m still on Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp, and I’m sure Facebook’s ad system is still following me around the web (despite my best efforts).
I’m glad I’ve done this and I hope I won’t be back.
Howdy stranger 
I did this about 18 months ago with little ill effect. I don’t miss anything except a few contacts with old friends from years ago who live on the other side of the world.
The main downside was that it affected my web traffic, visits to my site dropped by around three to five percent.
For a while I got passive aggressive emails from Facebook asking me to come back… “we’ve changed’ that kind of nonsense. If anything the company is worse.
There is one other drawback, sometimes you get sent a link to a Facebook page and you need to reactivate your account if you want to see it. So far nothing has tempted me.
At the time I wasn’t aware that Facebook is quite a depressing place. You may find your mood is more positive without it.
LikeLiked by 1 person