Social media is a wonderful thing, most of the time. If Facebook hadn’t existed, I wouldn’t be together with my girlfriend, for instance. So, yes, it may bring together people, but lately I found that my time spent on social media was becoming tedious, and I began wondering if it wasn’t all just a big waste of time. It’s easy to just keep scrolling through your timeline, keeping up with every Facebook friend, and laughing at memes. Quite a pointless activity, if you really think it through. I’m someone who’s very prone to procrastinating, and after reading “Eat That Frog!” by Brian Tracy I quit some of my bad habits, but Facebook and social media in general were something I still needed to work on. Which is exactly what I’ve been trying to do for the last couple of weeks now, and with some result to boot! 🙂 So here’s a step-by-step guide from yours truly to massively reduce your Facebook screen time, or quit altogether!
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Announce that you’re leaving/absent
The first thing I did on Facebook was announce my absence on the platform, and my reasons for doing so. That way there was no turning back, because if I were to post any further messages, people would probably call me out on it. So actually announcing it like I did was my way to ensure I would keep my word. Facebook is a huge time sink, if you allow it to be. Since I do run a few Facebook pages, I still need my personal account, so I’m not quitting altogether, but I am changing the amount of time spent on it to a bare minimum, especially on my personal account.
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Remove the Facebook app from your phone
One of the best decisions I made in a long time. Whenever I felt “bored” I would grab my phone and absently scroll through my timeline on Facebook, just to see what was “new”. Turned out there wasn’t much new at all. Quite a few people are still being whiny bitches on their walls, and all of the “news” I get from Facebook is sketchy at best. I had already removed the Messenger app, because I really dislike it, but removing the Facebook app altogether forced me to spend my time on my phone differently. In reality this means I don’t check my phone as often as I did before. A great win!
Do it and your journey to the Dark Side will be complete! We have cookies!
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Only log in once a day at the most
Last Sunday was my first day without bothering to check Facebook and it was a wonderful, relaxing day! The thing is, the less amount of time you spend on something, the less important it will become over time. Facebook is among one of those things I gave way too many fucks about, when I shouldn’t have. Sure, it has helped me reach an audience for my books, but it’s not the end all and be all platform to boost your book sales. I still have my author page there, and I automatically share my Instagram posts on my Facebook pages. So there really is not much reason for me to be on Facebook anymore, other than just to monitor how my posts are doing there. But that’s not something that requires me to be on the platform 24/7. Once a day is more than enough.
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Clean up that friend list while you’re at it
Over the years that I’ve been on Facebook I’ve collected so many friends who, in all honesty, are people I don’t really know that well in real life, or even know at all. Another way to spend less time on Facebook is to clean up your friend list. Less clutter means less scrolling! If you’re reluctant to remove someone, but you don’t feel particularly inclined to see that person’s posts, just head over to their wall and unfollow them. It’s a nicer way to stop seeing those people’s posts. 😉
Don’t feel ashamed to remove people you barely know!
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Out of sight, out of mind
Once you’ve completed all of these steps, you’ll find that you’ll start thinking less and less about Facebook. There’s more to life than a social media platform. I’m currently focusing on Instagram as my main social media platform, but the time I spend there is considerably less than what I’d typically spend on Facebook. The nice thing about Instagram is that you’ll get a notification when you’ve seen all updates and if you keep the amount of accounts you follow low, you won’t have to scroll as much either! A big difference compared to Facebook!
I hope this article has been useful to you! Are you struggling with Facebook too? I’d suggest you try this step by step guide and see if you can make a meaningful change to your life as well!
Have a nice day!
-Jeffrey
Categories: Columns
JeffreyDebris.Com 
Jeffrey, I so identify with the waste of precious time Facebook takes from us. I learned from your advice above. 1. I hesitate to say I am leaving but rather just scale back as I have. 2. I never had a FB app & don’t even have an iPhone! 3. I have always looked at FB only once a day. But I have tried to scale back from an hour to a half hour a day. 4. When someone clogs up my news feed I already use your technique of unfriending them. Sometimes I tell them what I am doing to “unclog” my news feed of their posts & later after many weeks try to “Friend” them again. They cooperate & “Friend” me back. If all fails, I do the process again. 5. I find that the less I use FB & interact less, the less activity I have to address on FB. –More time for more important things! My compliments to be the only person I know talking about trying to scale back your FB life. I am sure there are other people & those quitting FB. But you are articulating the problem & shedding some light upon it!!! Phil
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I’m glad you admit that you’re experiencing similar problems! Quitting altogether is quite hard, but last weekend I was with my family and hadn’t checked Facebook for three days. When I came online on my laptop I checked my notifications and reacted to some posts, but that was it. Maybe it took me half an hour or so. A big difference in time spent from what I usually did. I can now use that time more productively! -Jeffrey
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