Why not delete Facebook?

Facebook was hip … once. It was new … once. It brought people together … once. Now it’s a big personal contact list of people you once knew. It’s an ebay with its Marketplace, its a WhatsApp with its Messenger, a Skype with its video call, a Reddit with its groups, an Instagram with its posts and many more popular apps. Though Facebook invented/integrated a lot of the basic features as one of the first it feels dated today and - the reason of this article - useless.

The origins of the idea to quit Facebook after 10+ years came to me with the introduction of two basic principles: Minimalism and Deep Focus.

Minimalism is in short terms “Having what you love and need and not more”. You can have a room full of books if they make you happy and fulfilled but do you really need this dress only for “You never know” or “Once a year”? It is a way of declutter from “Too Much” with the saying “What you own will eventually own you”.

Deep focus describes the state of mind where we focus on solving one task at the time successfully without constant distractions. The book Getting Things Done explained a marvelous concept of being rigorously distracted by open loops. Open loops are the dentist appointments you postpone because the thought of going to the dentist doesn’t sound pleasant so you push it again and again on your calendar until you get basically stressed out by the thought of having it on your agenda. Such open loops can also be distractions like owning and having to check Facebook multiple times a day. In fact every new addition like an investment, flatrate, account etc. can potentially create an open loop and fight for your attention.

Combining both principles you essentially create the question “Why do we want (to do) this?” Thinking about the reason why I am still a member of the Facebook club I essentially dug up the feeling of missing out. The thought of losing all the connections I collected over the years and not being inspired by the newest events since “you never know” sounded wasteful. But the reality is I was mainly chatting with a handful of people and after over 10 years there were very rare occasions of finding someone or be found over Facebook. If you need a contact list to remind you of a person - maybe this person isn’t worth the reminder. Also the event suggestions weren't much of a help since I rarely went.

My last post after 10+ years owning an account was a simple observation:

“deleting my account - cause why not”

And since than I couldn't find a single reason why I shouldn't have done it. Today it feels more like a relationship which was going far too long. It wasn’t harmful - stagnating in pleasant chit chat - but it was also not inspiring in any important sense. Of course this is not a crusade against Facebook it is more a crusade for being aware of your daily routines. As with Facebook I did the same calculations with WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter, Dropbox and all the apps I have on my computer and phone. The result was I deleted the unused apps, the ones I didn't want on my phone or moved them away from my home screen and switched off their notifications.

Organizing your life in 2019 means as much declutter as it means planning. So let us start with getting rid of things we don't really need even if it sounds uncomfortable at first. Like with most things in life we move on quite fast afterwards not even looking back.

PS. LinkedIn ended up on my second screen without any notifications.