Absolutely. Just removing yourself from theses opinion bubbles that exist in social media where people genuinely are convinced they are right and everyone else is wrong can have a dramatic effect.
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I never had a FB account. Telling people I din’t have friends anyway. 
Never missed it.
However a year ago I went on Twitter. Mostly to discuss local (political) issues. Although it’s a (good) source of getting informed on things that don’t make it to the newspaper, I’m not sure if I’m totally happy with my decision. Especially in these strange times I more and more have a feeling that all this “information” makes me very unhappy and is causing me stress.
Remember, information is not knowledge nor wisdom. While information is needed to create knowledge, mere information in and of itself is not.
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Which one, Mitch? I’m sorry if I goofed. I love to write!
Beck, BF was such a lowlife! Ha!
Thanks. I’m aware of that. Still, ignorance is bliss (sometimes).
I have a tendency to get angry, worried or concerned (but mostly angry) about things I take notice of.
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I would venture to hazard that that is true of all of us. That is a good reason why we should be careful to curate the information we consume. That is not to say that we don’t stay in formed on both the good and the bad happening around us, and there is plenty of both. The problem is that media and social media by the nature of their business models will focus and sensationalize the negative. There is one cable network that if I had the stomach and time (I have neither) I would watch for a week for several hours per day and count the number of times they use the word “crisis.“ Even the tagline, “breaking news” is intended to create a sense of urgency and crisis.
Due to our own selections and algorithms, we find ourselves in silos and echo chambers. And most on social media are scrolling and hyperlinking. As a consequence, they are not being thoughtful in the consumption of information so that they can reply to a post or story in an informed and helpful manner. Rather, they merely react. There is a big distinction between responding to something and reacting to it. That is why I have eliminated most social media and cable news from my life. I rely instead on journals, books, the local news, and careful selected diverse information sources. I am better informed and far happier as a result.
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I akin facebook to Hotel California, once you check in you really can’t check out. I’d love to delete and move away from it. I used to think people were smarter than they were, until I read their posts on Facebook.
I would love to move away from Facebook. About twice I year I prune my friends lists and “likes.” If I also “unfollow” those whose posts I find vapid. It is mainly for keeping in touch with family. Mostly I post stuff that steers clear of politics and I try to post humorous stuff.
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I’m with you on this. I only have 8 “friends” and they are all immediate family members. That’s it. And I never post anything publicly nor comment on comments by others—actually, I almost never read them. 
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I believe you can check out. Actually, I think I’ll be checking out of social media altogether (I’m still on Twitter) by the end of the year. Maybe that’ll hurt my sales. Maybe not. Anyway, I can’t stand that circus anymore and I don’t see what little value it adds to my life compared to the magnitude of problems it brings (including my ability to focus). So it becomes a simple calculation, really.
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Well in my view we are moving fast into a situation where being on FB could harm your sales. It seems counter intuitive I know.
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May the gods of the Internet hear you! I hope we’re getting into that territory and we move away from the imperative of social media.
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From this morning’s issue of Dave Verwer’s iOS Dev Weekly:
Every day is a great day to remove (or advocate for the removal of) the Facebook SDK from your apps, but today is an especially… great… day… 
How many times will Facebook get away with causing half the apps in the App Store to crash on startup?
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I am trying to use Facebook more mindfully, and check it less frequently.
I don’t expect to ever delete my account, but eventually I may just walk away.
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I wonder how Facebook use relates to age? I mean, Facebook has existed for less than a third of my life so it doesn’t take much to remember “life before Facebook” and… guess what… it was fine. It’s been fine in the seven years since I quit, too.
I wonder whether all those who “just use it to keep up with…” could find another way. Like for neighbourhood groups, maybe go to a local community centre periodically. I think part of the reason Facebook is so pervasive is that it has become the de facto option. Going to the community centre probably wouldn’t achieve much because no-one else would be there because they’re buried in Facebook because “that’s what everyone does.”
Except… we don’t.
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As Yogi Berra was claimed to have said. “FB nobody goes there anymore it is too crowded”. It really isn’t cool there anymore though and that is the tipping point. There are other and better ways.
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People staying out of social media I give kudos to. However as someone who has a small business, social media is crucial. Unfortunately you have to be where the eyeballs are if your running a business.
That is certainly true, which is why my organization has a strong SM presence. But, I’d argue there can be a separation between business use and personal use. While a business page on FB for example can attract its own cesspool swimmers, I’ve found that it is the personal SM accounts that that have the worse stench and is not a healthy place to spend one’s time.
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I wonder about this. I don’t have the answer but I genuinely wonder if we haven’t let ourselves be convinced that social media was necessary. I’m a writer, leaving social media could cut me from my readership, but I will develop other ways to stay in touch and promote myself.
We’ll see how well this works though 
I think its certainly a wish but not reality. Perhaps it depends on your business. I am a photographer and so many people interact with me personally rather than my business page. It also doesn’t help that FB for example has put a limit on the exposure pages get unless you run an ad. When pages first came out they got tons of engagement, these days not so much.