Later Facebook and Twitter:
Reasons to Delete Your Social Media Accounts
Over 40 percent of Facebook users have taken a break from using the site in the last year, and 26 percent have deleted the app from their smartphone. And Facebook is only one of several popular social media sites.
Why are so many people stepping back? Privacy is one of the most common reasons to delete social media but it’s far from the only one. Let’s look at some of the reasons why you should delete social media from your life.
Reclaim Your Time
Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook are designed to be addictive. The combination of the never-ending feeds, likes, and shares draw you in and makes you want more.
If you’ve ever stopped in for a quick check, only to realize you’ve spent an hour catching up on your feed, you know how it works. Even if you only spend a few minutes on it, how many times a day do you look at these sites?
Add that time up and think about all the more productive things you could be doing instead. Deleting social media will free up that time for other things.
Stop Obsessing About the News
Social media sites provide a constant stream of news along with people fighting about it. Twitter is particularly bad because you’ll often see posts from people you don’t follow.
Being bombarded with all this information can be overwhelming, especially if it’s bad news. It’s easy to feel like the world is collapsing around you when it probably isn’t. Getting away from the constant stream of updates will help you see that.
Reclaim Your Privacy
Social media sites have privacy settings that let you choose who can see your posts and other information. But those settings aren’t always easy to understand and if anything gets misconfigured, your profile could be out there for anyone to see.
If there’s anything on your profile that you wouldn’t want to be public, no matter how long ago it might have been, that’s a problem. Many employers do deep-dives on the social media profiles of job candidates. People from your past can “stalk” you on these sites. Scammers can find all kinds of useful information about you.
Not to mention that your information may be shared without your knowledge. Cambridge Analytica is one of the most widely-reported cases but there have been plenty of others.
Limit Their Ability to Track You Around the Internet
Another aspect of the privacy point is how these companies track you as you navigate around the internet. They use cookies and other technology to track you even when you’re not on their site, building a detailed profile about you and what you’re interested in.
It turns out they track people even if they don’t have an account, so getting rid of social media won’t solve this problem completely. But it will make a big difference in how much information they have about you.
Get a Better Night’s Sleep
There are a couple of ways that deleting all social media can help you get a better night’s sleep.
For one thing, checking social media at night can lead to difficulty getting to sleep. Smartphones and other screens give off blue light that tricks our brains into thinking it’s daytime. If you’re looking at these screens too close to bedtime, it can make it hard to get to sleep.
On a similar note, if you have your phone on your bedside table, it could be disrupting your sleep even if you don’t fully wake up. If you have notifications turned on, the screen probably lights up every time something comes in. If that’s happening throughout the night, it’s most likely affecting the quality of your sleep.
Stop Obsessing Over Likes and Shares
Likes and shares are the currency of social media. It’s easy to get addicted to seeing those numbers click up after you post something. And it’s even easier to feel the negative effects of not seeing them click up.
When you delete your social media accounts, you don’t need to worry about this anymore. Do things because you enjoy them, not because other people will “like” them.
One of the Biggest Reasons to Delete Social Media
One of the biggest advantages of getting off social media is that you can start enjoying the “real” world more. Instead of hunching over, staring at your smartphone when you have some spare time, you’ll start to notice things around you.
One of the first things you’ll notice is how many other people are doing the same thing. But you’ll also see the world in a new light. You might even meet someone face-to-face.
How to Delete Your Social Media Profiles
Each social media site has a bit different process for deleting your account. Facebook and Twitter, for example, have a slightly different take on how it works.
Facebook gives you two options. You can deactivate your account, which hides it from view but doesn’t delete any of your data. If you change your mind, you can reactivate it and pick up where you left off.
The second option is to delete your account. This is the “nuclear” option. Once you delete the account, everything is gone. If you change your mind, you’ll have to start over with a brand new account.
Twitter takes a different approach. If you want to delete your account, you deactivate it first. You have 30 days to change your mind and reactivate it, otherwise, it will be fully deleted at that point. You can see more about permanently deleting your Twitter account here.
Is Deleting Your Account the Answer?
If you’re thinking about deleting your social media accounts, nobody but you can decide if it’s the right thing to do. Even if these things aren’t your main concern, you might have your own reasons to delete social media.
Don’t make a rash decision that you can’t reverse but also don’t be afraid to remove yourself from these sites. If your friends want to connect with you, there are plenty of other options.
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