About a month ago I took the Facebook app off of my phone. For a week prior I had removed it from my home screen and then thought "Why not go all the way?"
I felt like I was wasting too much time on Facebook. And I don't think mindlessly scrolling through a newsfeed of memes and political rants was beneficial for the winter blues I was experiencing in January.
A couple days later I ended up trying to download the app again because I had posted some photos from my computer and I wanted to check my notifications. My dinosaur of a smartphone couldn't open the Facebook app so I had to download "Facebook Lite" instead. I deleted the app the next morning and continued with my Facebook-less smartphone life.
We've had some stressful experiences since May of last year and I think by January I had become worn down by it all. The emotional burden coupled with the dreary winter weather (Grand Rapids got about 11% of possible sunshine that month) was too much for me to handle. And then the barrage of social media coming from my smartphone seemed to pile mental noise on top of my fragile emotions. I was sad, discouraged, upset, and lonely.
Then one day, something suddenly changed. I decided to get up do something about it. I took Facebook off of my phone, made a cup of tea, and rage cleaned the house while the kids napped. I was in a very amped up and cranky mood when Noah got home from work that day and proclaimed to him that I was tired of having crap and half-finished projects all over the house. Shortly after we finally got back to work on revamping the laundry room.
So, did taking Facebook off of my phone actually cause anything else to change?
I started to feel happier. I'm not sure why, or if it was solely due to no longer having Facebook at my fingertips, but my disposition definitely changed.
A couple weeks after removing the app I started getting notifications about friends posting photos and updating their statuses. Then the notifications turned into e-mails. I had to go into my Facebook settings to turn off the e-mails. I guess Facebook missed me.
After a few weeks, I started unfollowing certain people and pages on Facebook. With looking at Facebook only four-ish times a week now, I didn't want my newsfeed full of posts I wasn't interested in. If I was following a blog or business on both Facebook and Instagram, I most likely unfollowed it on Facebook. If a Facebook friend typically shares or posts mostly memes or non-personal posts, then I most likely unfollowed them too. Sorry. I'd rather see what you're actually up to than a page full of memes.
I started to read more. This is also due to researching home ground flour and baking with real whole grain flour, but I also have more time for reading since I've been spending less time on my phone. I checked out about eight different books about baking bread. I also started reading a book by Julie Child called "My Life In France" and I'm enjoying it very much.
I've been drinking more tea. Rather than whipping out my phone when I'm bored or tired, I'll go to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. The few minutes it takes to boil water, pick out a tea to drink, and then steep the tea are enough of a "reset" to clear my mind and help me decide what to do next.
I've also been coloring more. Noah bought me a really lovely coloring book quite a while ago that I have worked on sporadically over the years. It's low key enough to do in the evening when I'm tired but interesting enough to flex the creative parts of my brain.
Over the past several weeks I have worked on my blog more than I ever have since giving birth to Adeline and Oliver. I am hoping to carve out more time for writing and sharing blog posts on a variety of subjects. Taking time to create things rather than passively consume online content seems to improve my mental wellbeing.
I have always said that I like Facebook because it helps me stay in touch with family and friends, and I still hold this opinion. But I think for me personally, Facebook is better in smaller, more infrequent doses rather than having it so easily accessible through my smartphone. It is one less thing vying for my attention and I would rather put my mental energy towards something more important, more "real" than social media.
I do still have Instagram on my phone. Instagram is set up in such a way that you can only post to the platform from a mobile device, you can't post from their desktop website. But I have found myself scrolling and posting to Instagram less since deleting Facebook from my phone. Instagram does tend to be a source of creative inspiration for me, so I doubt I will ever delete it from my phone.
So, Facebook, it's been fun, but let's be "just friends". I think that would be better for the both of us.
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| Some beautiful flowers at our little library from this past September. |
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