As my husband said approvingly: ‘Well, that should save you a good couple of hours a day!’.
I took offense, but then I realised he was probably right. I’ve been getting sucked down that rabbit hole for minutes at a time, many times a day, ignoring my kids, reading and sharing stuff that feels really funny, important and serious but that doesn’t directly change my life for the better. I’ve had vague thoughts about ‘cutting down’ on Facebook for the last year or so, but then this happened, and it just seemed too creepy for me to want to stay.
Thing is, one of the main things I use (used!) Facebook for is as a pressure release valve – instead of losing my cool when one of my children puts toast in the toilet while the other sings off-key to the Beach Boys replacing every lyric with ‘MUM! MUM! MU-U-UM!’, I usually think ‘Ha. That’s going to be a funny status update later on,’ and get on with the cleanup. I seriously considered what the cost would be to my mental health if I didn’t continue to use Facebook for this purpose. Not enough to keep me there. Enough to finally get me to start this blog.
So, welcome! Look around – there’s not much to see at the moment. I plan to keep up a reasonably steady flow of rants endearing anecdotes about my domestic foibles, so things should look more interesting soon. I’m new at this, so lower your expectations a little. Little more. Teeeeeny bit more. OK, good. Let’s do this thing.
Mummy Spits the Dummy 
my bruv told me about your blog Julie. I like it! Glad too it’s in big print for older folks to read without glasses. Wishing you many many followers. cheers Wendy
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Thanks Wendy! Welcome to a work very much in progress – now I can legitimately claim to have ‘a few’ followers, since you are my third. 🙂
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Been thinking about quitting FB, too. Have started to slowly breakaway from posting, sharing and updating status. Reading about this, makes my resolve even stronger. Thank you!
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I’ve heard that if you refrain from ‘liking’ posts you get a much more balanced newsfeed (due to their fancy algorithms that decide what to show you). But yes, consider giving it the flick altogether! You’ll feel lighter 🙂
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Thanks for the tip. 🙂
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I quit Facebook about a month ago, and I have to say that I am noticeably happier. There are all kinds of articles about how Facebook makes us miserable, but you may not notice until it’s pointed out to you! Also, I was getting tired of the anger; in 2015, Facebook is a very angry place where people feel the need to write something back to every comment you make or article you post, especially in ways they definitely wouldn’t in real life.
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Welcome to the post-Facebook world! I have to say, I miss the convenience of Facebook in terms of organising/being aware of group events etc, but that’s about it. It’s amazing how people will say things on fb that they’d never say to your face, isn’t it? Even though they’ve got their own name and photo right there giving ownership! Plus there’s the whole culture of misogyny, with the double-standards about what ‘violates guidelines’ (Breastfeeding selfie? OFFENSIVE! Topless photo? AWESOME! Rape threats sent by private message? OKAY! Publishing screenshots of those messages? VIOLATES THE SENDER’S PRIVACY! Ugh). I don’t ever plan to go back.
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