I Quit Facebook: and you should too

i quit there i said it and i'm happy i did if 2020 had a theme in my life it was change   nothing i knew going into 2020 could  have prepared me for what happened it's hard to imagine this is how 2020 started  to staff the morgue hospitals brought in temp   workers and people start panic buying in  stores we begin with breaking news about   the corona virus this is truly an unprecedented  situation and while everything around me was   changing and what felt like breaking down  there was one thing that stayed the same   social media and more specifically facebook  it had all my friends and family on it safely   at a distance some figuratively some  literally and so i went to it a lot but as 2020 wrapped up i realized i needed to quit  we've all been through a lot this year in 2020   we've all grown and changed in ways that we had  no idea we would and as 2020 comes to an end it is   the year that i quit what i'm talking about here  is that 2021 is the year that i quit things that   are bad for me and i do more of the things that  are good for me and so i decided to make facebook   my first victim here are some stats about facebook  that just flat out scare me did you know that 7 in   10 us adults have facebook it has 1.79 billion  yes with a b users daily it makes up 45 of all   social media visits per month more than 4 billion  video views happen per day 74 of facebook users   check it daily i'm one of them and they spend on  average 38 minutes a day scrolling their feeds   that's 13 870 minutes or 231 hours a year  that's crazy just to put that into perspective   that's the equivalent of earning six six college  credits in terms of hours just on facebook alone then we all heard about the social  dilemma from netflix were the thing   being sold the classic saying is if you're not  paying for the product then you are the product   and that scares me and it scares me  because it's true i mean there are   tick tocks being made where girlfriends sneak  up to their partner's phones and they repeat   words like engagement or wedding this is all  done in an attempt to target their partner's   phones with ads that relate to weddings  and engagement rings and things like that   ultimately to shape their habits to making  them think about these things and it works   a d more diamonds a d more diamonds engagement  rings engagement rings custom engagement   rings surprises for my girlfriend romantic  weekends with my girlfriend poppies puppies   puppies puppies puppies puppies puppies i mean  there's no secret behind it that's how facebook   makes its money it leverages the data it has on  its users like you and me to its advertisers and   i hate it i mean if you're anything like me you  flip flop back and forth between deleting your   facebook not deleting your facebook deleting your  facebook i mean there are a lot of good reasons   to keep facebook it's got my photo friends from  childhood family members friends i've made around   the world and it also has the marketplace  i didn't want to lose any of those things so what marked the beginning of the end  for me with facebook is when i began   watching and participating in debates it  was the combination of one not feeling   like i had control over how much i would use  facebook with the fact that what i thought was   a straightforward conversation just devolved  into horrendous scenarios so on January 1st i   deleted facebook okay so actually i realized that  i could download all my content from facebook and   that took about a day to figure out so on January  2nd i officially deleted my facebook account   so now what   well i decided to take my extra 38 minutes and  put them towards going to the gym and getting   back into shape we have a gym in the basement  of our building which is thankfully still open i've also had a goal for a  long time of reading more and   the pandemic was a great reason to sit at home  and do nothing but read so i bought a kobo   okay honestly i bought this back in  June or July but i promptly set it   aside because my angry cousin called me a name  on facebook and i had to straighten that out no way not my proudest moment but because i  do have to kobo i decided to swap my nightly   facebook scrolling to the moon with reading   and it's gone really well so far this month i  finished three books the power of consistency   it didn't start with you and i'm i'm about  15 of the way through a book on ted talks   you're set up on a tripod hands-free don't judge  me i'm now in week two the middle of week two with   no facebook and it's honestly been an out of sight  out of mind experience for myself i think i was   disenfranchised with the whole platform i don't  miss facebook but i do miss the marketplace and   that has generally been my takeaway so far even  until the end of the month i don't miss facebook   i think that's partly due to the fact that it's  still way too easy to get lost on social media i   mean instead of scrolling on facebook forever and  ever i find myself spending way too much time on   tick tock and i try to justify to myself like it's  okay rob it's because you're watching photoshop   tutorials or editing tips but i mean that doesn't  explain why i've been watching this guy with the   world's deepest voice for the past 30 minutes  trying to figure out if his voice is real or not there's no way that's real okay just for the  record 100 his voice is real didn't believe it at   first either what i've learned about facebook for  me and social media is that they've really become   a habit and one good technique to get  over habits is to replace a bad one   with a new one James clear the author of atomic  habits has a really great article on this and   that's been really important for me in order for  a new habit to take place i have to remove the   obstacles that get in the way of me doing that  habit there's nothing worse than there being a   barrier between me and doing the new habit it's  the number one way for me to fumble and falter   and so now as i sit here and i film this at  the end of my one month trial without facebook   i want to leave you with three takeaways i've  had this month first takeaway is that social   media has become a habit in the best case and an  addiction in the worst case so treat them as such   two i actually don't miss facebook and i don't  know why i waited to get rid of it i would   encourage everyone to try it out for at least a  month maybe you'll quit forever and maybe you'll   go back at it but at least you'll know what it's  like to live without it and three find an easy   and enjoyable habit and practice to substitute  for the habit you were trying to replace thank you for watching and i hope that in  2021 you're you also feel inspired to quit   things that are bad for you and start  doing things that are better for you   other than that have a good night have a good  day have a good week and i'll see you next month and lastly today's five seconds of gratitude   is for being able to change the  things that i choose to in 2021

Channel: rob derman

Views: 11,264

Rating: 4.8869567 out of 5

Keywords: quit facebook 2021, leaving facebook, i quit facebook, quit facebook, quit facebook for a month, quitting facebook, why i quit facebook, leave facebook, how to quit facebook, i hate facebook, quit facebook benefits, why i deleted facebook, stop using facebook, no facebook, Why I left facebook, how to leave facebook, Robderman, why i left facebook, why you should delete facebook, facebook is dying, deleting facebook, is facebook dying, Social media quit, Delete facebook

Id: dvRc0l5r68A

Length: 8min 54sec (534 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 31 2021