If you've deactivated your Facebook profile....

I deactivated years ago. I haven't deleted my account.

I was forced into a 2+ year deactivation. The first month was the absolute worst for me. After that it got easier. I missed out on some people because that was their only form of communication, but mostly it was a bit freeing. The minute I was able to get back on, I did, Ive been back almost a year I think and Im seriously considering shutting it back down. Ive limited my time on it and that seems to be working. Unfortunately my MIL discovered it last year and now uses it a lot to send me pictures and stuff so we will see if I actually shut it down permanently or not. I may just go into long dormant periods lol.

I replaced my Facebook addiction on my phone but using it for Kindle. Everytime I wanted to get on Facebook, I would just open the kindle app instead. I get a lot more reading done that way

I enjoy my FB experience too much to allow anyone else to spoil it. Nine times out of ten, the political and other crap is something someone is sharing, so I just block it, never see it again, and carry on. If it's someone babbling on, I just hide it and again, carry on with my bad self. I've never felt the need to deactivate.

I deactivated and then started a new acct under a very random name and do not follow anyone local.....Love FB now!!!

I deactivated and deleted my Fb several years ago but then got peer pressured back when a family member moved overseas because she got worried that she'd be left out of the loop... yeah right. Not having Fb was difficult for group/event planning and it frustrated my friends because I wouldn't know what was going on unless they sent me a special email.

But I am very particular about my Fb. I hide myself from searches so I only get the occasional friend-of-friend request. I politely refuse some of the requests I get. I unfriend with an "it's not you it's me". I also UNFOLLOW ("actually it's you") which preserves the veneer of Fb friendship but doesn't make me have to see the person in my feed every day. Because sometimes I like people but don't like how they use Fb.

But yes, you're right. The problem is seeing the "so and so liked this" "your friend's friend changed their profile picture" "your friend commented on this article (but we're not going to make it easier for you to see what they said". Drives me MAD! And the narrower my Fb group, the more Fb thinks I might want to see randos so that I can meet new people, or something. I dealt with the friend-of-friend problem by unfollowing the people who make public posts that show up in my feed. It helps a little bit. You won't see that rando in your feed again, but other ones will pop up. Unfollowing the specific friends who get too political might help.

What I wish is that Fb had what Tumblr has, which is a blacklist feature... so you can blacklist whichever posts you don't want to see. Very good for avoiding things that make you feel ill, whatever they may be.
Oh, wait a minute... I just went and search and there IS a blacklist extension for Chrome that makes the posts with the offending words smaller or collapses them so you can't read them or something like that. It sounds imperfect, but it might be worth a try! Might even save a friendship. The Chrome extension is here

If you don't want to see the crap from fellow "friends" all you have to do is unfollow them. Super easy and they have no clue you don't see their posts anymore. There is too much info and photo sharing re: my kids and all of us sports parents for me to give up facebook. I'd never know what was going on if I did (ie: group set up recently for travel team practice/game info.).

Now you can hide a lot more from people's feed. 

I have an acquaintance that posts a crap ton of stuff--inspirational, the "if you don't repost this, you're publicly denying Jesus" and Esther the Pig. Multiple pictures a day of Esther the Pig. She's not a cute little pot bellied pig or like Babe. She's a HOG. 

I went to just hide this person's posts--I'd had enough. I was given the option to hide the Esther the Pig. Yippie. Some of the stuff this person posts is funny and interesting. I'd hide the "repost this or you're a ...." but they're too random. I really don't think Jesus cares whether I repost this on Facebook--I think He'd rather me spend my time talking to my friends and being there for them.

I have a lot of people that I wouldn't get to talk to if it weren't for Facebook, so I'm not going to give it up. I do love that I can hide so many things. 

I do take breaks from Facebook from time to time for a few days. Especially this election season. The stuff people post...

When someone posts something, you can hover over the little gear in the right corner and it gives you options to hide that person, but it also gives you the ability to hide whoever they had liked or shared from, and I have been doing that regularly. That way I see more of what my FB friends are actually posting and less of what they are simply clicking "like" or "share" on.

For me Facebook is a great way to not only keep in touch with family members I already had a close relationship with, but to get to know ones I previously didn't know as well. And I really appreciate that. Plus, it's been just so valuable to me in terms of my genealogy work. For those 2 reasons I can't see myself stepping away from it, despite the things that do annoy me about it.

But if you feel you are not getting enough positives from it, and want to delete, it's not like it's a forever decision. If someday you change your mind you can always create a new profile.

i have three people i know who took a break... two have not come back and one is back, in spades, posting her little heart out.

one friend who left it said she couldn't handle seeing other people's perfect lives, the gourmet meals they make, which their kids actually appear to eat so she chose to step away.

ironically, another friend was always posting about her amazing life, gorgeous home, happy marriage and perfect children... left FB because her husband was having an affair. when she confronted him he hacked her FB account and posted "i am a slut and am f___king my coworker john smith". best defence is a good offence i suppose. she took a break, is now divorced and she is the one posting her little heart out again.

This works wonders! I hide all games and a lot of annoying pages which get shared frequently.

I think I deleted mine. A couple years ago I decided Facebook was way too much of a time suck for me, and it wasn't productive at all.  I never got into connecting with people thru Facebook; if I want to keep in touch with my sisters, etc. I'll just e-mail them-- or call them.  And I don't have any interest in reconnecting with high school classmates, long-lost cousins, or the like.  I don't really understand posting your activities down to the level of 'I just went and got a coffee' or similar.

I did re-join Facebook about a year ago, though; it was the only way I could get information from some scrapbook-related group for a business event (convention, retreat, etc.) and Facebook was the ONLY way I could connect with them.   Honestly, it annoys me when a Facebook page or group is the ONLY place you can get info about something business-related. Not everyone is a member of Facebook, or wants to be. 

I don't even log in to Facebook on a regular basis, though, and I haven't posted in literally months. I'll probably end up deleting my profile again-- I've been over Facebook as a 'thing' for years.



ETA: I don't have a circle of friends who use Facebook for event planning, so that very much influences my feeling that for me, it's totally unnecessary.

When I read about people who have to leave Facebook because they can't compare with everyone's perfect life, I wonder how they make it through life watching tv, seeing advertising, etc. Most seem to say they instead use Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest. Seems like Instagram and Pinterest would be debilitating for those people.

I haven't ever tried to delete or deactivate FB though a few of my friends have and they seem to be quite happy with the decision. I tend to use the "hide posts like this" feature a good amount. I am going to check out that FB Purity link and see what that is about. Sounds interesting. I fully expect to be hiding LOTS of things as the election gets closer and closer!!