Deleting Facebook actually improved my life in one substantial way.

It got rid of all the ex-girlfriends and high school bullies that wanted to be my “friend”.

And when I awkwardly bump into old acquaintances, and they ask me to be Facebook friends, I just tell them, “I’m not on Facebook!”

Their reply is usually, “Good for you!”

And neither of us have to pretend to be friends when we’re actually not.

Another benefit of not having a Facebook account is that dinners with extended family are so much better.

I don’t know about any cousin’s conspiracy theory beliefs.

Neither do I know about interpersonal drama between aunts.

There is joy in obliviousness.

It’s great to think about the best of people instead of knowing about their worst.

When you delete your Facebook account, you truly discover how much of your day was just filled with noise and bullshit.

I mean, I think people who use Facebook already know.

But once you get rid of it, it’s shocking how different your day is once you no longer scroll through that meaningless claptrap.

Yes, there’s the occasional good thing on Facebook. But to be real, all the negativity and fluff doesn’t make up for the good.

No longer checking Facebook feels good.

Here’s another great thing about not having a Facebook account:

Nobody assumes they know anything about me.

If they want to catch up, they have to actually call or meet—hear my voice. Yes, that means a higher barrier to entry, but it means that people who are interested in me need to be invested in our relationship.

Funny how that works, right?

Occasionally, I get people who are absolutely insistent about connecting with me online.

So I say to them, “These are the means to get a hold of me.”

95% of people are completely fine with email.

And if people absolutely want to follow me on social media, I tell them about the Fediverse.

By the way, I’m completely convinced that 80% of all social networking can be done through email and calendaring.

Personal updates? Yep.

Photo sharing? Yep.

Events? Yep.

Email’s shortcoming is that it’s not so good for public-facing media. But that’s where ActivityPub picks up the slack.

If you use email, then you’re using the Internet technology with the greatest network effect on the planet.

Not even Meta can compete with email.

Better yet, just like the Fediverse, email is federated.

Anyone who says that social media won’t work if it’s decentralized and requires multiple servers is lying: they use email.

And email is why it was so easy for me to delete my Facebook account.