How to break free from Facebook

Do you check on Facebook every other minute, even at work or at school? Do you think about going on Facebook when you’re not on Facebook? Do you spend every waking moment on Facebook? Are you on Facebook right now, updating your status to say

TRYING TO BREAK FREE FROM FACEBOOK. FAILING.?

If you nodded along (and switched tabs to check on Facebook), then you must be addicted.

Just the fact that you’re reading this article right now must mean you’ve come to accept the truth. Now you want to break free from that site’s comforting clutches that probably cost you precious time writing proposals, making presentations, or studying for that exam that you need to pass to graduate.

But it’s just…so… hard.

Admitting you’re an addict is the first step to recovery, so kudos to you for taking that step. Now what?

1. Consider what you’re doing on Facebook.

Are you making genuine connections with new people? Unearthing childhood memories? Starting up your affiliate marketing business by making a lot of connections with people and companies?

Or are you just checking out pictures of cats in funny poses? Answering some quiz to see what kind of ironing board you are? Maybe you’re only playing one of the many farm simulators.

Now record how much time you’re spending on these frivolous things. Don’t be surprised to see hours upon hours of wasted time.

2. Consider what you can be doing when you’re not on Facebook.

When was the last time you actually engaged another person in a face-to-face conversation? Get out there and meet real people.

You can also go back to old hobbies you’ve left behind like reading a book (a physical copy!), writing short stories, or biking. Speaking of biking, you can also be hitting the gym and getting fit.

There are plenty of activities you can get yourself lost in for a couple of hours a day that are infinitely more productive than browsing your friends’ drunk photo albums or updating your status to say how bored you are.

3. Now set some time to visit Facebook ONLY FOR THE IMPORTANT THINGS.

Checking up on your family and friends can be one of those things. Refreshing your newsfeed just to see the latest image macros and memes isn’t. And by “set some time,” I mean an actual schedule when you can check, and not every five minutes or when you feel like it.

Quitting cold turkey is incredibly hard, and you don’t have to completely sever your online ties in the first place. Just spend less time, and stick to your schedule.

If the temptation is rising to check Facebook, get off your computer. If you’ve got a smartphone, you probably have Facebook on it, too. Uninstall the app. Believe me when I tell you that you really don’t need to be checking for Facebook updates when you’re on the go, especially when you can just receive and send your own messages.

Inconveniencing yourself like that will remove the impulse of pulling out your phone to go on Facebook for no apparent reason.

4. Deactivating your account for a day can be a great help as well.

All you have to do for that is to go to your Account Settings, click on Security, and “Deactivate your account.” If you can stretch this out for a couple more days or even a week, then you should be well on your way to recovery.

5. If nothing works, the last resort would be to just quit Facebook for real by deleting your account.

Just go to the account deletion page here – https://www.facebook.com/help/delete_account and click on the button “Delete My Account.” You will not be able to reactivate your account, and everything you ever put in it will be deleted permanently.

I hope it doesn’t ever come to that ultimatum, as Facebook in itself can be a very useful tool. But if you believe it has controlled your life to the extent that you can’t make a single move without checking it, you do what you must to break free.

About the Author

Rod Tolentino is a writer and a content manager for Affilorama, one of the world’s largest affiliate marketing portals, which offers online training materials through its blog, free lessons, forums and affiliate marketing tools.