Why I Quit Facebook

1. Sam really doesn't like the idea of Facebook. He's under the belief that a lot of people on Facebook are doing some sinister stuff aka cheating on their husbands, rekindling old high school flames etc. He's kinda old school. He only just recently started texting and only after I received my iPhone and went on and on about how cool it is that you can get sports updates sent straight to it did he finally convert to his first ever smart phone. Although his old school mentality about facebook and texting doesn't hold much weight in my world (both our moms are on Facebook and my grandma texts me) it is still important for me to take his concerns into consideration.
2. I've spent sooo much money on stuff I don't really need. Or course there is also the flipside of that and there are a lot of coupons that companies put exclusively on their Facebook page but I always forget coupons when I go shopping and printing out coupons I will never use is just another wathor wasting money. Printer ink is expensive! As of today I have a pair of shoes I bought for Oliver that he can't wear until he's about 18 months old. A cloth diaper that needs new elastic and I can't sew. 6 fabric headbands I bought for Gwen that she hates and on and on. I am constantly getting updates of these incredible deals for stuff I DON'T NEED.
3. IT'S A MAJOR TIME SUCK!! Now that I do have a smart phone I found myself checking the damn thing constantly just because I can. Which is cool if you're a single person without major responsibilities. Not so cool if you're a wife and a mother of 3 who is constantly checking out. My kids were always saying, "look mommy", "watch this", etc... and my response was far too often "hold on", "in a minute", etc... Talk about major mommy guilt. What was so important on my phone that I needed to neglect my kids? Oh yeah, NOTHING. I cut down my friends list to the bare minimum thinking that would help and it didn't. It was becoming TOO easy to check out and that worried me. I am so blessed that I am able to stay home with our kids. My husband works hard so I can stay home and here I was wasting that precious time by ignoring them. All of them. For what? For whom? I am in no way insinuating that this is the way all or even most of the people I know of Facebook act. It's just me. I have a somewhat obsessive compulsive personality that makes me go all out or not at all and since this was becoming a problem for ME I learned that the best remedy for me was to stop cold turkey.
Now a moment to reflect in the things I will miss.
1. Seeing what's going on in the lives of the special people in my life. Out of my (at one time 200+) Facebook friends I really only cared about 1/3 of them. So why so many "friends"? Morbid curiousity I guess. Otherwise I couldn't care less about what they had for breakfast or the vacation they took etc, etc. But a select few I really do care about and tryin to keep up with them the old fashioned way now is going to suck. I guess it will show me who I really care about and who really cares about me now that it's not so easy.
2. All my pictures!
I had virtually half of my childrens' lives documented through pictures on Facebook. My old computer broke in November of 2010 so I lost a TON of photos (I'm still not fully recovered). The process of saving all those photos to Facebook onto my new computer has been a loooooong process.
3. Feeling like I get to talk to adults during the day.
Being a stay at home mom (especially since my youngest is only 6 months) can be kind of alienating if you let it. I know lots of moms who are involved in a ton of different activities with their children....I'm not that mom. It seems too much like work to me. Facebook was a great middle ground between communicating with adults yet not having to get out of my pajamas. Which bring me to my next point.
4. The laugh factor
I have some seriously smart and hysterical friends! Scrolling through my news feed on any given day is sure to have me laughing out loud. Also sometimes people who aren't trying to be funny give me a hoot. I'm going to miss that daily dose of humor.
5. Important news updates. Facebook is where I found out Bea Arthur and Whitney Houston died. I don't read a lot of news articles online and since I now do so much from my smart phone (including writing this post so please excuse any typos) I have no need to scan the MSN homepage for news and interesting factoids. Watching tv is limited to about an hour before I fall asleep at night so not much info is gathered there. So many important things are now delivered at the speed of light and I will officially be the last to know....and I'm okay with that.
So where does that leave me? Well I've got lots more free time but know nothing about the world around me. I communicate less with people unless I do it "the old-fashioned" way.
My hope is that the disconnect with Facebook leaves me and my family more connected then ever. That my husband and kids won't hear my replies of "not now" and "in a minute" as often.
But I'm not COMPLETELY living off the grid. You can still find me on Instagram (@schiffty) and on Pinterest (@schiffty).