5 Good Enough Reasons to Delete Your Facebook

Good enough reasons to delete a mediocre service.

This article is a follow-up to my earlier piece, “5 Good Enough Reasons to Delete Your Instagram.” Much like with that one, I want to be clear that I am not offering a cure-all to your problems. To get past those, you’ll need more than what one article can offer. I’m just here to give you the small push you need to finally get rid of an app that does you no good and should have been removed a long time ago (and no, I didn’t mean to say Meta — that’s the parent organization).

To be clear — I’m not about to present a list of life-changing reasons, and this article isn’t intended to be incredibly persuasive. If you’re extremely attached to Facebook, by all means keep it. You’re probably in too deep for anything I say to convince you anyway.

Instead, this article is for those of you who have thought about deleting Facebook time and again, but just can’t bring yourselves to do it. You’re saving it because you might just need it. After all, what if today’s the day that old high school crush finally messages you?

I hate to break it to you, but she’s probably married. Move on. Allow me to get you started with the less-than-stellar reasons below.

You don’t really know why you have it

If you were to ask most people why they have Facebook, they’d say something along the lines of the following:

“Um, I don’t really know, I’ve kinda just had it as long as I can remember. It’s good for keeping up with people, you know, and, uh … yeah.”

Depressing, I know. You can laugh; I’ll overlook the hypocrisy for a moment. The fact is, a bunch of folks created a Facebook account as teenagers and have simply kept it ever since. Joining social media is like a rite of passage, often an act done thoughtlessly, when suffering from a senseless fear of being left out of … what, exactly? Absolutely nothing meaningful.

If you can’t articulate a solid answer to the question of why, it’s time to hit that delete button.

You spend more time on Twitter anyway

Let’s be honest here. I have neither Facebook nor Twitter, and even I know Twitter is the superior app. Everyone does. It’s shorter, sweeter, more convenient, and hosts some of the most savage roasts in existence.

Why scroll mindlessly through photos of your second cousin’s wedding (which you weren’t invited to) when you can instead laugh at Wendy’s (the fast food chain) shamelessly mocking unsuspecting Twitter users? I know which one I’d choose.

Chances are that your daily schedule looks something like this: you’re scrolling through Twitter in the morning, and when you finally manage to close the app and get out of bed at noon, you spend 20 more minutes looking through your Facebook feed in the bathroom.

We both know you’re not going to be productive today. May as well waste your time on the better app.

You value peace of mind

The brand new beach house your coworker just purchased.

The fancy European cruise your ex just took with someone richer (and more attractive) than you.

The cutting-edge new chef’s knife (pun most definitely intended) your “friend” just showed off, while you continue struggling to cut onions with your cheap Target knife.

Tell me, when is the last time being on Facebook genuinely made you feel good? And I don’t mean you just felt normal or relaxed. I mean an actual, strong feeling of happiness. A lack of negative emotion does not equate to a positive one.

While it’s true some content these days can be uplifting and positive, the greater majority of it remains negative or neutral. You gain nothing from repeated exposure to the prettiest, most polished parts of others’ lives. It’s a warped representation of reality — but your emotions don’t know that, and you’re subconsciously training your brain to feel inadequate. To feel not good enough.

You deserve better than that. Stop focusing on others, and do something for yourself. Delete Facebook.

You could honestly benefit from a real source of news

Facebook is notoriously bad at filtering its content to minimize misinformation. It’s full of conspiracy theorists, unqualified pundits, insecure adults, political agitators … the list goes on. All of these people have no business disseminating consequential information, and yet they continue to do so unrestricted. And you listen to them.

Let’s get one thing straight. Facebook is not the first place you should go for news. There are far more reliable sources out there; it doesn’t matter if the topic you’re interested in is scientific, political, or philosophical. With large groups of like-minded and uneducated charlatans congregating together constantly, Facebook is a breeding ground for false knowledge.

When you absorb this information and pass it onto others, you perpetuate a disingenuous cycle. At best, you’ve just given someone poor financial advice — and at worst, you’ve made an entirely false narrative appear true.

Just do everyone a favor and delete the app already.

You’ll get a chance to focus on your real friends

Believe me, I know online connections can be addicting. Once upon a time, I was ultra-focused on my Instagram followers, and one could reasonably argue I’m still obsessed with my LinkedIn connection count. It’s nice to feel liked and popular online, especially during those occasional stretches when real life plagues us with loneliness.

But at the end of the day, most of our Facebook friends aren’t real. We like their pictures and chuckle at their posts, but for what? How often do you DM a Facebook friend and ask to meet for coffee and a meaningful discussion?

Meanwhile, the real world needs you. So many people retreat into bubbles of isolation when they’re struggling mentally, unbeknownst to those closest to them. Reach out to your old friends. Ask them how they’re doing. Invite them out to do something fun.

Choose your real friends over your Facebook friends. I promise they’ll thank you for it.

Final Thoughts

If you like Facebook, good for you. Keep it. This article isn’t for you.

But if you’re having second thoughts, then I hope one of the reasons above gives you the push you need to get rid of this mind-numbing app. You can always get it again.

In the meantime, maybe you’ll finally get some peace of mind.