Deleting Facebook

Deleting Facebook
Photo by Anne Nygård / Unsplash

I have finally deleted my Facebook account. I have had a feeling to remove myself from Facebook network ever since it became a household name for misinformation, I held off, thinking there was something there to look back on, to hold on to memories long gone, to see people I once had a connection with. But I realised that there was a net negative to using Facebook, as I was comparing my life to theirs. And as the saying goes, "Comparison is a thief of joy".

In the first few days, I felt a great relief lifted off my shoulders, even though I hardly used it. To know my past self was lurking there was a burden on my mind. I wanted to let my past be my past and move on. I wanted to build a new me. We a capable of great transformation but our past memories can hold us back. We have to accept that these old memories are now only very faint ripples in time. They are not you in the your current state.

I realised that we are time travellers, not in the physical sense but in our minds. We are capable of pulling any memory from the past and feeling the same emotions we felt in that moment. We can also travel into the future and see the person we want to be. This time-traveling ability can serve us well but we must no dwell to much in the past or future but ground ourselves in the present.

If we travel into the past and see all the mistakes and wrong decisions we made and see all the different ways our lives could have been different. We can also create alternative realities, where your life is much better than your current state. It can cause depression and paralysis in the current world. On the other hand, you can look back into the past and pull up all the good memories you had and these can have healing qualities. Either way, you should not spend too much time there as the current present world is happening around you and you are essentially sitting still living your former life in your mind.

For me, Facebook has now become the facilitator of past memories. The only time you should access these memories is when you want to recall the good times with friends and family. There is a healing quality there. I'm not sure if Facebook is a platform that can help you heal and reconcile these memories, only other people can help you do that.

I want to focus on the present and near future. This is far more important.

Facebook, thanks for the memories but it's time to move on.