A week after relocating to Sylvan Lake and starting my job as a reporter, I made the bold decision to go ahead and delete my Facebook account. I did this for several reasons — some of which included being tired of looking at the endless advertisements cluttering up my News Feed and wanting some privacy from prying eyes.
I tried to save as many photos as I could onto my desktop, including those from my university graduation, as well as others highlighting family events. I felt successful in doing this, but realized that the only way to truly preserve a photo is to actually print it out.
Out of curiosity, I clicked through the many conversations that I had been a part of. This took me down memory lane to the person I was 10 years ago. Re-reading those conversations led me to feel embarrassed, immature and clueless, among an array of other things.
I stumbled upon a conversation I had with an ex-boyfriend, and with his profile still attached, much to my surprise he had actually gotten married. This surprised me as the topic of marriage came up once when I was with him and I still remember how awkwardly he reacted. Let me just say I wish his wife the best of luck in being married to him.
Deleting my Facebook account proved to be a good move as I didn’t realize how much of a distraction and how disruptive it was. There are many good things with Facebook — it enables you to find and keep in contact with your long lost friends. But for me it was time to say goodbye.
I’ll admit I felt a bit alone after deleting my account and then deleting the link on my laptop and iPhone. But deleting my account allowed me to broaden my horizons to interacting with people face to face in the real world ... again.
I honestly don’t miss being within the virtual world, but what I do miss is my friends from university, who I would converse with in person at school.
Facebook is what it is, you just have to decide whether you want to converse with people face to face or within an online virtual world.
Just remember, you might not be getting as much privacy as you think.