We’ve noticed a nationwide annoyance
with Facebook over 2013. The company
even admitted in October that younger
teens were using the network less
frequently on a daily basis. Here are 11
reasons that might convince you to let
your Facebook account go in 2014.
1. Nobody actually wants to just read
about what you’re doing anymore.
Think about it: What sounds more
appealing (and believable)? Reading a
status that says, “I’m currently hanging
out with Will Smith!” or a picture of that
person actually posing with Smith? A photo
is definitely more engaging. Here’s the
most-liked Instagram picture of 2013:
Justin Bieber’s snap with Smith.
When TIME interviewed teenagers about
their social media use in March, 16-year-
old Hamp Briley explained that kids these
days don’t have time for Facebook:
“Twitter’s all statuses, Instagram’s all
pictures. People like to do more specific
things like that instead of being on just
Facebook.”
2. Facebook makes it impossible for
you to stay “private.”
For many valid reasons (think stalker exes
or potential employers), some people don’t
like having their name come up when it’s
typed into the Facebook search bar.
However, most users this year found
problems with changes to privacy settings.
For one, Facebook removed the option to
keep your name hidden when people
search you. They also forced people to
control their privacy settings on a
cumbersome item-by-item basis. Today,
the only way to make sure certain people
can’t access your profile is to block them.
Or alter your name so it doesn’t appear
when people search your real one. Or, of
course, quit Facebook entirely.
3. Your parents (and even
grandparents) are now watching
your every move.
This year seemed to be the year everyone’s
mom, dad, grandmother and great aunt
got hooked on Facebook. And that meant
every time you posted a status about
something innocuous, these Facebook
novices started breathing down your neck
the minute you hit “post.” We get enough
scolding from our parents “IRL” — no need
to let it trickle onto a social media site
where our friends can laugh at our familial
bickering.
4. Or they’re posting photos of you
that you would never want anyone
to see
What’s worse than getting no “likes” on an
Instagram photo you posted? Checking
your Facebook and realizing that a horribly
embarrassing photo of you that your mom
posted is getting over 50 “likes,” along with
some pretty serious mockery in the
comments section.
5. Facebook is even keeping track of
what you don’t say.
You may have been happy you didn’t post
that one over-share about your extended
trip to the bathroom the other day, but
Facebook may have a record of exactly
what you typed and what time you were
about to publish it. This month, Facebook
released a study revealing that they were
undergoing a new type of data collection
in which they were tracking when people
typed content out and then removed it
without publishing. Their mission is to
understand why users “self-censor”
themselves in updates. According to
Facebook data scientist Sauvik Das, a “self-
censored update” is “an entry into either
[a status update or comment box] of more
than five characters that was typed out but
not submitted for at least the next 10
minutes.”
6. Facebook makes you feel less
positive about your life.
Even though the purpose of Facebook is
effectively to reveal details about
everything and anything you do, access to
this knowledge could take a toll on your
mental well-being. A recent study done by
the Department of Behavioral Science at
the Utah Valley University discovered that
heavy Facebook users aren’t the happiest
people out there. The researchers found
that just using Facebook makes you view
your life more negatively. Of 400 students
questioned, “those who have used
Facebook longer agreed more that others
were happier, and agreed less that life is
fair, and those spending more time on
Facebook each week agreed more that
others were happier and had better lives.”
7. The “friend suggestions” tell you
to befriend people you don’t even
know.
Facebook’s “friend suggestions” algorithm
needs some work, because these days
we’re discovering that your potential
“friends” are people we only know through
someone else, or someone we haven’t
even met at all. If you want people to stop
using a platform that is supposed to
connect them and bring them together
with the people they care about, you
should definitely adopt Facebook’s strategy
of trying to get you to care about the lives
of complete strangers.
8. You realize you only know and
care about only 20 people out of
your 1,000 friends.
It starts to get kind of weird when you
check the birthdays for the day and don’t
remember who any of the five people are.
How do you know them? Are they some
random person you met at a bar in college
one night, and in a drunken stupor
decided to “add on Facebook”? Probably.
Do you need to know that this person is
moving to California this week? More
importantly, do you care? Nope. It could
be time to overhaul your friends list. Or
maybe it’s time to realize that your
Facebook account is being used pretty
much entirely to keep tabs on these kinds
of strangers.
9. Your friends keep announcing
their engagements.
There’s nothing more obnoxious than
being a busy twentysomething and starting
to see all of your friends post statuses
about getting engaged. While you are
happy for them and wish them the best in
their prospects for a lasting marriage, the
bombardment of status updates is starting
to make you feel like something is wrong
with your love life. Why aren’t you getting
married? What is wrong with you? Why the
hell do you need to be thinking about
marriage right now?! Once that anxiety
subsides, you realize you have to endure
continued updates on their wedding
preparation. You could unsubscribe to this
friend, but you know more are coming.
10. The excessive ads are about to
ruin the whole experience.
If the regular sponsored ads hadn’t already
destroyed Facebook for you — seriously,
why the hell do you think you’re obsessed
with guitars and horses — the upcoming
launch of video ads will definitely do the
trick. Facebook started testing these
annoying ads out in December. They’ll
soon be coming to a newsfeed near you,
automatically playing a video as you scroll
through. However, the sound will only play
if you click or tap on it. The good news?
There is a way to block these ads from
automatically playing. You just have to use
a Flash blocker.
11. It makes getting over a breakup
really hard.
Back in the days before social media,
people broke up and never called the
person again. It was relatively simple to
move on (providing you weren’t forced to
physically see the person on a day-to-day
basis). But today, being able to have
constant access to your ex’s timeline can
easily cause serious obsessive tendencies
and behavior. Samuel Axon at Mashable
accurately summed up how Facebook
makes breakups harder, because the
platform makes your change in
relationship status public and it allows you
to see all the action your ex is getting.
