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10 years ago, I left Facebook for good!
a year ago
General
Today marks a significant anniversary in my social media history: it's now been 10 whole years since I deleted my Facebook account, and permanently ended my personal social media presence. In other words: it's been 10 years since I last used social media as my actual self outside anything, and using my real name as my main name.
My personal social media presence dates back to 2005/2006, with 2007 being the year that I joined MySpace. My MySpace account would last until September 2008, when I went on a 4-week hiatus, then I came back and deleted my account on the 27th of that month (nearly 16 years ago). I then created my first YouTube account which had my full initials in the username.
I joined Facebook in June 2011, then left after a month. I then came back in October 2011, then left again in August 2012. I then returned for a second time around October 2012, and I would stay on Facebook until September 2014. During that time, I created my second YouTube account which had my real name.
But back to Facebook. It may have served me well in some areas (catching up with irl friends; good relationship with the Angry Birds developers), but for the most part it did me no good. Facebook, along with MySpace, was a cesspit to me. Throughout 2014, I scaled down my presence on Facebook, and after a number of weeks without any status update, I deleted my Facebook account on 4th September 2014, and I felt good about it!
I will never return to such a site or anything similar, despite many countless people and many countless organisations heavily relying on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, based on the assumption that everyone uses those sites. But not everyone uses these sites! My sister, who is addicted and blinded to these sites, once argued that I was "missing out" because I wasn't on Facebook. And then of course, there was the period where I used Instagram and Threads (as ToonThick).
Anyway, 10 years have now passed since I left Facebook and ended my personal social media career, and that means next month will be the 10th anniversary of my first official skunk character; Daaws! Furthermore, December will mark 10 years since I joined DeviantArt, and therefore joined the art community!
That will be enough writing for this journal. You can read more about my social media history here: https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/10923869/
Thank you for reading.
I will say that I am a very introverted person, so that definitely does play a factor in my total disinterest in social media. But I've got no interest joining sites like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc. I had a Twitter account for a little over a year when that billionaire buffoon made it impossible to view the site without an account, and I hated it.
What I saw on Twitter and to a smaller extent Reddit showed me how toxic social media is. You see this constant negativity, people being jerks for no reason, how deranged people are with their political views, nonstop toxicity and discourse. It makes being a part of a community about your favorite video game, movie, or show feel so mentally exhausting. You see all of this junk and it's just so tiring.
A big reason I left Twitter was the rise in porn advertising and that every tweet would have at least one of those bots promoting an OnlyFans girl, or have a nude picture. There was also the fact people are so cynical and pessimistic there. I don't think I've ever seen so much negativity, like to the point where you see people praise a video game, then not even a year later, the same people bash it and say it's hot garbage.
Like it's all so unimportant. I have an account here, my YouTube account, and personal Discord, and that's it for social media for me and general presence on the internet, though I wish I could name my username on here to match my name on YouTube and Discord.