--- title: 5 Things I Learned When I Quit Facebook description: I have a Facebook problem. The problem is, I love Facebook. I love posting about my day, connecting with friends near and far, and seeing... canonical: https://time.com/3093332/5-things-i-learned-when-i-quit-facebook/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-09T16:00:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:44:25.822Z article:section: Health og:title: 5 Things I Learned When I Quit Facebook og:description: I have a Facebook problem. The problem is, I love Facebook. I love posting about my day, connecting with friends near and far, and seeing... og:url: https://time.com/3093332/5-things-i-learned-when-i-quit-facebook/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte0752640ab44347b/69877890e53aba350f4d6e2b/iphone-social-apps-facebook.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: TIME.com stock photos Social Apps iPhone Facebook og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 5 Things I Learned When I Quit Facebook twitter:description: I have a Facebook problem. The problem is, I love Facebook. I love posting about my day, connecting with friends near and far, and seeing... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte0752640ab44347b/69877890e53aba350f4d6e2b/iphone-social-apps-facebook.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 5 Things I Learned When I Quit Facebook > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Health Matters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Health Matters is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The latest health news and expert advice on living well. Health Matters makes the fast-moving world of health more useful, surprising and human, from the latest science and medical breakthroughs to practical ideas for living better. 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It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: Tech Time: How Facebook's Safety Check is Evolving [Watch (HLS stream): Tech Time: How Facebook's Safety Check is Evolving](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/u1Y7z4NX.m3u8) (2:06)  _Published 2015-11-18. Tech Time: How Facebook's Safety Check is Evolving_ by [Health.com](https://time.com/author/health-com/) ## Health.com Contributor Aug 9, 2014 4:00 PM UTC  Elizabeth Renstrom for TIME by [Health.com](https://time.com/author/health-com/) ## Health.com Contributor Aug 9, 2014 4:00 PM UTC I have a Facebook problem. The problem is, I love Facebook. I love posting about my day, connecting with friends near and far, and seeing the funny/crazy/sweet things people share. But I also hate Facebook, for being such a time suck, for making me feel bad about myself when other people’s lives seem so much more exciting than mine, and for leading me to spend more time interacting with a screen than with the real world. And when I log off Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are there clamoring for my attention, a never-ending scroll of links and tweets and photos and conversations that feels impossible to keep up with. A few weeks ago, I’d had it. It seemed like social media was bringing me more guilt and frustration than happiness. So I decided to go on a fast, starting immediately. Here’s what I’ve learned: **Health.com:** [27 Mistakes Healthy People Make](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20621010,00.html?xid=Time-facebook-080414) **Cold turkey was the way to go** I’ve made attempts to cut down before, setting rules like “Only check Facebook first thing in the morning” or “Only check Twitter during lunch” or, when I came back to work after maternity leave, “Only use social media while pumping breast milk.” But one quick check in the morning always turned into needing to get back on at 11am to see if anyone commented on that one post, which turned into composing witty replies to those comments, which turned into _OMG I’m late for that meeting!_ I had no self-control. Cutting myself off from social media completely was the only way to ensure I’d stay honest. I even deleted the Facebook app from my phone. **Health.com:** [22 Ways to Boost Your Happiness—Instantly](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20793541,00.html?xid=Time-facebook-080414) ### This Is What Your Facebook Profile Looked Like Over the Last 11 Years  The Original Facebook Group Page, 2004\. Before people realized how awesome pictures are. Courtesy of Facebook  Facebook Profile Page, 2005\. Back when Facebook looked a little bit like MySpace. Courtesy of Facebook  Facebook Profile Page Facelift, 2005\. The "the" is finally dropped. Courtesy of Facebook  Facebook Profile Page, 2006\. You no longer need to be reminded "this is you" at the top of your profile page. Courtesy of Facebook  Facebook Profile Page, 2007\. Every profile update still had to begin with "is," forcing you to talk about yourself in the third person. Courtesy of Facebook  Facebook Profile Page, 2008\. The wall. Courtesy of Facebook  Facebook Profile Page, 2009\. It only took five years for Facebook to create easy-to-find privacy settings. Courtesy of Facebook  Facebook Profile Page, 2010\. Facebook starts to get pretty. Courtesy of Facebook  Facebook Profile Page, 2011\. Zuckerberg realizes that people love pictures, usually of animals. Courtesy of Facebook  Facebook Profile Page, 2012\. The timeline allows you (or your parents) to trace your life from birth to death. Courtesy of Facebook  Facebook Profile Page, 2013-2014\. Facebook introduced a new app, Paper, on Monday. Courtesy of Facebook  Facebook Profile Page, 2014-2015\. Facebook updated both the newsfeed algorithm and the privacy settings. Courtesy of Alex Fitzpatrick/Facebook **The FOMO wasn’t as bad as I’d feared** Yes, I missed a bunch of birthdays, and yes, I would have missed the news of a former coworker’s engagement if another friend hadn’t seen the post and clued me in. But to my surprise, even from day 1 of my fast, I didn’t feel like I was truly missing out on anything. My best friend from high school texted me cute pictures of her 2-year-old. I caught up with people over email or even on the phone (remember that?). I checked my favorite news sites for the day’s headlines. I was good. What I wasn’t getting: constant updates about the awesome vacations people were taking (making me feel like a boring homebody), or the amazing educational activities they’d planned for their kids (making me feel like a slacker mom), or the IMPORTANT POLITICAL THING WE SHOULD ALL TAKE ACTION ON NOW that inevitably devolved into a nasty name-calling flame war (making me feel tired). I didn’t miss any of _that_ at all. Facebook, on the other hand, seemed to think I was missing out big-time. Since day 3 of no Facebook, I’ve been getting increasingly desperate daily emails like this one… **Health.com:** [14 Reasons You’re Always Tired](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20818045,00.html?xid=Time-facebook-080414) ### I was way more productive I had never realized how often during the workday I clicked on **Facebook** out of sheer habit—I caught myself typing in the URL on autopilot way too many times that first **Facebook**\-free day. But the real shocker was how much more I got done at home, when my evenings no longer disappeared into a black hole of sitting on the couch scrolling through my feeds. I read actual books! I made a quilt! I worked out! It was almost embarrassing how much time I suddenly had on my hands. ### I was more present When I wasn’t constantly thinking about how to describe every moment in a perfect tweet or status update, I got to actually _live_ the moment. I took pictures of my kids just for me, rather than for a filtered-and-framed Instagram shot. When we went to the beach or had dinner with friends, I savored the experience for itself, not for how good it would make me look when I posted about it. **Health.com:** [12 Surprising Causes of Depression](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20515167,00.html?xid=Time-facebook-080414) ### I might be cured of my Facebook addiction I stayed on total social media blackout for two full weeks. Then I decided to let myself hop back on Instagram once, to post a photo of the Lightning McQueen cake I made for my son’s birthday. A few days later, I started sending out a few tweets. But Facebook…oh, Facebook, you ultimate time-suck. I was really worried that I would get back on Facebook and immediately fall back into my old ways. Was it even possible for me to use Facebook in a healthy way? Last night I got on Facebook, for the first time in more than three weeks. I scrolled through my feed for about five minutes. And then…I closed my browser. I put away my laptop. And I went to bed. And I don’t really feel like going back. It turns out my Facebook addiction was just a (really) bad habit. By interrupting the habit, I might have broken the cycle. I won’t quit Facebook completely—all those things I love about it haven’t changed. But now that I know I can go without it entirely, it seems easy to limit myself to just checking in, say, twice a week. Wish me luck! **Health.com:** [22 Ways to Boost Your Happiness—Instantly](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20793541,00.html?xid=Time-facebook-080414) _This_ [_article_](http://news.health.com/2014/08/01/5-things-i-learned-when-i-quit-facebook/) _originally appeared on_[ _Health.com_](http://www.health.com/health/)_._ _Jeannie Kim is the Executive Deputy Editor at_ Health_._ ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] During the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, Facebook activated a new feature designed to help people tell their friends and family they were safe. The feature's called safety check. Here's how it works. When there's some kind of wide scale emergency in your area, Facebook will prompt you to let your friends and family know you're safe by clicking a button. Once you do that, Facebook will blast that information out as a notification to all your friends and family. Facebook knows where you are by your cell phone's location, where you're accessing the Internet from, and your home town on your Facebook profile. Safety Check is more powerful than a regular Facebook status because it instantly blasts out that news to all your friends and family. [ MUSIC ] Family. That's great if your loved ones live far away in other continents or different countries. Safety Check also lets you mark other Facebook users as safe, which is great if you're in a chaotic situation with a group of people and they don't have their cell phones and you can just whip yours out and say, Okay, all these people are with me, they're good. The Paris attacks weren't the first time that Facebook activated Safety Check. I've gotten notifications from friends who were near earthquakes in Afghanistan and Peru and other parts of the world. But it was the first time Facebook turned it on for a terrorist action, not a natural disaster. The feature was originally inspired by an employee project after the devastating 2011 tsunami in Japan. Some people have been angry at Facebook for turning Safety Check on for Paris, but not other terrorist actions like recent bombings in Lebanon. Facebook has defended itself by saying the feature was intended only for natural disasters, a stance it decided to change right in the middle of the Paris attacks. Now, Facebook's opened up a big can of worms. How big does a disaster have to be before Safety Check is activated, should Facebook work with first responders to find people who might be missing? And what if you set your status to safe but then something happens to you later. These are questions Facebook will have to deal with in the future. Still Safety Check is has enormous potential as a communications. Tool during disasters. Especially considering 1. 5 billion people around the world use Facebook. 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