Is deactivating Facebook a good thing to do?

[Matt]

The world in Facebook can be a tricky place.

I have a few hobbies that few to none of my Facebook friends would ever care about. That's perfectly fine if they don't care. As a result, I don't usually post those things to Facebook. About the only time I post anything is if I know it'll be funny or informative to others. If it's not going to be worth someone's time to look at or read it, I don't post it. Figuring out what others will and will not like is a matter of knowing your friends and kind of "trial and error" process that takes time to figure out.

It's important to remember that simply because people do not "like" your posts does not mean they're irrelevant or unimportant to others. Occasionally, when I meet people in person whom I'm friends with on Facebook, they'll talk to me about a picture/post/whatever, even though they did not "like" it on Facebook or comment on it.

Something else to consider is that, while many young people still use Facebook, many have replaced Facebook with something else as their primary social network. For example, my step-brother, who is in eighth grade, used to use Facebook all the time. So did his friends. Then Instagram came along. Most of his friends don't use Facebook much or at all anymore. Instagram is what everyone in his eighth grade class is all about these days. Twitter and Pinterest are popular hangout places for people these days, too, so it may be that your friends aren't using Facebook as much as they used to.

As far as feeling bad about a lack of interaction from your friends, that's a bad thing in more ways than one. It's easy enough to say to someone, "Don't let that bother you," but it's not nearly as easy for some people to do. Some people couldn't care less if no one likes or comments on a post. Other people are checking their phone or computer every five minutes to see how many new likes and comments they have, looking to feel good about having posted something that others care about, and that's a good sign of a bigger issue social/emotional issue. If Facebook has that kind of an impact on you, then yes, it would probably be wise to delete your Facebook account or temporarily disable it. Out of curiosity, you might make a post sometime asking people what they use in addition to Facebook. You'd probably find Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest among the other social networks people are using these days if people were to comment on the post.

Regardless of everything else I've said, it comes down to this: If Facebook has such an impact on you, it would be wise to avoid it. Why keep putting yourself through that? You deserve much better, so why not do it for yourself?