Quitting Facebook Changed My Life

The Surgeon General’s warning confirmed what I already knew

Excerpted from Goodbye Phone, Hello World. Illustration by Emilliano Ponzi

I quit Facebook, Instagram and every other property owned by what is now called Meta nearly two years ago. It was at the time a rash decision and at first many of my friends and family wondered where I had “gone.” Soon, though, the people who mattered “found” me. It wasn’t a hard thing to do. I was always here. Soon after that, the daily flow of my life started to change.

I wonder if others are starting to see the complete and utter uselessness of a tool that has come to dominate our waking lives and even invade our dreams.

With the Surgeon General issuing a warning this spring about the profound risk social media poses to mental health, I wonder (hope?) if others are starting to see the complete and utter uselessness of a tool that has come to dominate our waking lives and even invade our dreams.

Probably I’m jumping the gun. Probably you will all raise an eyebrow and then go back to scrolling. But before you do, I thought I’d just lay out here some things that have changed for me since saying goodbye to Zuckerberg and Co.

Here goes:

1. I get the news from…