Facebook?!?!

[The Monk]

Hey guys, 

I usually go on facebook, but then when I do i simply see posts riddled with hate, low consciousness, jealousy, and negative beliefs. And daily I usually spend 2 hours on average scrolling facebook, hoping to find something good, but what I come to realise is that it is just my ego manipulating me to prevent me from finding the truth or from doing what's important to me. But, the upside is I have friends that I contact through facebook, but rarely have a talk with them, I mainly just scroll continuously through these negative comments, as it brings me pleasure and distracts me.

Should I de-activate Facebook, and replace it with a more effective habit, that would be far more meaningful and fulfilling, within the long term?

  

[ChimpBrain]

I did sort of what the above poster recommends . I kept my FB because I do actually NEED is occasionally , I just never log onto it anymore . I instead visit forums like this one and made an Instagram and Twitter where I don't interact with people who I know in real life. I only follow pages/people who I find interesting , positive,  educational , etc . 

 

FB could be used the same way I guess, just make an alternate account . There's  no reason you need to be stuck interacting with the people you went to high school with when there are billions of people in the world. 

[Schulzy]

I had the same problem, my solution was just deactivating it as i saw no more purpose in it. 
I think John also gave a really good suggestion, just filter out the bullshit by making a new account and subscribing to stuff that  you can learn from.

[Emerald]

3 hours ago, Aamir King said:

Hey guys, 

I usually go on facebook, but then when I do i simply see posts riddled with hate, low consciousness, jealousy, and negative beliefs. And daily I usually spend 2 hours on average scrolling facebook, hoping to find something good, but what I come to realise is that it is just my ego manipulating me to prevent me from finding the truth or from doing what's important to me. But, the upside is I have friends that I contact through facebook, but rarely have a talk with them, I mainly just scroll continuously through these negative comments, as it brings me pleasure and distracts me.

Should I de-activate Facebook, and replace it with a more effective habit, that would be far more meaningful and fulfilling, within the long term?

  

I recommend keeping it. But here are the things I do to keep myself from getting hemmed into the scrolling game or getting caught up in reading the Facebook Post's equivalent to junk food:

1. Unfollow everyone who posts stupid, unpleasant, or hate-filled posts. This doesn't mean unfriending or blocking people that do this. But it is choosing what kind of posts that I want to see in my feed and which I don't. Facebook, to me, is for fun interactions and over-the-beer conversations with friends that don't live close to me. I want only interesting and positive posts in my FB feed.

2. Unfollow everyone who posts political stances that don't agree with my own. Nothing personal, I just don't like certain political stances and I don't want to have to wade through tons of posts that disagree with my sensibilities, when I'd rather be socializing or looking at cool stuff. If I wanted a bunch of political propaganda, I'd listen to Rush Limbaugh... but I don't.

3. Block all posts about overtly disturbing events. If someone posts about children that have been kept in cages and starved to death or other such morbid posts, I unfollow them and block all other posts from the site. There are a lot of terrible things that go on in the world, but my Facebook time isn't the time that I want to become aware of them. I do use FB to keep up on current events including the negative ones, but I don't have to know every morbid detail or see pictures.  

4. Go on Facebook no more than twice a day, and don't spend a ton of time scrolling. I might scroll through FB for 15 minutes at a time and comment here and there or read an article or two. But I luckily get easily disenchanted with this. I noticed that I sort of get my hopes up by going on FB hoping to have some kind of interesting interaction. This never really happens. It just doesn't have the charm of face to face interactions that I'm searching for. So, I notice that I'm looking for this, and that I'll never get it by scrolling and searching more. So, I might make a few comments or read a few articles. But it isn't long before that becomes dull for me. So, I recommend setting time limits... especially for scrolling. You could even cut out scrolling all-together too, as this isn't really necessary for keeping in touch with friends.

5. Find another activity that's more interesting. Internet-wise, I have my channel and this forum, where people are far more interested in the things I'm interested in. So, I have more of an opportunity for stimulating conversations. But this shouldn't also become too much of a habit. I only go on here about once every day or two. My channel, I check several times a day because it's mine. But time limits are necessary in these cases too. 

 

[Zane]

I feel like social media is a tool that like the Internet can be used or abused! It can be very low-consciousness if you engage too much in online drama and let it drive you lower and lower to the level of the trolls! I focus on resisting trolls by not taking part in the discussions. I focus on spreading authenticity and cheerfulness and meeting new friends who share my passions and i focus on creating my own social circle so I'm focusing on using it constructively! Yes, I can overuse it but I'm being mindful of my use by blocking websites for several hours during the week! For the news on the election results, I'm focusing on taking it one day at a time, being strategic about my future, and focusing on being authentic. For politics, I focus on making much more thoughtful political posts when I need to rather than make posts driven by misplaced emotions. I made that mistake before! I'm making sure that the Internet doesn't rule my life! 

Edited November 12, 2016 by Zane

[bazera]

Block Facebook.com on your PC as well as on your smartphone with antivirus software or with browser extension or with something like that and use Messenger.com for chatting with your friends

[YaNanNallari]

I think it's your intuition peeking in and saying "Hey, you know better than this". So follow it and change things up!

[Bob84]

@Aamir King If you want to then yes. Facebook is evil .
Do you really need a reason to change a habit? Does "Mister ego 1" have to negotiate with "Mister ego 2" about facebook? Do whatever tickles your pickle.

[Markus]

Chrome has an extension called "kill news feed". It kills your news feed and lets you do everything else. If I had the power, I'd make such an option for Android and make Zuckerberg pay for it. Scrolling the news feed has such a nasty consciousness to it. When people post their ideas on Facebook, they're not posting their best. They're posting hate, they're posting gossip, they're jealous. Some of them, I assume, are posting good stuff, but just look at the news feed and it's telling you exactly what you're getting.

Edited November 14, 2016 by Markus

[FindingPeace]

Facebook can actually be quite a dangerous 'tool'. And it's having quite a serious negative psychological impact on people, particularly younger people. In this age of social media people are compulisvely comparing themselves to the rest of the world and evaluating themselves against it, because it is so easy to do. Some people derive their sense of self-worth from these comparisons and the feedback they get from their own posts.

The danger is that people often only portray what they want to portray on social media. It's a very narrow glimpse in to people's lives and psychological states. Too often people are portrying 'false' lives, often very positive lives, in the attempt to 'look good' in the eyes of others. Of course others then mey feel inadequate in response, and so the game is played.. I have seen people post their 'idyllic' lives, only to discover that they actually have a very shitty life with everything falling around them.

I have seen teenages end up needing councilling because they have lost all self-worth in the face of the 'lives' portrayed on the likes of facebook.

Like media in general, most of it is biased and even fraudulent. People's naive beliefs in what they see or read lead to many of society's problems.

Facebook has good, honest uses, if used in a responsible manner. Unfortunately, it isn't most of the time. It's just another ego platform. And fundamentally, the need to nose in to other people's lives is an issue in itself that social media isn't helping with. We should all be concerned with creating our own lives, not prying in to the lives of others for our own 'entertainment' or judgment.

 

[Frogfucius]

I've noticed that among the masses, social media is nothing more than a glorified dick measuring contest. There are very few people that actually care about you as a person, or people you actually care about. Why do I care to keep up with what people I don't really care about are doing? Why do I need some false illusion of myself put out there to a bunch of people? What does it prove, what is the purpose, why am I doing it?

Facebook is great for small businesses and niche communities. But outside of that, I feel like it's nothing more than a bunch of chimps self-aggrandizing.

[MasterJames]

Many people on Facebook are just ignorant and do nothing with their life. They just ramble about how bad the world is, but they are actually part of the problem. I would just delete the facebook account and maybe chat with friends through other messengers. It will save you a lot of time.

[Schulzy]

On 11/14/2016 at 7:57 AM, Frogfucius said:

I've noticed that among the masses, social media is nothing more than a glorified dick measuring contest. There are very few people that actually care about you as a person, or people you actually care about. Why do I care to keep up with what people I don't really care about are doing? Why do I need some false illusion of myself put out there to a bunch of people? What does it prove, what is the purpose, why am I doing it?

Facebook is great for small businesses and niche communities. But outside of that, I feel like it's nothing more than a bunch of chimps self-aggrandizing.

That is so true, couldnt have said it better myself

In my previous post iv said you can use it to filter out so you could see only the stuff you like but truth is there are better ways to do that than facebook.

[SFRL]

I deleted my FB account. Got sucked back into it. Then deleted it again. 

You will be amazed how many times a day you go on FB without thinking. When I just deleted my account I found my self going to the FB page many times a day on auto-pilot  and get the screen my account had been deleted, lol. 

I agree there is a lot of negativity on FB. But even when I read something positive or somewhat neutral information, it's still an external source of information that I can do without. 

It's a lot of external impulses that consequently will steer your mind in a certain direction, now you have to think about that information, process it, and those thought patterns lead to other spin-off thought patterns. All triggered by an external source that you got exposed to but didn't really volunteer for.

When I am not on FB I think my mind is more at peace, focused, and there is more room for thoughts and ideas that come up internally, that are my own. 

 

 

Edited November 17, 2016 by STC

[Epiphany_Inspired]

@Aamir King I had a really hard time with getting an account in the first place...and since then, I've even had it used as a weapon against me by a corporation...but still, I keep it for networking... when I post, I do so to point out the negative effects FB has on us, I try to empower others to bring social media to a higher level, etc.. surprisingly, it does seem to help a little...to inspire vision and revolution to a degree...  I will admit that although I've managed to avoid the extreme addiction, I have used it for distraction at times too...that said, you can't deny the amazing networking capabilities...For example, I was just able to invite over 150 friends to my upcoming 40th birthday in minutes, accomplishing that on the phone would be intense...lol...just try to limit your passive browsing...

 

Edited November 18, 2016 by Epiphany_Inspired

[pluto]

On 12/11/2016 at 5:14 AM, John Flores said:

You can start a new Facebook where it's all about consciousness work. Like Buddhist pages, join Zen Buddhist and Aln Wats related pages or groups. Try to slowly become FB friends with people who understand the infinite nature of the universe and have spirituality that is more inclusive.

Also remember, if something bothers you EVER, it's also an opportunity to discover why you are the way you are and what that might teach about yourself in order to grow more.

Well said, this is what i did years ago and it was great, no friends or contacts just used it for educational purposes and spreading conscious knowledge and helping and sharing with others but i realized its still sort of effected me because of the subliminal programming, adds and signs, on the side bars and new projects and recommendations.

Even too much of conscious awareness following become toxic because of the structured facebook system itself. It became a habit and addiction but then same thing for everything else. Aslong as you have your balance between things you should be fine to continue thriving.

Soon as it starts becoming more routine then it should be a sign of concern.

Edited November 18, 2016 by pluto

[kyle barnett]

Uhh... First tip Delete all the unnecessary people on your friends list or just create a new one and have close people. Second Join pages and groups that have positive stuff to look at like reminders and stuff. like some self help coaches such as infinite waters posts a lot. This is if you want to keep facebook. But yeah otherwise you can just keep messenger on your phone. 

 

[Dinesh Karki]

Delete your all social media and focus on Deep Work. 

[Dan Arnautu]

Well, if some of you guys are the entrepreneurial type, you will have a very slim chance at growing a business or personal brand without social media in this day and age, so I don't think quitting entirely is the option. With that being said, of course you can only focus on posting quality content and not scrolling through your feed.

Also, you can just social media to feel the pulse of the world. What's currently going on beyond borders etc. and things like that. You can also just follow most spiritual leaders that have a social media fan page (e.g. Sadhguru) and use it to get a quick bit of wisdom for 3-5 minutes a day.

[Alexo45]

Stop using ALL social media forever, you won’t regret it.