Why deleting my Facebook profile made me 100 times happier

Love it or hate it, you have to admit that over the last ten years Facebook has transformed the way we connect with each other.

But even though 1.23 billion of us are logging on and sharing everything from our nightmare commutes to our 12-week scan pictures, there are those who have been decidedly turned off by the over-sharing.

Cecilia Stone*, 19, explains why she deleted her Facebook account and swapped it for Tumblr.

'I wasn’t really a fan of Facebook from the start. I didn’t get it until 2010 – my friends and I mostly used MySpace up until then. With MySpace you could customise your page, really personalise it and make it look different. On Facebook, everyone’s profile looks exactly the same. It was just boring.

At school, people would create fake Facebook accounts to spread rumours about people and generally just cause trouble.

When it came to the weekend, there was a lot of pressure to be going out, having fun and putting the evidence on Facebook. And then there were the photos you were tagged in. When I was younger it didn’t matter as much but as you start drinking and, inevitably, getting drunk you don’t really want to have to worry about the evidence being plastered all over the internet.

Facebook made me feel inadequate. It can be fun scrawling through other people’s photos but it can make you feel so bad about yourself. The way you look, what you do, who you are – it creates this ridiculous competition between people.  You can never just…be.

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I decided to get rid of it when I was in Sixth Form. I had been looking at loads of random pictures of people I didn’t even know properly and I just thought, what am I doing?

I felt good about my decision straight away. Some of my friends noticed but most people didn’t realise I had deleted my profile. It’s been quite a useful tool in working out who my real friends are. If someone wants to talk to me now or invite me to a party they have to make the effort to text or call me. I’ve had a few friends drop away because they just couldn’t be bothered.

These days if someone puts a picture of me on Facebook, I’d only know if they told me. I take a look and then just carry on with my life!

I first got Tumblr because one of my favourite actors had it (Joseph Gordon Levitt, in case you were wondering) and part of the beauty of it is that I don’t know anyone on there. I’ve only posted one picture of myself on my Tumblr but I quickly deleted it because that’s not really what it’s for.

Whereas Facebook is just looking at pictures of people you know, Tumblr is almost like Google or Wikipedia, which I love. You can type anything in and you’ll find great pictures, funny gifs, and excerpts from books. It’s like an awesome search engine.

There’s no pressure on Tumblr. I know it sounds like I’ve joined a cult or something but I’m genuinely happy and relaxed when I’m on there. When you post things on Facebook there’s always that uncertainty and nervousness – what if I misspelt something or what if that awful picture of me went up.

You spend time on Facebook dwelling on the past but Tumblr is a great way to develop new interests. Obviously not kayaking or mountain biking – it’s still only an online thing! But it introduces you to new bands, artists, films and you can find out so much.

I’m sure there is some negativity on there, as with all kinds of social networking, but I’ve never experienced it.

I’m heading off to uni in September and I’m thinking about going back to Facebook, just because it’s still the easiest way to connect with people. But Tumblr will always have my heart.'

*name has been changed

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