Do You Suffer Facebook Fatigue?

I do! I don’t need to feed my crazy by reading other people’s crazy.

We’ve lost count of how many times I’ve wanted to delete my Facebook account.

Not sure if it’s just when I’m overtired, or someone says something that drives me crazy … But there have been many times – do you ever feel like that?

I won’t delete it … Facebook is the easiest and cheapest way for me to stay in touch with my wonderful Australian family who I miss daily and my awesome friends who are spread across the globe.

Seeing little things that happen in their lives i.e. a new haircut, their kids Halloween costume or an anniversary they are celebrating makes me feel closer and more connected to them despite my choice to live on the other side of the world. It’s easy to see what’s important to people through their posts.

If it wasn’t for Facebook I’d actually have to remember people’s birthdays …does anyone remember those days?

And yet I still find it exhausting.

Here’s how I manage my love/hate relationship with Facebook, manage my own fatigue and hope it’s helpful for you:

Decide – Who do you want to follow? Who do you want to be connected to? Who do you want to fill up your Facebook feed daily? These are important questions because the groups you subscribe to, publications and companies you ‘like’, will influence your time and attention daily. Realizing this when training for a marathon last year, I only had running groups/blogs/magazines and Health.com in the feed … time to get additional interests.  When heading out on Harley trips or vacations with my honey I occasionally post (rarely read) because it’s nice to take a break. Protect your time and attention.

Discipline – set yourself limits of how much time you will review, engage and comment. It’s easy to spend hours … how do I know… because I have wasted way too much time online! It’s easy to get involved in a chat or read multiple posts and 20 minutes goes by … and you never get that time back. Reading it with morning coffee or while at the airport or on a plane is easy. Also have discipline and decide you won’t check every time someone tags you or writes on your timeline. We have a rule set up to approve every posts or picture on my timeline, otherwise it’s easy to become cluttered. Most of my friends post cool things. Recently an article was published about the ‘health’ benefits of champagne … we lost count of how many people tagged me (and that made me giggle).

It still takes discipline and I haven’t mastered it yet. Maybe it’s time for another Facebook diet?

Delete – remove yourself from groups that don’t inspire you (or you exhaust you). I have been added to groups over the years that start out great, then at some point become crazy or I become less tolerant (or maybe a combination of both)? I was once involved in a group that became unprofessional and unkind and it was an easy decision to leave (quietly and without telling anyone). Leave groups you don’t like; unfollow people you don’t want to see and unfriend those who aren’t friends… easy peasy! What (or who) do you need to delete in Facebook?

A few examples of Facebook used well include The Well Dressed Life by Megan Kristel, Mark Sanborn and On Air with Ella. Check them out if you aren’t following them.

What do you do to manage your Facebook fatigue? I’d love to hear from you.