Anonymous wrote:It cheapens human relationships. "Sry for your loss" when someone posts about a family death.
People receive only positive feedback and have personal echo chambers.
It's jarring when someone is nice in real life but their FB persona is narcissistic, documenting every weekend outing, twee porch happy hour, political virtue signaling.
I was addicted to feeling smug and superior about other people. That's gross. So I deleted. I wanted to have more grace for others and not judge them for groveling to the masses for dopamine hits.
This is really interesting to me. I felt the opposite about Facebook. I was one of the people groveling for the dopamine hits. I would find myself posting photos just because I knew they would get likes and that would make me feel good. And then if I posted a photo that didn't get likes, I'd feel bad, even if it was a photo of something that made me happy. So dumb.
I also knew lots of people who would just instantly get tons of likes and comments on their stuff, and I was comparing myself to them and concluding that people didn't like me or that I didn't "matter" in my social circle. It was really messed up and played directly into my depression and self worth issues.
I quit to escape that cycle. Facebook could make me feel good, when I'd get the validation I was seeking. But it was short-lived and very cheap. What I actually needed was to learn to love myself and worry less about what others thought of me. And that just wasn't possible when I could essentially poll all my Facebook friends on whether or not they liked me by just posting something and seeing how they responded.
You were addicted to judging other people. I was addicted to being judged. It was messed up.