As part of my efforts to detox my life, I quit Facebook last year.

I didn’t have a blog account, just a regular, personal Facebook page, where I would share my blog posts and a select few other updates. I was worried about leaving it behind, as it did drive some traffic to the blog. (And by “some” I mean like 15 views per post, not 200.) Still, I decided that a few blog views wasn’t enough to justify me “being on Facebook”.

What I have found since I left, is that it has made me a better blogger. Maybe you haven’t noticed, maybe you have; it has made it easier to write honest, more personal posts with my own thoughts and, sometimes, strong opinions. Turns out, I was experiencing negativity and judgment from Facebook “friends”!

Who here can say that your friends from high school actually LIKE you and want you to succeed? Aha. That’s what I thought; two friends do. The rest of them remember how [insert personality trait here] you were, and kind of resent how confident you are now. Also, how keen would you be to show them pictures of yourself with a skin rash all over your face? Right.

Another part that I realized had even more of a negative effect on me was that good friends didn’t support me. They knew I wanted to build a successful blog (most bloggers do!) yet they rarely (or never) shared a single post or even took the time to give me a thumbs up.

Many of my posts dealt/deal with climate change, protecting our environment and being more aware of our actions here in the rich part of the world, which I would think are posts worthy of liking, thus it must be they either 1. Found me so annoying that even spreading good messages was appalling or 2. They were afraid of being judged by their “friends” for being stewards of the environment or 3. Just thought it was too much work to help a friend out (which kind of implies that we are not friends) or 4. Never actually had time to read or even push like (or sad emoji or whatever) 5. Had no idea I was blogging.

Whatever their reasons were, I realized that constantly sharing blog posts and not getting much of a response from people I hold dear had been affecting me negatively. (That might sound silly, to base your value on other’s opinions/engagement, but I think we need to admit that this is what social media does to (most of) us.)

I can also share that quitting Facebook has made me a more successful blogger! I define success as being proud of what I write, getting a text or two about the content I just published, increasing traffic (compared to previous month) and gaining a few followers. I run a very small blog and I don’t have hopes of becoming the next “big thing” but I want to spread the good word, help earth and help people feel better – obviously I need somebody to read ;) Happiness is success!

The few (spectacular) friends that used to follow and support my blog on Facebook have signed up to follow the blog via email and/or we follow each other on Instagram – which works so much better and is a much more positive space.

Ultimately, leaving Facebook behind allowed me to become “Sustainable Anna” which in turn has made me super excited about blogging again! (Pretty darn fantastic, if you ask me, that I feel that way about blogging almost four years, a pregnancy and a baby later.) In order to live a balanced life in which I can be good to earth and people, I need to be good to me.

To all of you who read, follow and keep this a positive space – thank you! I always welcome your comments, opinions and questions – stirring up conversation is why bloggers blog! We don’t always have all the answers, but we like to think that we do ;)

I would love to know if anyone else has cut the chords with social media in any way, shape or form and what happened after. Or maybe you just need a push to push that “delete” button? Also, do you think a blogger should stay on a social media platform that impacts their personal life negatively just for the potential to, maybe, “reach” people that wouldn’t normally read a green living blog? Let me know.

Xoxo Anna