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Why I'm Archiving My Facebook Groups

Why I'm Archiving My Facebook Groups

This week I'm sharing about my decision to archive my Facebook Groups and greatly minimize my time on this social media platform.

What archiving a Facebook Group means

As of today, my Machine Quilting Block Party and Leah Day Quilting Friends Facebook Groups will be archived. This means if you are a member you will be able to search the group and see older posts, but the group will be frozen in time and new posts will not be allowed.

Social Media Addiction

I'm targeting Facebook specifically because this platform more than any others has become really nasty. People are horrible to one another and the algorithm that makes Facebook work encourages that behavior. It's also very, very, VERY addictive and I don't think most people understand how or why.

I've been reading and watching videos on this for awhile, and I found the following video very helpful for understanding the addictive nature of these social media platforms: 

Affiliate link: I highly recommend Cal Newport's book Deep Work. This book was very inspiring to me to dig in, put my phone on airplane mode and stop allowing notifications to distract me constantly while I was writing and quilting.

I honestly don't think I would have ever finished my book Explore Walking Foot Quilting if I hadn't listened to that audiobook last summer.

This isn't who I want to be or what I want to be doing

I realized more than a year ago that Facebook was driving my husband Josh a bit crazy. He'd become obsessed with keeping our groups clean - free of spammers, porn, crazy people, and bullies. It wasn't an easy job and stuff would still slip through and get posted in the middle of the night so the first thing every morning he'd check his phone to see if the groups were okay.

This began hurting my feelings because hey - don't I get a good morning at least? And was this really good for us or our business? I didn't think so and I was starting to worry that it was causing Josh a lot of stress and anxiety that he didn't need to feel.

Ultimately I've had to tap into WHO I want to be and WHAT I want to be doing most - I want to be quilting. I want to be teaching you how to make beautiful quilts. 

I don't need Facebook groups which require tons of time and effort every week to do that. I think maintaining these groups has been taking me away being the best quilting teacher I can be.

Let's go quilt,

Leah Day

33 comments

Perfect. Thank you. And good for you both. <3

Brenda,

Leah, ive been looking for a new post from you for so very long. Decided today to investigate and of course discovered your decision with which I agree. So glad you’re continue in other venues. I love your style of teaching and your public teaching persona. You are a breath of fresh air. Keep up the good work. Will be following you via your chosen modes.
Blessings, Patricia Morrow, Knoxville, TN.

Patrícia Morrow,

Thank you being so honest and forthright about your decision to leave Fb. I, too, am reassessing my use. People and public events are making it uncomfortable and untenable in these times. Good for you and Josh for putting family first.

Judy Medford,

Thank you ALL so much for your kindness and support! Really, it’s amazing to me that I worried for so long about this decision and have found only support and understanding for this choice. Thank you!

Leah Day,
Hi Leah, I found your podcast today because I wanted something to listen to while I was loading a quilt onto my long arm frame and I hadn’t listened to one of yours for a while. I keep forgetting that they come out regularly LOL anyway, I just wanted to say that even though you make very good points about Facebook and social media that I do agree with, the thing that struck me most about this podcast is how you are willing to be so real and honest with all of us in a public forum, where most people try to put on a public persona instead of just being themselves. Obviously some personal things are nobody else’s business :-) but you tying in your personal experiences with video game issues and the difficulties with social media make your message much more credible than if you were just speaking the same words that everyone else does on this topic. I appreciate your honesty and your authenticity, and I completely understand why you would make this change. You were right that the advice especially for small businesses is to be on all the social media platforms in order to be seen and to become known. And it can eat up so much of your time. Finding the balance is difficult. You need to do you as they say! We try these things and see how they work, and when they don’t we need to change them. I really appreciate that you are not only willing to share your talent and inspiration with all of us, but you also portray a genuine concern for our over all well-being as crafters, as women, as business people, and as human beings in general just plugging along and trying to find our best path :-) I look forward to seeing all your new ideas play out and I respect your decision :-)
Ann Walsh,

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