I Had Half A Million Followers On Facebook And Deleted My Page — Here’s Why

Three years ago, I deleted a 500,000 follower Facebook Page.

I cried writing my farewell post.

I literally sat in front of my keyboard and cried while typing.

Hundreds of videos, posts, live streams, and more were about to get deleted.

Why?

Damn. There’s a lot of reasons.

But first, many reading this might wonder why I’d do such a thing. It took me three years of consistent work to grow it to 500,000 followers. Couldn’t I use it for something else?

Maybe it could help me get a book deal or something, right?

If you find yourself wondering these things, I’ll humbly tell you this..

These are the wrong questions to ask.

Here’s why, along with an explanation of why I did what I did..

Any Benefits You Get With Half A Million Followers Aren’t Worth The Headache

Half a million followers.

I basically had a laser beam of attention I could point anywhere.

Do I want views on my latest blog post?
*Share*

Do I want views on my latest Youtube video?
*Share*

I got instant traffic to anything I wanted. Those were the benefits.

And trust me, it feels good to have people give a crap about stuff you share with them.

However, as I created more videos about my travels in the Philippines, I had this itching desire to start talking about more important topics.

I saw a lot of crazy stuff in that country, and I started wondering why there were so many people living in poverty there.

For me, it always got back to the government.

There’s a respectable amount of reports that come out every now and then highlighting possible corruption in the Philippines government. Politicians stealing money here and there.

Marcos, who many Filipinos STILL believe is the greatest President they ever had, got in trouble in the United States for embezzling some $100 million from the Philippines government.

With all of this corruption documented, proven, and in plain sight for everybody to see, you might think there’d be no debate about this these days.

But there is.

Some Filipinos, when you tell them about this stuff, tell you this is all “fake news” and just attempts by the Western media to discredit the greatest administration the Philippines ever had.

Trust me, I heard it a million times in the comments.

If you think the United States has a divisive political landscape, just wait until you say something against the current administration in the Philippines.

You’ll get crucified, told to “stay out of politics,” immediately unfollowed, and probably get called a bunch of ridiculous names.

Long story short, I swam in that end of the pool for three years. I tried to make a difference. I brought up facts. I linked to reputable sources. I talked to tons of Filipinos. The more people I talked to, the more I realized how dark and shady the current administration was.

Trust me when I say the tidal wave of hate was substantial.

Hundreds of comments in a matter of minutes. All saying (pretty much) the same thing. “Bobo! Stay out of politics. Good riddance! We don’t want you here.”

All for trying to make a difference.

Can you start seeing why deleting my page seemed real attractive after a while?

I Should’ve Been Able To Handle This

A lot of people love to say “Well, if you can’t handle the comments, you shouldn’t be posting.”

Sure.

But you probably haven’t experienced hundreds of shitty comments raining down on your head either.

The sheer volume kinda changes things a little bit.

Despite that, there’s truth to the statement that if I’m posting stuff online, I should be able to handle everything that comes along with it.

It’s the price I pay.

That’s why I stopped paying and deleted my page.

Social Media Doesn’t Change Opinions — It Only Amplifies Them

“That was a really great comment. I’m going to change my mind about this. Thank you for the wonderful conversation!”

Said nobody on social media ever.

I realized, after two years of blasting messages straight into people’s newsfeeds around the world, that we can’t change people’s opinions on social media.

It’s not possible.

We can only amplify their current ones.

We can amplify them positively or negatively.

They either agree or disagree.

And people in one category never switch over to the other category.

Maybe I’m cynical. Maybe you’ve seen someone change their mind on social media. In all my years I’ve never seen it happen.

I Got Disillusioned By Trying To Help, And Decided To Retire

The truth of the matter is, I got wiser over the years.

Three years ago I thought I could change minds and make a difference in the Philippines using social media.

Now I realize it’s impossible.

Whatever they want to do in their country is totally up to them.

I’ll stick to writing, and fill my day with butterflies, rainbows, and whiskers on kittens.

I tried.

I understand this post is kind of niche, but I wanted to bring up the downsides of growing a following and trying to influence public opinion on the internet. It’s basically impossible if you’re actually writing about meaningful stuff. Just be ready for that.

Get my free 6-day course ‘How to get 100 subscribers on Substack in 30 days’ right here. It’s brand new! Let’s keep real writing alive together.