Victoria's mayor joins #deletefacebook campaign

Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps says she's signing off on Facebook for good.

In a blog post shared on her personal Facebook page Thursday, Helps cited research to support her decision to delete her account by midnight Friday.

Helps' decision comes as a chorus of voices are calling for users to#deletefacebook. The campaign isin response to allegedefforts to influenceresultsinU.K and U.S. votes based onprofiles developed from Facebook data ontensof millions of people.

'Shrivelling our brains'

"It's become a negative echo chamber where positivity is shunned in favour of fear and anger," Helps told On the Island host GregorCraigie.

Her other key reasons for abandoning Facebook include research that points toits addictive effect, and evidence that digital distractions "are actually shrivelling our brains in the prefrontal cortex area."

"We need our brains for thinking and empathy," Helps said.

Helps' decisionreflects a dramatic shift for a politician who employed Facebook enthusiastically during hersuccessful 2014 campaign to become Victoria's mayor.

She alsoused the platform extensivelyto stimulate discussion of unconventionalideas,such as reducing homelessness by encouraging homeowners to open spare bedrooms to billeters.

Not anti-technology

Helps said she is not opposed to all social media platforms, though she doesn't use Twitter much.

At one point, she said, it was possible to use Facebook constructively, but it has changed.

"Facebook in particular is hampering rather than helping our ability to have a conversation about a lot of really difficult issues," she said.

However, she has not ruled out creating a Facebook page specifically for herupcoming campaign for re-election as mayor of Victoria.

Helps said plenty of options remain for contacting heroutside of Facebook, including email, text, phoning city hall, attending community drop-in events and using Facebook's separate Messenger app.

David Black, who lectures on online addiction as an associate professor of communication and culture at Royal Roads University, doubtsthe #deletefacebookmovement will succeed. The company is too big to fail and users crave the dopamine dose that's delivered to the brain duringsocial media activity.

Black does not use Facebook at all, he says.

With files from CBCRadio's On the Island with GregorCraigie.