Saturday, September 13, 2014

Week 2 of No facebook is a rousing success

So here it is, September 13 already.  I de-activated my facebook account on August 31 because I found I was spending entirely too much time on there reading, playing games, and generally wasting my life.  The first few days were most difficult as it was a habit for me to check it every time I had a minute before. I had to remind myself that I wasn't on facebook right now when the desire to check it came over me.  I was like an addict missing my fix.  I felt ridiculous even caring about it.

A few days after the deactivation date, hubby and I drove long distances with his parents on our way to some sightseeing destinations and then to his daughter's wedding (which was beautiful).  I knitted in the car and took notes on my school books I have to write papers on when we stopped.  I didn't spend any time on facebook.  That's good because I didn't have time to spend, or waste.

It's funny though, that a few family members seemed annoyed at my being off facebook because they couldn't share pictures with me of the wedding and the family events easily.  I asked them to simply email the pictures to me.  Only one person has done that so far, and she's the mom of the groom who I didn't even know before.  (She is a lovely person that I would very much love to get to know better.)  Everyone else I suppose just assumes I'll see the error in my ways and rejoin facebook so I can get the pictures from those family members' pages.  Maybe, but maybe not.

Now I've been home for a week or so.  I'm still on the internet, I've been emailing and texting and talking (yes, talking!) with some dear friends who I used to keep up with more on facebook.  And it's been far more personal and enjoyable than a public facebook post or a private message session ever was.  I've been working on schoolwork more than I used to, (I just finished a paper last night!) and I've been spinning and doing things around the house that I've been putting off for a very long time.  Much of the time I'd not been doing all of those things in the past, I was on facebook.

And you know, I find that my mood is much better since I'm not on facebook.  I don't read things from my interest groups that distress or anger me, and I have somehow managed to live without my food groups and recipe sharing.  But mostly I don't spend time reading stuff that I can live without knowing.  Much of the information on facebook can be found elsewhere online, minus the copious amounts of comments, pissing contests, and negativity.  I find that I appreciate most not having people comment on everything because though everyone (even me!) is certainly entitled to their opinion, most people wouldn't be so crass or argumentative in person.  Rules of friendly and civil conversation seem to be suspended on facebook a good amount of the time.

So will I go back?  I'm not sure yet.  I'd given myself 30 days off to think about it and I still have 17 days to go.  If I had to make a decision right this moment, I'd say I probably won't return.  So feel free to email me, text me, or call.  And if you need my contact information, send me a message here and I'm glad to respond.  But don't send me a message on facebook.

1 comment:

Stephanie Ann said...

I didn't like facebook when it came out and only got a facebook account recently because no one would contact me otherwise.

I've gone facebookless at different times and admit it does become something of an addiction. I've made as rule that I quickly scroll through my newsfeed and once I hit something I have seen before, I turn it off.