Close that book! Facebook that is—Three weeks without the most popular social network
Three weeks ago I made the decision to deactivate my facebook, the fact alone that this is an event worth mentioning in my life is sad enough but it’s the world we live in now, and after the 7-step process to finally be done with it, my new life began.
The three years I spent on facebook seem to be a major part of my life, with college starting and coming to an end, meeting new people and showcasing everything on my mind… but did facebook actually start controlling me? I realized one day that I was never really off facebook—just away from my computer for a period of time. I would get excited when I had friend requests and I would get frustrated when notification weren’t relevant to me specifically. I was always mindlessly scrolling through my news feed and friends’ profiles waiting for something of interest to pop up, rarely ever being truly interested in the content but more-or-less simply having a need to know that I wasn’t missing anything. I attempted to use it simply as a networking tool to get my name further out into the blogosphere, but the endless ramblings and drunken snapshots of my peers grew to be too great—I could not handle the actual uselessness that facebook had become to my life yet still always be use it. For these and other reasons, it was April 14, 11:59 p.m. EST that I deactivated (notice I did not delete it—because you can’t, they pretty much know everyone will come back eventually…scary) my facebook.
It was honestly weird the first couple days. I found myself just sitting around during the time I was normally browsing facebook. I even had a friend ask if I was mad at her because she couldn’t find me on facebook. My habits started changing as the days went on and I began to fill that time with a social life and school work. I was more productive in school, went out more with friends and actually felt less stress without the constant drama that comes with facebook (you all know you see those things you never wanted to see about certain people, but you seek them out anyway). I felt liberated from the death grip that this site had on me and 400 million other people in the world. I didn’t worry about what anyone might see on my page, what anyone would write on my page or any of that stuff that even if you don’t think you think about you actually do and it actually takes up valuable parts of your mind and life that could be spent elsewhere.
I met new people and they couldn’t find me on facebook so it drove them to actually have to have a vested interest in getting to know me, which meant I wasn’t just another friend on the wall but an actual person they wanted to get to know.
I did reactivate my facebook, mainly out of curiosity. I want to see if I go back to my old ways or if contact with people is regained simply because now I have a facebook again when a cell phone is just an arm’s reach away. Who knows what will come of facebook in the future… soon it may take over the world and control every mind logged on to it.
Do you have the courage to leave facebook? Give it a try. You may find yourself never going back. I know I’m already considering it again.
