Monday, March 28, 2011

How would my life be different without Facebook?

It is interesting that this question should be brought up in class today because I am currently, in a sense, experimenting or experiencing life without Facebook.

In the Catholic religion, we are in the season of Lent. Lent is (approximately) the 40 days of preparation for Easter and it is custom to "give up" something or to make some sort of sacrifice that will ultimately help you to focus on your faith and reflect on what this time means to you. In the past, my sister and I have given up sweets or chocolate or desserts, the usual things, things that we are relatively addicted to. But this year I decided to try something a little different. This year I have "given up" Facebook.

I have only had a Facebook account since I have come to college. Not having great internet access at my house, it was more trouble than it was worth to have it during high school. But once I got into it...I was hooked. I became a Facebook fiend in very little time; constantly wanting to see who posted what on my wall or chat with someone (someone who I could have just called on the phone). Soon enough I made it easier for myself and put the site on my favorites bar on my computer so that I needed only to click the button rather than click into the search bar and type "f" to have it come up first in my drop-down list. Things were faster and more efficient with that step eliminated. The scary thing was, I knew that I spent too much time getting lost in the world of status updates and "likes" but I didn't really change my habits; I merely admitted guiltily that I wasted too much of my time. So it was not difficult to recognize what would be one of the bigger sacrifices for me this year.

In making my decision, I knew that not having Facebook for the season of Lent would help me in more ways than one. Besides the religious aspect of it all, my hope was that I would spend more time on my academic studies and that I would be able to pay more attention to my classes. Not only that but without Facebook, I could try to bring back the sense of real person-to-person interaction; something that has been dulled and faded since the outbreak of Facebook. In order to get in touch with someone, it is now necessary for me to either meet them in person, text them (though not a great alternative), call them, or talk to them via Skype. For the most part these forms of communication are a lot more personal than chatting on the internet and, therefore, a positive outcome of my lack of Facebook.

It has been three weeks since I have been without Facebook, by no means a truly significant achievement but certainly a start. Though I will admit that I went through a slight withdrawal during the first week or so, I am now very pleased with my modified lifestyle. I honestly feel as though I am not missing anything important, in fact, I no longer really struggle with the desire to break my Lenten promise. I have been getting more sleep and have been (I think) accomplishing more work, two changes that I assume happened because I am not constantly part of that social network.

I don't deny that Facebook is, at times, a very useful tool. It can help people stay connected from great distances,  help people find old acquaintances, and provide a certain level of entertainment and fast communication. In this generation, however, people have overused this form of social networking to the point of abuse. Many people (young people especially) are too dependent on Facebook, and I will be the first to say that I was one in that crowd. But I think that my life without Facebook has gone through more improvements than drawbacks. Perhaps because it is a conscious effort, I have been far more productive in doing things that I never thought to do, reading the books I've been meaning to read, and spending that extra 15 minutes studying. Above all, I think that life without Facebook has made me realize just how much time I waste when I could be doing all kinds of more significant things!

Although I am pretty sure that I will go back to using Facebook after Easter...okay let's be realistic, the day of Easter...I will hopefully not use it as frequently or as mindlessly as I did before.

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