Facebook Fast - #6

Format: 1-week challenge

Goal: Deactivate Facebook for a week. As I told Facebook when deactivating:

I'm far too addicted at Facebook at the moment and want to see what my communications with people will turn into without it. Will people stay in touch? Will I get back in touch with the real world? Will I discover that this IS the real world? Only time will tell!

Goal met? Splendidly.

Terms you should know:

Deactivation - As it relates to Facebook, deactivation is the temporary suspension of your account. No information is removed and an account can be reactivated by simply logging in.

So here’s what happened:

Day 1: Immediately after deactivating: Felt weirdly relieved and freed, but still sorta shackled, like I had to delete the thing to really be free of it. Which is silly; there's no way I'm deleting. I keep in touch with way too many people through it and I've got quite a history recorded there.

Day 2: This is weird. I'm, like... doing my homework.

Days 3-4: Not actually missing it too much. I'll miss it because I'm bored or because I want to send someone an awesome link and don't have their email, but other than that... life's cooler with real people.

Day 5: I keep thinking things and wanting to put them as status updates, and then I realize I can't. It's sad... not because it really matters but because it's showing me how lonely I am here. There's no one to just tell random thoughts to. I miss my best friend. And occasionally I'll see things I really want to share with people, but I can't because I don't have another way to get a hold of them. Half the people I know that aren't around here I communicate with solely through Facebook.

Having said all of that, though, it's kind of nice. I'm rediscovering things on the internet that are a much better use of my time as well as finding more time for doing things offline that I enjoy... like reading crazy amounts of young adult fiction for a class I'm in.

Also, I'm reaching for the phone more. Not to talk --- I hate talking on the phone --- but to text. Texting isn't exactly the holy grail of person-to-person communication but I find I prefer that direct link rather than the general by-the-way sense a Facebook status or notification provides.

Day 6: I almost gave in. You see, I'm bored. I have no hot guys to hang out with and I hung out with my only friend here yesterday. I'd hate to smother her just as I'm learning that she's better(-)than(-)sex cake. Other than that, all of my friends are online. Bleeaaaargh.

Pride conquers all, though: I would be a loser if I quit two days early so I wrote instead. It was a good use of my time.

Also, side note, I think I'm going to begin work on a weird alternatively-formatted memoir that will alienate me from most of my friends, most of whom are on Facebook, thus 1) creating a work of interesting literature and 2) removing the Facebook temptation. Spiffy, eh?

Oh, also, weird thing: I logged into MySpace. I know! Crazy! MySpace is dead! But I logged in anyway. And --- you're never gonna believe this --- people still use MySpace. Weird or what?

Day 7: Time's up. I just reactivated and realized that there was really nothing I wanted to do on Facebook so I logged back out. 

There's part of me that wants to do a massive purge and delete 90% of my friends list, but I've decided against this. I like being able to instantly contact almost anyone I know and it's nice to stay up to date on major life events of acquaintances (marriage, moves and the like). I did, however, go though and delete a bunch of people I didn't know or want to stay in touch with, which brought my count from 303 to 244.

As for now... I'm just going to be logging in a whole lot less. If I find myself going there whenever I'm bored I'll deactivate again, or do a huge purge, or do something to make it all more real. As for now, Facebook has been relegated to a complex address book I will turn to when I need to get a hold of people or want to share information (like, for example, new blog posts).

Try this:

1. Just do it. Really. If you've started to use Facebook instead of real communication, just turn it off. See what happens. I ended up having more real conversations with people and got a lot more done, and I didn't miss it that much. Facebook's awesome, don't get me wrong, but awesomer stuff (like cheerful men on beaches, see photo) is mostly found in real life.

Next challenge: Dating Myself

Images by benstein and dannysullivan and craigallyn