No More Facebook (for now ...)

I've made a decision to cancel my Facebook account for a while.  I've been told that even if you deactivate, the minute you try to sign in again, it just reactivates everything the way it was before.  So, to make it a little harder for me to "get back into it," I'm also going to de-connect all of my friends; at least I'll have to start from 0 when I come back in.

(If you are a Facebook Friend, don't take it personally when I "cancel" our Facebook connection - I'm doing it to everyone.)

It's almost certain that this won't be permanent, but I do want it to be long enough to get myself out of the habit and un-addicted.

This evening, as I was viewing Facebook, I smelled the smoke of a backyard campfire coming in through an open window.  Why wasn't I at a campfire? Facebook.

I have about 1000 things to do that would be better ways of spending time than Facebook.  Some are big things, like family or religion.  Others are little things, like this blog.  I want to replace some of my screen-connections with real face-to-face connections.  When I am online, I want it to be something more productive.

There are things I hate about Facebook, like the adictive-ness, and the compulsion I've started feeling that sharing something on this public bulletin board actually makes some difference in reality. Sorry to say so, but I can't stand those ridiculous pictures people put up with the one-liner commentaries on life, politics, religion, or cats. And of course, those discussions we let ourselves get into are just so silly.  By far the worst, is the time I waste.

There are good things I like about it too.  I love seeing pictures of nieces and nephews or my friends.  It's nice to find out soon when something wonderful happens, easily offer some consolation to someone going through a hard time or simply be up-to-date with where people are and what they're doing. People have also shared many great articles on Facebook.  It's been a good way to re-connect with people I may not have otherwise found again. When I do get back onto Facebook sometime in the future, I look forward to enjoying these items again.

These are the things I first started using Facebook for. I started using it more, on a daily basis, to publicize this blog.  Ironically, it started eating away at my blogging time, little by little; now I'm on FB several times a day, but I write a blog post less than once a month.  Maybe I can start posting again regularly without FB.

Let's see if this little experiment works.