"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." -Emerson

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Life after facebook

So, I am now almost 3 weeks without facebook. I didn't even realize it had been that long until today. Wow. I must say, I am about amazed by my restraint to simply log back in because if there is one thing this girl lacks, it is self control. And when testing yourself in the area of self control, it seems that temptation can become louder and more difficult to resist.

As I look back at the last 3 weeks, I think about the lessons this little experiment has taught me. Here is round 2 of facebook free teachings:
1.) Quitting cold turkey is essential when trying to refocus your energies. Now, I know quitting was a bit on the extreme side, but honestly, in order to push myself, it was the only way. I think that had I simply limited my time on fb, I would have been back to my ol' time wasting, diverting real human interaction ways.
2.) In this technological age, the less we have to "check," the better! I mean, with everything: facebook, myspace, 3 email accounts, bank accounts, news, etc. etc. etc. we can (or at least I can) occupy a whole day just "checking" things. It almost becomes a MUST, a need rather than what it is: a simple want. I had become so convinced that I HAD to check my FB, that I was putting this false "need" above real ones.
3.) Life can be lived without constant connection...this has been the biggest shocker. Even though I feel more distant from those whom I only occassionally chatted with via facebook, it has made me think about connecting in other, more personal ways such as email or phone calls. The constant connection to a whole lot of people who don't all know me on an intimate level is not necessary to live a full life!

Alright, my mind is wandering about all the things I can be doing with my facebook free time.

Here's to lessons learned...
Until next time,
-C.

2 comments:

steph said...

I can hardly believe what I am reading b/c my mom and I just had this discussion last weekend when my husband and I were in town visiting my parents. She and I both have felt God tugging at our hearts to hit that delete button on our facebook accounts. Facebook has certainly become "noise" in our lives and has caused friendships to suffer rather than to grow and thrive. I don't know why I haven't hit that delete button yet...I suppose the temptation to know what everyone else is doing gets the best of me. I have lost friendships through our last deployment and I keep checking my "lost" friends' FB pages to see what I'm being excluded from. How insane is that! Why do I subject myself to that kind of hurt? I know I would feel free if I just clicked delete. Thanks for sharing something that is so hard to talk about!

Blooh said...

Hi, I've been contemplating deleting my facebook account since last year. Last night I decided to finally do it and today just started searching for "Life after facebook" stuff on google and your blog came up. I really like what you wrote and so I just wanted to thank you for sharing it. I wish God was the reason why I'm deleting my account but I know that this decision is at least God-led.