A week ago yesterday I was sitting comfortable in the big chair at my house, spending the evening conversing with an old friend. We had covered the topics of career, marriage and relationships, upcoming events, etc. It was a good evening, and I had truly enjoyed his company.
Then he said something that was completely unprovoked and unnecessary – “we should sign off of Facebook for a whole week!”
Now, what went through my mind was “how effing stupid is that?! Why would I WANT to do that? Don’t you know that Facebook is how I connect with the world, and share my snarky wit and (sometimes) misguided enthusiasm for politics and religion? Who will I BE without that?!?”
What I said was “OK”
Dumb, huh?
So we each signed on one last time at 9:00PM on Wednesday evening, I to bid a fond farewell, he to harvest his crops from Farmville (which is a whole ‘nother discussion, believe you me!). Then we each deleted the Facebook app from our phones. Done and done!
As it turns out, it wasn’t as big of a deal as I had thought.
Sure, I missed the constant flow of information about what was going on in the lives of my friends and family (some more than others), and I didn’t know what to do with myself after writing a new blog post (where would I share it?), but overall, it was surprisingly easy.
I found other ways to connect – text, email, phone calls – all of these increased the minute I signed off Facebook. So the conclusion that I have come to is that I already connect and communicate, Facebook just makes it easier and extends the boundary of my social sphere.
It’s nice to be back.
