three days and counting

last week it seemed that everywhere I looked online, people were talking about why facebook is bad for us.  it’s like everyone was reading my mind because i’ve been struggling with this for a while.  so I read quite a few blogs and articles, including these:

 6 reasons social media is dangerous for me - from momastery

inspiration diet - from life with greyson + parker

just checking - from love saves lives 

and decided to spend a few days away from facebook.  my intent was only to spend three days away.  just enough to clear my head and focus on more important things over the weekend.  but the longer i was away from it, the more i realized I don’t need it.  i’m not even sure that i want it anymore.

 

 

now I know many (most?) people can handle facebook just fine.  but i’m not one of those people.  i get lonely.  jealous.  insecure.  competitive. judgemental. and more when i spend too much time on facebook.  it’s a distraction and major time suck for me.  i took facebook off of my phone a few weeks ago and that’s one of the best decisions i’ve ever made.  logging off completely would be an even better decision, although i’m not sure i can take that big of a leap right now. 

before stepping away, i set up facebook to notify me of friend requests, tagged photos of me, private messages and any activity in the private groups i belong to.  this way i can take care of any business that applies to me, hopefully without facing the temptation of browsing facebook for hours seeing all that is going on with all of my “friends”.  i’m hoping this arrangement works out for me.  this weekend i realized these things:

•  i am ten million times more productive without facebook.  i actually had wide open blocks of time this weekend with nothing to do.  my kids were playing quietly.  i was caught up on my planned chores.  i finished a reading novel.  and there were still a few hours before bedtime.  how could this be?  normally i feel like i am just. so. busy. but now I think that was a lie.  i have a feeling i was just spending way too much time online.

• my mind is more relaxed when it’s not filled with “junk”.  status updates are often like clutter.  or i guess it’s like reading a people or us magazine.  it’s not information that is relevant to my life so why do i spend so much time sucking it in?  by not scrolling through status updates multiple times throughout the day, i had more room in my brain to focus on the important things.  i was even able to practice yoga yesterday evening and calmly rest in savasana for five minutes.  (that’s normally impossible for me.)

• one of the reasons I have been considering leaving facebook is because i’ve realized i can be really critical and judgmental (just being totally honest here).  i hate this about myself and know it has got to stop. but facebook can be a breeding ground for criticizing and judging others. if I’m not reading status updates 24/7, the opportunity to constantly judge and criticize other people’s actions isn’t there.   

so I’m still a little worried that I’m missing out.  and I’m still craving the distraction facebook provides when i don’t want to deal with real life (something else i need to work on…!).  but overall, i think being apart from facebook may be life changing for me.  sure that sounds dramatic, but i’m pretty sure it’s true.  i’ll have to provide an update in a month or two to see how things are going.  i really think i’m going to try to stay as far away from facebook as possible going forward.  at least until my kids are old enough to join, although i’m hoping by then facebook will no longer exist!