Free from Facebook since June 23
Despite popular belief, life without Facebook doesn’t suck. In fact, it is quite liberating.
Though, this newfound freedom was not easily obtained. Facebook was much harder to give up than I thought.
I chose to quit the social network with my friend Neil Blake, whose motivation was to simplify his life, losing the clutter of its unnecessary factors.
“It wasn’t a good thing in my life,” Blake said. “I wasn’t using it for anything to better me. The site was just a waste of time.”
After hearing his reasoning, I was in. He needed someone to struggle through kicking the habit alongside him and misery loves company.
Would I miss the photos of friends, the constant barrage of updates in my News Feed on the people I love? Sure. But there is a significant difference between learning what a friend is doing in Thailand and which high school crush has been knocked up.
But, selfishly, it was to refocus my energies into something productive and trust me, it was necessary.
Any time I sat down at a computer, whether on my laptop at my apartment, in class, at work or even snagging my old roommate’s cell phone, my fingers guided themselves to log in.
Losing five years of muscle memory to me was the equivalent of a heroin detox. No, my hands weren’t tied down, nor was I locked into a room until I was cleansed of the habit. But my nervous twitch was nearly unstoppable. “Idle hands are the devil’s play things” is an understatement.
At least three times a day for the first week, I had to force quit the browser before it would reactivate my username and password.
Finding your true friends
I was over the hump, or so I thought. I forgot having more than 1,200 Facebook friends would prove problematic when people were used to my status updates to keep up with my life.
Aside from Neil, my other two best friends noticed I was Facebook-less immediately. One was heartbroken, not because she wouldn’t be able to talk to me, but rather that all of the images I uploaded and tagged to the site were gone.
“I just want to look at photos of us,” she admittedly said with a whine. “I mean, all of the photos you took of me are gone too.”
She wasn’t the only one to tell me.
As a photographer, I shoot a lot of photos of my friends. I have accumulated a countless number of photos (I am not on Facebook anymore, so I can’t count, but it must be close to 2,000-plus).
Friends called, texted and e-mailed me upset at the disappearance of nearly 300 photos on their accounts because of my departure.
Every other day, I received some form of commentary that I was Facebook-free. Some were concerned, others confused. Very few were congratulatory.
My brother Joshua expressed his concerns six weeks into my crusade. That’s when he first realized I was no longer on the site. I wouldn’t say I was hurt because at this point, I found incredible humor in who would notice next.
“I feel like this is a huge commitment, and a big step for you,” he said. “I mean, nobody quits Facebook. It’s near impossible. I am impressed.”
He wasn’t the only one to say it and I think it says something about the culture our generation is creating through social networking. If you are not on Facebook, you are labeled an outcast.
Rather, I think it’s visionary. Not being on Facebook allows you to live your life, and stop worrying about others’ meaningless status updates. You come closer to the people you love, which ultimately, is exactly what life is all about.
My advice is to lose Facebook and live your life.
