Facebook Hiatus: Day 1

I wasn’t going to blog about my hiatus from Facebook, but a lot of friends have been asking how it’s going so far. I do have a few more things to say on the topic, so I guess I might as well blog about it while they’re still fresh on my mind.

Firstly, it has been quite liberating being disconnected from the cyberweb of Facebook. I didn’t fully grasp how cliquey and high school-ish Facebook is until I had been tuned out for several hours. Upon being released from the incessant jabber, it is now clear how insane, silly and ungodly addicting the social network giant has become. 

It has also been a little haunting not being connected to all of my 500+ friends and family that I include on my uber-important friend list. As I mentioned upon my departure yesterday, I was a bit of a voyeur. It was fun looking at wedding photos, and seeing friends’ posts about their new babies and what fun turns life has thrown their way. It’s a strange feeling knowing the world is going on without me watching it via Facebook.

Oddly enough, it turns out I “think” in status updates. Statusthink. This morning it was all I could do to stop thinking about things I could post. “Love the sunshine today!” “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood!” “Should have run this morning.” “Soooooo tired!”

A good friend called me brave for leaving. Is that what this world has come to? We need to be brave to not let our lives be sucked away from us and our brains turn to mush? I’ll admit, I probably acquired a lot more useful (random?) information after being exposed to it via Facebook, but at the price of what? Sacrificing my own sanity? My friend also made a good point when she said, “sometimes after reading other people’s posts on Facebook, I feel weird and unhappy. That can’t be good for my soul.”

She’s right. I feel exactly the same way. It can’t be good for the soul! To be perfectly honest, I don’t want to hear about other people’s political views. I don’t want to read how smart you think you are when you use exorbitantly large words in your status posts that no one would possibly know what they mean without consulting a dictionary. And I don’t really care about your mundane every day activities.

Good thing I didn’t post any of my statusthink. I would have broken all of my own rules.

I don’t know how long my Facebook hiatus is going to last, but to be brutally honest, I hope it lasts for a while. I like having my life back. More importantly, my thoughts. I like having my own space to breathe. Facebook can be stifling. I didn’t mind high school. But I don’t really want to relive it. I wouldn’t say it was the best time of my life. It certainly wasn’t my worst. But some things are better left in the past. Facebook is like high school all over again. I get to see what the popular girls are up to, who has gotten fat and who hasn’t, who has babies and who isn’t even dating anyone yet. It’s all very exciting. And trivial.

To quote one of my all-time, favorite characters in any movie I have ever seen (which is a lot, actually), Garth said it best:

“I’m having a good time… Not…”

Ah, Facebook. Goodbye, cruel world.

It’s nice to breathe my own air again.