The 5 Day Facebook Fast!

I will admit it, I'm a facebook junkie.  I get home from work or school and immediately check my facebook.  I enjoy being able to keep up with some many people by not having to call and talk to them.  It's my way of being personal with people by being impersonal.  So when it came time for me to do my next blog post, I wanted to find something that would be hard for me to go without.  Facebook instantly came to mind.  I tried to pass over the notion of going without facebook, but I kept going back to it.  So I started my "diet".  I decided to not do anything on facebook for 5 days, and see how I felt after it.  This is my journey...

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Day One
I started the day like any other day.  I got up and got ready for work.  I usually don't leave any extra time in my morning to check my facebook, so I had no issues until I got to work.  I work at a cafe, and every morning I get on the Cafe's Facebook Fan page to promote some kind of drink.  I walked over to the computer and realized that I couldn't open Internet Explorer without breaking my fast.  I quickly walked away from the computer and waited for someone else to come in to do it for me. When I got home from work the first thing I did was turn on my laptop.  With a blink of an eye, I was on the Facebook home page. I wasn't even 12 hours into my fast and I broke it, but wait, I haven't logged in yet.  So I decided that I didn't break any rules, because I wasn't technically looking at my facebook.  I went about my business doing homework for school, and fought many temptations to take a peek at my page.

Day Two
After getting use to the idea that I had to be careful around any computer, not logging into facebook became easier.  I had more free time throughout the day to study. This is the day I realized how much time I would spend of facebook.  Just getting on to check people's status updates would turn into 30 minutes of exploring different pages. I enjoyed having more time to do things that didn't consist of me sitting in front of a computer screen.

Day Three
This day was the hardest. I desperately wanted to know what was going on in many of my friend’s lives, but didn't want to take the time to call them all. I called a few of my friends, just to check in on them.  It seemed out of place to have a whole phone conversation, really about nothing.  I felt like I was back in junior high, talking on the phone for hours, until I would be yelled at by my mom to get off.  Having long conversations on a phone is just not part of my life anymore.

Day Four
After reconnecting with many of my friends the day before, I felt great.  There was no need to get on facebook, I knew what was going on in the lives of the people who were important to me.  I went to school and work as I usually did. With my extra time that I usually spent on facebook, I took my dogs to the park to play.  It was a wonderful evening without technology.

Day Five
I finally felt use to not having a facebook, and wondered if I should just get rid of it even after my 5 day fast.  I felt better because I wasn’t spending too much time on the computer.  I was able to spend more time outside.  It made me reconnect with friends on a deeper level. I knew that if I could go without facebook for 5 days, I could go without forever.  I spent most of the day deciding on what I should do and came to this conclusion. Facebook is a wonderful tool to keep in touch with people you wouldn’t necessarily keep in touch with.  It has many pros and cons.  I decided that I just need to stop being completely addicted to it.  The 5 day fast made me open my eyes to what I can accomplish within a day that I didn’t think I had time for before. So I will be keeping my facebook, but you won’t see me “online” nearly as much.