40 Days Without Facebook

I’ve managed to avoid Facebook for a little over a day so far.  Only 39 more to go.  I haven’t broken out into night sweats or seen dead babies crawling across my ceiling just yet, but I was feeling dizzy and lightheaded today.  Why does it seem like good health is always so fleeting?  Maybe I really do need to get back to running.  And lay off the ramen.  At any rate, the health issue probably had more to do with diet or blood sugar (and hopefully nothing more serious) than with Facebook, which is what we’re here to talk about. 

I don’t normally bother observing Lent, but I thought it would be interesting to try this year.  A couple of weeks ago, I was at work, on Facebook, which I’m allowed to do a little bit for gathering work-related info and the like.  But while I was on there, I realized how easily I get distracted and begin perusing my news feed and just plain wasting time.  Working at a computer all day, it’s so easy to just click on over to Facebook anytime there’s a lull.  I thought about this and looked over at my calendar on the wall next to my desk, to see when Ash Wednesday was.  “Hmm,” I thought. “Maybe that would be good for me.”

So here we are, 26-ish hours in and going strong.  I’ve gone for long periods without using Facebook before, but only when I’ve been out of the country or busy and away from a computer.  I think, for the first few days, it will be tough to avoid checking up on my friends via Facebook.  In addition to being a huge distraction from real productivity, it’s also such a great communication tool.  It’s a one-stop shop for sending and receiving messages and party invitations, and for keeping in touch with my outer circles of friends, who I don’t see on a regular basis.  It even keeps me up to date on some of the goings-on with inner-circle friends when we don't make the effort to call each other. 

I’m sure I’ll feel out of the loop for a little while, but I’ll get used to using my phone and email as my main communication tools.  I bet I’ll even feel relieved to not have Facebook as a constant distraction or one more thing that I have to keep up with.  Sort of like the peaceful feeling I get when I turn my phone off when I’m out of the country. 

And even though my only other attempt at observing Lent failed within two and a half weeks (I couldn’t last very long without soda pop; I just get these cravings), I feel better about this one.  It’ll just take some getting used to.  And it’s a little disappointing that no one will read my blog during this time, since Facebook is by far the best place to set up links pointing my friends and family here.  I mean, it's not like anyone ever checks this blog on their own.  And I'm certainly not going to email links to everyone I know.  I guess I’ll just have to tweet this.