So I recently decided to detox myself from Facebook for a while...90 days to be exact. From December 8th to March 8th. Recognized how stuck on Facebook I was.
Been active on there since 2005, when it first came to Arcadia University and the options on there were posting pictures, Poking people and WAY before the newsfeed became such a thing. It was a way to reconnect with classmates and old high school friends and create albums that chronicled your time in college.
Once it was opened to the public, it became a way to connect with family, follow your favorite celebrities, play games with friends and get almost up to the minute updates about how the world was doing. Messaging became more like chatting with someone, and it became a way to network professionally.
I'm not saying Facebook is a good or bad thing...I'm saying my personal reliance on it has become a not so good thing.
A friend of mine (and I can say friend in the true sense of the word since I know this person outside of facebook) once stated it outright, but I had seen it and heard it a bunch of other places. Our online profile has become where we put the best possible version of ourselves out there. We clean up and craft our profiles just right to hide any possible character flaws that we may see. We post our opinions on there about world events as if putting it on Facebook is going to put it right in view of all of the big wigs in Washington. We post funny videos because we want to share them with friends, yet some of the time we're even in the same room with these people. A lot of people have gotten to the point where we actually get depressed or anxious when what we post doesn't get the attention we hoped it would.
I've gotten to the point where it will actually bug me until I find out how many "likes" or comments I've gotten on a particular post. Even as I write this, I keep wanting to open another tab on my window just to check my notifications or messages. And I've realized that this obsessive tick has actually distracted me so much that there have been days at work where I get nothing done because I obsessively continue to check Facebook. I will stay up till quite late at night, lying in bed, absentmindedly scrolling through the newsfeed to see what I might have missed in the last 20 mins. This is not a good thing. Not when I'm 27 and still living in my parent's basement.
So I'm giving myself this challenge.
Come the end of the day on December 7th, 2013, I will be doing the following:
1. Stay off Facebook for 90 days.
--(90 from Dec 8th is March 8th...just in time for my birthday on the 12th!)
2. Actually sitting down and reading this stack of books I've had building up for years.
3. Making sure I get to the gym at least twice a week
4. Get to sleep at a decent time
------ (11:30, midnight ain't cutting it anymore)
5. Manage my money better
-----(Terri! Check out www.bettermoneyhabits.com)
6. Continue looking for new job and new place to live
7. Clean out all the material crap that has built up over the years.
-----(For some reason I have a hard time getting rid of things.
Not full blown hoarder, but mild pack rat.
But that stuff builds up and it's time to clear out the clutter)
I think 7 tasks is a good number...keep it a lucky number...*shrug*
My biggest obstacle with staying off Facebook will be at work. Working at a day job where I sit in front of a computer all day, bored out of my mind with the data entry stuff, will drive me up a wall wanting to distract myself with what's going on with Facebook. But I need to remind myself that work comes first. I could be doing plenty of other things too, like looking for jobs or apartments or reading scripts or anything else.
So this is my challenge to myself for the Christmas season then New Years then into Valentines Day. My hope is by my 28th birthday in March, I will be in a new living situation with a new job, and well on my way to saving for the many places I want to go to in the next few years. More on that in future posts. For now, signing off.
OFFICIALLY T-24 DAYS AND COUNTING TILL FACEBOOK GOES DARK. (for me at least :-P)
No comments:
Post a Comment