I’ve decided to quit using Facebook for at least 30 days. In other words, I’m on a Facebook fast.<\/p>\n
I had actually started my fast on Monday, March 25th, 2013. …That was over 3 weeks ago already!<\/p>\n
I logged in only once that day to announce my Facebook fast and message a few people to let them know to contact me via email or twitter if they wanted to keep in touch during the fast. Then I logged out, and haven’t logged back in to my Facebook account since.<\/p>\n
My Facebook usage history has gone up and down in waves. Some days or weeks, I found that I wasn’t spending very much time on the site at all, while other times, I came to realize that I was spending a ridiculous amount of time on the social media networking site… mainly as a source or entertainment, socializing, and as a frequent method of procrastination. More often than not, my Facebook usage has tended to be on the high side.<\/p>\n
The main reason I’ve decided to give up Facebook and go on a Facebook fast is to free up energy and attention that I’d otherwise spend on some pretty mundane Facebook updates and interactions. …Seriously, I know you love cats and all (I think they’re cute too), but even so, I don’t need to see and like or share a dozen cat pics a day!\u00a0 \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n
I don’t watch cable TV (it’s an extremely rare occurrence for me), and as such, I rely on the Internet for much of my amusement and entertainment. (Hello Netflix! Although Netflix Canada<\/a> doesn’t have the same offerings as Netflix US<\/a>,\u00a0 it will at times have titles that its US counterpart is missing.) … And Facebook, you could say, is sort of akin to a form of reality entertainment. Big Brother, anyone?\u00a0 Or Jerry Springer, perhaps? I’m not quite sure what the best analogy would be. It would depend on the quality of one’s friends on Facebook and what they tend to post. In the case of my Facebook feed, it’s probably some kind of hybrid between Oprah, The Food Network, and some kind of animal lovers and parenting network. This certainly isn’t a bad mix, and I appreciate my friends. But too much TV, even if it’s a really good TV, isn’t necessarily a good thing.<\/p>\n After having been off Facebook for over three weeks already, I honestly can’t say I miss it. My life seems to feel simpler because of it, and I see this as a good thing. I’m not a big fan of unnecessary drama, and I’m sure anyone who’s a frequent user of Facebook (or any other social networking site, for that matter) is familiar with the frequent drama that seems to go with the territory. I also have more time to read, write, meditate, exercise, go for walks, watch films, etc.<\/p>\n That said, I do wonder how my friends are doing. Only a few friends have kept in touch outside of Facebook. When you think about it, it’s kind of crazy how much we rely on a 3rd party internet social networking service to stay in touch, instead of good ol’ fashioned email or phone calls.<\/p>\n After the 30 days of my Facebook fast are up, I imagine I’ll log back on to see if I have any private messages, and I’ll likely contact a few people that I’m only able to contact via Facebook due to not having their direct email address on file. But aside from that, I don’t intend to use it every day as I would in the past prior to my Facebook fast. I’m guessing I’ll only check it two or three times a week once the fast is done, or I may even decide to give it up entirely and close my account. We shall see!<\/p>\n The next time I check my Facebook after my fast is over, I’ll be logging on from Berlin, Germany! \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you’re a Facebook user, how much time do you<\/em> tend to spend on Facebook each day? …A week? A month?? Just think of how much time we waste on Facebook a year!<\/p>\n If you find you spend an hour or more on Facebook each day, I’d strongly recommend going on a Facebook fast. It’s possible the quality of your life will dramatically improve as a result.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ve decided to quit using Facebook for at least 30 days. In other words, I’m on a Facebook fast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,63],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rachellefordyce.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rachellefordyce.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rachellefordyce.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rachellefordyce.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rachellefordyce.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rachellefordyce.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rachellefordyce.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rachellefordyce.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rachellefordyce.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}