Wednesday, July 6, 2011

My Facebook Adventure, Part II

As I mentioned yesterday, I deactivated my Facebook for a few days last week as a sort of experiment. The experiment taught me a great deal about the way I manage time (and the way my use of time occasionally manages me!).

1. I log-in to FB without thinking far too often. I deactivated my Facebook account Monday night. Before 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning, I had started to log in more times than I care to admit. There was never a particular reason. It was just an automatic reflex.

2. My creative energy started to become massively productive by mid-Tuesday morning. Bits and pieces that would have turned into meaningless status updates instead developed as I went about my day, turning into blog posts and brainstormed bits for my thesis, among other things.

3. I had more time in the morning. I slept in later than usual throughout last week, but even with less time, I managed to accomplish far more before leaving for work than I normally do.

4. I didn't miss Facebook as much as I thought I would. I was surprised by how little pressure I suddenly felt to check my feed or my messages. I felt relieved as if I had suddenly turned down an enormous obligation. I didn't miss out anything important. People who needed to contact me simply e-mailed or called me instead.

5. Facebook expands to fill the time allotted. Towards the middle of the week, I did began to feel a little as if I was missing out on my friend's activities and lives. So I reactivated my account a couple of times during the week-day evenings to briefly see what I had missed by *not* checking my Facebook. (As accounts can only be reactivated every 24 hours, this was fairly self-limiting.)
In under ten minutes, I was able to quickly skim my news feed and my friends' walls, catch up on the week's events, and glance at a few new picture of my brother's overseas adventures. Instead of wasting large amounts of time during the day by constantly logging in, I was able to catch up on everything Facebook-related in only a few minutes.

6. I didn't suddenly lose contact with all of my friends, close or far. If anything, I had more time to spend with them.

7. I enjoy Facebook and won't permanently deactive my account.....yet. Ultimately, this week's experiment taught me that I can use my Facebook account more efficiently. I appreciate the chance to reassess the way I use my time. But I'm not ready to turn it off for good quite yet.
How does Facebook impact your life, postively and negatively?

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3 comments:

Monica Jacobson said...

Hm, I'm glad you did the experiment first. I've been trying (without success) to figure out a way to rid myself of facebook without completely losing touch with everybody, so I really appreciate your post. My main reason for not just quitting cold turkey was that I live so far away from everyone I know, and I don't actually have the time to call them on a regular, or even semi-regular basis. I'd like to see what they are up to, but they don't keep blogs either, and unless you post your blog post to facebook, nobody will ever read it. My siblings and parents don't even notice I've posted things on picasa unless I post the link to facebook. So, your deactivating idea is... GENIUS. In fact, I'm going to do it. I can reactivate once a day to post to blog posts. And maybe this will even motivate me to actually blog. Heh....

[I don't spend as much time on facebook as most people do, but it's probably the most visited webpage on my browser, sadly...]

Emily said...

I'm so glad this was helpful! One thing to remember: other people can only see what you post when your account is activated. So your friends and family will only be able to see the link to Picasa for the few minutes that you activate your account each day. When your account is deactivated, all of your posts, pictures, and comments temporarily disappear.

Jessica said...

I have thought about doing this many times! Good job!