Every New Year, I balance the excesses of the festive season by giving up drinking for the month of January. This year, I decided to add a one month Social Media detox into the mix. Over time, I had come to realise that that cheeky Facebook app on my phone was devouring way too much of my time. From the moment I opened my eyes in the morning, to the time I closed them at night, I was mesmerised by the minutae of my friends’ lives, and hooked on the minute by minute activity of people who I barely knew (how did all those people end up being my “friends”?!).
And so, a couple of hours past midnight on 1 January, I deleted the Facebook app from my phone and went social media cold turkey. I’ve now been Facebook free for a month, and in many respects it has been gloriously refreshing. So what I have I learned from my self imposed Facebook Intermission?
1. I will always fill my time with useless crap
The plan was to fill the cumulative seconds and minutes of “free time” gained from my Social Media hiatus with more meaningful activity. I would improve my Hindi, read intelligent articles, do some “blue sky” thinking and clear my inbox. However, a few days in, I started finding excuses to do other stuff. I started reading the Daily Mail gossip columns rather more often than I should have done. Instead of checking my Facebook updates I was reading about who is doing who in Hollywood or who attended some random party showing nipples or booty or whatever.
Its official, I am addicted to gossip, and I’ve decided that I’d rather know the gossip of my nearest and dearest, than some random Z list celebrity.
2. I had way too many Facebook “friends”
Before re-embracing the demon, I deleted around 200 random friends who I am sure are very nice people indeed, but who I have either never met or have no intention of meeting. I had fallen prey to the modern habit of befriending everyone, and accepting requests from relatively random people (complete strangers and potential sleazeballs excepted).
3. I am actually really really interested in the boring details of people’s lives
Yep, I’m one of those people who really does want to know what everyone is thinking, feeling and doing, and I enjoy my smug/sympathetic/ affronted reactions. I may be a bitch, but other people’s misfortune usually makes me feel better when I’m having a bad day.
4. Twitter is shit
I keep talking about Facebook, but actually I gave up Social Media in all its forms. I really hardly noticed the rest – I find Twitter unbearable and incredibly irritating (if you’re going to post something at least make it coherent) and Pinterest and Instagram are completely insignificant to me.
5. Facebook is really useful for a lot of stuff
Forget the fact that FB satisfies my endlessly twitching thumb, it is also super helpful in organising one’s life. I forgot a load of birthdays in January because I didn’t have those handy Facebook reminders. I missed a couple of cool events, engagement and baby announcements. I felt bereft without the curated news items and shares which were actually often really useful.
In summary, I know its kind of uncool these days to be a Facebook Fan, but I plan to enjoy my return to it. I’m glad that I had this little break, and uncluttered my friend list. Here’s to an awesome 2015!
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