In the Details: Attempting a Facebook Break!

I remember when I first heard of Facebook. I had just graduated High School and I was attending a community college. I began hearing rumors of a social website that had the same concept as MySpace but was much more seclusive and sophisticated. I immediately wanted to try it out, so I signed up with my community college email address and I was in! Facebook didn't seem very appealing to me. It was quite different than Myspace. There was no decorating your page or adding a music player. I was a little disappointed. Slowly but surely, Myspace became a thing of the past.

Facebook is now a huge part of my life. It's the first thing I do in the morning, the last thing I do before falling asleep. It's how I find out what's happening next week, where my extended family is living, who's in a relationship, who's not. It's where I post my favorite music videos, "whats on my mind" and what I'm doing for the weekend.

We live in a world where people's smart phones are their life source. I can't count how many times I've said "imagine what life would be like without my phone". Can you imagine life without your phone? I'm sure you could, but would you ever want or choose that? I doubt it. Nowadays, there is an app for everything. For some people, their all consuming apps are fantasy sports apps, for others it's shopping apps. For me and many others, FB is the app of choice. I am always logged in and I'm constantly scrolling— scrolling through status updates, pictures, videos and conversations— sometimes I find myself scrolling through people's pages who I don't even know!

Why Am I Taking a Break?

I'm beginning to realize that FB is causing me to miss out on the things in life that I used to enjoy. I've also been noticing that the site is starting to effect some of my closest friends and family member's lives in a negative way. Don't get me wrong, I don't think FB is some evil website that was created to destroy lives but I do believe that for some people, it can be a major issue. I used to be able to sit through an entire movie without losing interest. Now, I'm finding that my attention span is very limited. Instead of following the plot of the movie, I'm unconsciously and for no reason at all, choosing to scroll through my FB news feed. It's becoming a habit! I could be sitting with my mother having a coffee, on a date with my boyfriend at a nice restaurant, mini-golfing with my niece and nephew, at church! It doesn't matter what the setting is, I end up doing the FB scroll and I'm not happy about it.

Over the years, I've heard about people taking a short break from FB. Usually because they need to focus on school work or they're in the middle of a huge project at work and they know FB will get in the way. I'm choosing to take a FB break because I want to take time to talk to people face to face. I want to give the people I love my full attention. I want to try to enjoy the dull moments in life, the slow moving days. As crazy as it sounds, I know it will be a  huge challenge. I know that I will find myself a little lost without my FB app, but I am ready to give it a try. I will be sure to post about my Facebook-free life. Will I go back before I plan to? I really hope not! Let's see what happens... month long break... starting now.