The Facebook Diet: Day 7

Here we are. Back to social networking capabilities. I'm going off the diet now that I've restricted myself for the seven days. Like any diet, I had to distance myself from the thing that is so wonderful, yet so bad for me.

Mood: capable, dominant, commanding, prevailing...I'm going to be honest, I used thesaurus for the word "powerful".

Closest "falling off the wagon" moment: Apparently it only takes 7 days to master the art of avoiding facebook. At least for me, anyway. You should try it!

Most difficult: There were a number of articles about Palestine or interesting topics in general that I wanted to post on facebook. Every time I thought, "I should post that!" I was immediately diappointed with my dietary restrictions.

What I learned: Ok, you know those studies that scientists conduct, where they conclude something totally obvious and you're response is, "They had to do a study for that!?"?  You know, like, "Scientists conclude people like chocolate because it tastes good" or "People who smile more are generally happier" or "Rain is wet" (I can do this all day, in case you're wondering). 

I'm going to pull that on you with the following words:

Facebook is a huge waste of time.

I know. Stop shaking your head at me. Most obvious conclusion of the century. I don't care. I can honestly say I got so much random work done in the time I would've normally alotted for facebook, I'm still surprised.

You know how it is. Even when we say, "I have to do this. I'm going to do this. I will not go on facebook!" we still go on facebook and eventually avoid the task. Even if it's for a little bit. Then we spend a total of 30 minutes out of the next 60 checking in and out of facebook.

My solution? Find what works for you. What gives you the incentive to take a break? I don't have a lot of experience with this and it's only based on my short term experiment, but I found that making a definite statement to a group that you will not be on facebook for [insert proposal time] gave me the incentive to leave. *If you aren't doing it for the right reasons, it won't work.

 *disclaimer: If you are just doing it for the attention, or in the hopes of receiving a number of responses begging you not to leave, this practice is not for you. You will fail and people will not hate you for craving the attention.

We know it's not easy to keep in touch with all your friends and family. I talked to my sister in law, cousin, grandparents, uncle and aunts in Palestine on the Eid. It was nice hearing their voices, but I wish that I could connect with more of them over facebook. This reaffirmed the positive aspect of facebook. (Sunday Nov. 21st Update:  I just facebook-friended my Aunt in Palestine! Oh how the times have changed.)

 I can't remove it from my life, because facebook has so many people I want to keep in my life. On the flip side, too much facebook gives me that same feeling I get when someone is too close to my face when they talk to me. I need my space.

Space. Connection. Space. Connection. What's a girl to do?

A balanced facebook diet is key. I need it in moderation, but I need it. Don't cut it all out. We don't cut the good, nutritious stuff out with the bad stuff. We learn to teach ourselves what's healthy and what's not.

Eventually, with a L-ahhh-OT of patience, determination, repetition and practice, we figure it out. Our healthier lifestyle, regardless of whether it's found on our plate or web pages, is achievable.

The Facebook Diet: Day 6

Thanks to my younger brother, who works for an internet company I shall not name until he leaves it like he should, it's hard to know when our internet is available at home. That, along with the Eid holiday, prevented me from updating my blog.

 I found myself not only separated from facebook, I was also missing my beloved internet. I couldn't imagine partaking in some "internet diet". Just the thought gives me separation anxiety. Although, I could if I wanted to...no, no. I won't. Another diet so soon would give me hives or something.

So I find myself on my last day of my facebook diet. We'll see what everyone, if anyone, had to say about it when I get back on after midnight or tomorrow.

I'm not really sure how I feel. I'm excited about being reconnected with people I missed. But then I get verklempt at the thought of the return of the stressors in my life. What does this mean? Maybe I should re-evaluate who I follow from day to day. I already started to "clean house" before this facebook diet was even a seed of an idea. I "hid" people (facebook's words, not mine), that I felt needed to be hidden.

By the way, wouldn't it be great if you could actually "hide" people you didn't want to see in person? I would totally rock that option.

Ok, back to what I was talking about before...it was an epic FAIL. Good ol' facebook still let them creep back into my life by showing everything my friends, who I did not "hide", had to say to said-hid people.So what can I conclude? We'll get into it on my last facebook diet blog post. Gosh, I'm already worrying

Mood: Excited, anxious, stressed, proud.

Closest "falling off the wagon" moment: No internet? No problem.

Most difficult: Not connecting with a number of people on a major holiday is always a difficult thing. On the bright side, I called a few more people.

What I learned: Making the best of a situation can be a blessing in disguise. And God bless texting.

The Facebook Diet: Day 5

Sooooo a bit of a dilemma an issue has arisen in the last 24 hours that I did not foresee occurring. The Eid is tomorrow. Well, according to parts of St. Louis and the rest of the MUSLIM WORLD it's tomorrow-not so much for the West County mosque (which likes to always, always, always be different). I did not realize that I would be away from facebook and so many friends who I should be wishing a blessed Eid. I have a lot of friends on my phone's contact list, but not everyone. Oh darn. I break my facebook diet Thursday at Midnight, but still...darn. How could I be so dense?

Mood: Disappointed, slightly worried, anxious.

Closest "falling off the wagon" moment: I didn't have internet connection until the very end of the day, so I didn't have to worry about it. Although- funny thing- once I did have connection, my fingers started to type f-a-c-e-b...you know the story by now.

Most difficult: More mail. More notifications THAT I CAN'T READ. WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME, PEOPLE? Also, as mentioned before,tomorrow is Eid. There are so many people who I might not be able to contact. Oopsies.

What I learned: I should plan things out more intelligently so that I don't disassociate myself from a major social networking site the week a major holiday falls on.

The Facebook Diet: Day 4

Excuse the indecisiveness with my blog template. I feel so antsy with these restrictions I've put on myself that I'm taking liberties with my poor blog. As I try to figure out what to do with the free time I usually reserve for facebook, be patient. Smile and nod. Pretend everything's normal.

Mood: Anxious, excited, hungry. Mainly hungry.

Closest "falling off the wagon" moment: Nah, this is getting easy. I realized I could go longer than a week without facebook. This detox is working. But I also realized I've had the urge to tell people around me who are on facebook to show me pictures or something. But I haven't. I've been good.

Most difficult: While I was checking my mail inbox and placing my facebook notifications in my "saved mail" folder, I couldn't help but think, "Why are you still writing me on facebook?! Don't you know what happened!?" I should send them an owl to let them know what's happening ( Showing some Harry Potter love!). Why do they persist in writing me!? IT'S TORTURE, I TELL YOU! TORTURE!
What I learned: I miss people. Also, this is off topic, but some of these pranks on MTV's Pranked border on abuse.

The Facebook Diet: Day 3

Alright, yesterday was a bump in the road. We're fine today. In fact, the number of times I thought about facebook lessened. I'm pretty sure that's true. There's no way to prove that's correct. But at least I didn't feel as down as I did yesterday.

Here's what I noticed. I rely on facebook to let everyone in on my thoughts at different points of the day. Instead of thinking, "Gee, I should text/call SOMEONE about this...", I instantly think, "Oh man. I have to post that on my status.

Here are the random things I wanted to update my status with:

I'm at the mall. If I were a guy all alone watching the kids play in the play area, I'd be way creepy right now."

I'm watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire! Harry Potter marathon this weekend!

There are a bunch of sales at the mall today. Is that why it's claustrophobically busy? Or maybe I just haven't gone to the mall on the weekend for a while.

YES! Thanksgiving tips and meals on Food Network is back!

Google "Kelly Pickler" and "Ellen". You will laugh your arse off.

Officially a Miranda Lambert fan.

So yeah, there you go. Random thoughts I'd rather not text or call someone to say.

Mood: A bit relieved, unconcerned, sleepy

Closest "falling off the wagon" moment: There wasn't one. My mom kept asking me to get on facebook to see if my sister in law posted new pictures and I had to explain to her what my "facebook diet" was and why I wouldn't get on. That was as interesting as it got.

Most difficult: Nothing was extremely difficult. I just hope no one contacted me on facebook about hanging out.

What I learned: I have a lot of stupid, random thoughts that I'd like everyone to know. What do I do with those stupid, random thoughts now? Should I record them and lay them out in a barrage of updates when I go back to facebook? Or just let them die and fly to stupid, random thoughts heaven?

Goodnight. Go towards the light, my stupid, random thoughts.

The Facebook Diet: Day 2

Call it a sophomore slump, the facebook hangover, or the first signs of facebook abandoner's remorse, but today was harder than yesterday. Once the glitz and glamour of resisting the urge to visit facebook wore off -and today was that was today-I felt lonely.

I know. It sounds sad. But the feeling was akin to sitting at a restaurant by yourself, as I would imagine it to be. You feel like someone's supposed to join you, or you're waiting for someone, and no one shows up. You're pretty sure that you can find someone to join you, but you've already decided to go it alone. You just keep forgetting that you've made that decision.

I couldn't figure out if I was stressing from the worry that I might accidentally visit facebook, or if I was stressing from the lack of communication. Yikes.

Mood: Stressed and lonely


Closest "falling off the wagon" moment: It happened again! Around 5 pm, my fingers typed in the letters f-a-c-e-b-o-o-k  on their own and I almost went there. I quickly stopped my ipod from loading. But it wasn't funny today.

Most difficult: I felt like I should be recieving more texts or calls. But it was pretty slow today. Talk about a wake up call.

What I learned: I rely too much on facebook for connection with my friends. Without the comfort of facebook, I felt disconnected from everyone. Did I miss an invite? Did I miss a long, legendary, status chain of comments? Are people planning something? Did anyone miss me? This is not a good feeling. Maybe I'll text-harass everyone tomorrow.

The Facebook Diet: Day 1

Today wasn't so bad. Being at work for the better part of the day made avoiding facebook easy. I took my lap-top with me so I could blog, and I'm proud to say that I successfully resisted the urge to peek on facebook.

The difficulty of avoiding facebook came once the evening arrived. By 4:57 pm (not that I was checking or anything), I noticed an unusual hike in my need for a facebook fix. At one point I intended to type in a website address that has nothing to do with facebook. I swear to you that my fingers, at their own accord, took me to facebook.com.

dum dum dummmmmmmm .......

Luckily, I was prepared for such a situation and had officially signed out of facebook yesterday to avoid going straight into my home page through accident or break down. I found myself at the sign in page. Finding yourself at the sign-in page of a website you're trying to avoid but cannot because your fingers have the urge to go there anyway is actually funny (which is why I laughed out loud). But it also taught me how determined and obliging my fingers are to type the letters f-a-c-e-b-o-o-k regardless of my intent. Scary.

Mood: Proud

Closest "falling off the wagon" moment: Around 5 pm, when my fingers took me to the site. I felt like I should've visited facebook 4-5 times at this point. Thank you Grilled Cheesus-I was signed out.

Most difficult: To avoid the urge to open and read my notifications in my AOL mailbox. But I did it. I want to do this cleanly. Reading everything people are writing to me on facebook would be cheating, me thinks.

What I learned: It felt good not visiting facebook today. Instead of being disappointed in missing the new posted photos or fun status updates, I was more relieved I didn't have to see so many of my stressors. Interesting. We'll see how well this holds up tomorrow.

The Facebook Diet

Everything in moderation, right?

Facebook entered our lives only a few short years ago, but it seems that it's become such an indelible part of our lives that we can barely remember life before it.

I remember the first time I was introduced to it by a friend of mine who already had an account. It started out as a fun, unprecedented way of checking up on your former school mates and eventually some newer ones.

As we scrolled through her facebook friends, I marvelled at the ones who seemed so successful so soon, was genuinely happy to check up on a few who I hadn't heard from for a few years, but was even more fascinated by the others whose lives and images seemed so different than what we came to know them as in high school.

In the beginning, facebook was special because it was both exclusive and connective. Only a select number of college email accounts were recognized for you to create your own facebook page. Then you could request to be a part of the lives of people who you used to see every day. These were people who were such a big part of your formative years, for better or worse.

Then somewhere along the way, the exclusivity vanished and I started recieving requests from people I didn't know. I used to only have to worry about whether I should remember you, now I had to worry about whether or not I ever met you...

...or if I should accept you because you're a friend of a friend of a friend

...or if I should accept you because the consequence of not accepting you would mean you hating me until the end of time, even though we didn't know each other that well and we could potentially be friends in the future. I know. So complex. (For the record, my facebook policy is: if I don't know you, you aren't my facebook friend.That's right-I had to create a policy.)

Then something that should've been predictable happened. Oversaturating myself with my connections became emotionally taxing. My curiousity became a curse. I wanted to hear what everyone was up to, but hearing what everyone was up to became a stressor.

Don't get me wrong, there are great qualities to facebook. There are friends and family who live in different cities and different parts of the world that I can keep in touch with. What's not to love about that? It was impossible to keep up with them before, unless you liked spending time on the phone or emailing. But anyone who knows me knows that I'm one of those people who doesn't like spending time on the phone. At all. And emailing seems too formal. I hate the generic emails in which I ask, "Hi! How are you? Tell me about yourself and what's happening in your life," over and over. It feels worse when you don't really have anything to reply.

Facebook allows us to stay connected to issues both domestic and foreign. I like hearing about issues my friends are passionate about, the ways they are affected first hand or the interesting reads they suggest. Facebook also gives us the opportunity to stay informally but emotionally connected, whether that's through the posted pictures, funny videos or songs we love.

But let's get real here. There's a lot of grandstanding. We've all been guilty of it to a certain extent. It feels like, at times, we can become self promoters with our own lives being the products. I'm not going to lie. It can be fun. But it can also be bad, because too much of anything is bad.

While we can usually quantify the effects of, say, over-eating through weight, it seems less obvious the effects of facebook. I can only describe some of the negative side effects as envy, stress, annoyance, ridicule, and anxiety.

Facebook has become sort of an addiction. Anyone regularly and willingly subjecting themselves to those negative side effects is either crazy or addicted. So the healthy solution is to scale back my facebooking.

Yesterday I decided to go on a facebook diet. I'm starting small: Seven days. But give me credit. In facebook time, seven days is like seven weeks. There will be so much up-to-the-minute information that I'll miss! But I believe it's for the best. I will not go on facebook.com. I will not open my aol notifications from facebook. (I've already started saving them in a folder to open and devour when I am officially off the diet.)

For seven days I'll attempt to document the phases of my withdrawal and its effect on my life. If I go into cold sweats or start vomiting- you'll know. If my body start twitching as I go through large amounts of pain, or experience hallucinations like demons being exorcised from my body- you'll know that too. I really hope those things don't happen, though. Wish me luck!