My Week Off Facebook

...has been great. I've been a lot more productive at work, a lot happier in general and I've actually been more social.

There haven't been any of those obsessive-compulsive thoughts along the lines of "did anyone like that thing I posted?" No disappointment upon realising no...no one did. And no feeling stupid for having such feelings. No sadness when I see photos of an old group of friends at an event together that I wasn't invited to. Why would I be? We haven't spoken in years. Facebook is now the only thing we have in common.

I'm not sure exactly what it is that makes Facebook so unhealthy and insidious. For me, I think it could be the sheer amount of people and pages bombarding me with constant updates. People I hardly know anymore - former workmates, friends of friends...pages that I liked on a whim and can't remember why.

There's something very depressing about being "connected" to so many people and yet lacking actual social contact because you know "how everyone's doing" - just check their Facebook.

I got sick of engaging in long "debates" with people whom I actually really liked but got mad at me because they misinterpreted something I said or posted, and vice versa. The worst part is that I believe that this kind of negative social interaction is actually nothing more than a boredom-buster for a lot of people.

I got sick of seeing the worst of humanity come out in comments on pages that I didn't even like - Facebook just shoved them at me.

I've learned that my universe is quite small and I actually like it that way. The people who are my real friends have contacted me via telephone, email or text message. They don't rely on Facebook to know how I am - they actually ask me.

More than anything, I don't think I liked the way Facebook reminded me of the past - of people I used to work with or spend a lot of time with, old pictures, things I used to be interested in.

Now that I'm off Facebook, I find it so much easier to live in the moment and be present. When I'm with my friends I'm no longer being annoyed by notifications or obsessively checking to see if I have any - I'm actually engaging with real people in real time. Who'd have thought that that could become a thing of the past, something we have to get used to doing again?

That's all Facebook is. Just a face. People don't say how they really are on Facebook. You should find out. The real people are beyond the screens and we should be engaging with them, if in fact they are our real friends.

I think I might stay off Facebook for good.

"The human heart is like a night bird. Silently waiting for something, and when the time comes, it flies straight toward it."

- Haruki Murakami, 

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage 

(Dedicated to Adam).