Monday, March 31, 2014

Thoughts on "Facebook Fast"

Well, I did fairly well at staying off Facebook for the three weeks I tried to do so. I wasn't perfect. A couple of times I had to check an old message to get some information. Every now and then, I would sit down at the computer and out of habit type in "fac" and facebook would pop right up. I would "cheat" and read a couple of posts and then guiltily, shut it down! After a few days, it was much easier to ignore as the unconscious habit of checking in often was replaced with other things

During my Facebook/Twitter fast, I found that sometimes I replaced the time normally spent on social media with random internet surfing. I was checking USA Today more often and stupid yahoo news. So, obviously that wasn't exactly the goal I was shooting for. However, I think I did prove to myself, that I didn't really miss out on very much by getting off of social media for a time. The first week I started checking my accounts again, I did really well with checking once a day or sometimes not at all. This rainy weekend I spent WAY too much time on Facebook. I  think my little experiment helped me to be more conscious of my time on the phone and overall greatly decreased the amount of time per day that I used the services. However, the habit is very easy to go right back to, especially on more quiet, boring days at home with the kids. Hope I can continue to be more mindful of my time on social media and use it sparingly and wisely.