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Turning my back on Facebook…again

By Kelsey O'Kelley

Iā€™ve decided to quit Facebook (again).

I know Iā€™ve said this before, and I know it sounds like breaking up with a significant other or quitting an addiction, and in many ways, it is.

Browsing Facebook, a website where cell phone camera self-portraits (otherwise known as selfies) and rambling opinions reign supreme, isnā€™t conducive to a productive lifestyle. Itā€™s a place where good intentions about getting things done go to die.

This is not the first time Iā€™ve tried to sever ties with the almighty social media platform. Last year, I made what I considered to be a bold move and deleted Facebook from my iPhone. How I was going to survive without hourly updates of cat videos and irrelevant status updates from old high school friends, I didnā€™t know. But I made the choice nonetheless. About a month later, I also gave up logging into Facebook on my computer for about six weeks, to prove I could go without it and to pursue a much-needed digital detox.

It was other peopleā€™s reactions that made me feel a little bit like a celebrity entering rehab. Like I was leaving the real world, going behind closed doors; ā€œrecovering.ā€ Because I had alerted people to the fact that I would be ā€œoff the gridā€ for the next month and a half, I was littered with reactions and inquiries.

How are you doing? Friends and coworkers would ask. Have you logged back on yet?

My brother would joke, Did you see? Oh, thatā€™s right, youā€™re not on Facebook.

Yet, I didnā€™t feel like the struggle was very real.

Their questions made me wonder if I wasnā€™t trying hard enough. Was I not as addicted to Facebook as I thought? Was it too easy of a challenge? Instead of feeling deprived, I felt like there was less of a weight on my shoulders. I had more room in my mind for myself because less of my mental energy was taken up by someone elseā€™s vacation photos or political rants.

Thatā€™s not to say stepping away from Facebook didnā€™t require some adjustment. You do go through a brief period of denial. You start to wonder, in the words of Mindy Kaling, ā€œIs everyone hanging out without me?ā€

I think the scariest part is that the first day I left Facebook, my fingers probably tried to type ā€œf-a-cā€¦ā€ into my internet browser every time I opened a new tab, as if my hands were puppeteered by an unhappy social media deity. You will connect and share.

Truthfully, I think itā€™s more difficult to take a few hours away from social media, and then go back, than it is to disband altogether. I once read about a theory called the ā€œfear of missing out.ā€ This concept explains why we constantly feel the need to check our email, our Facebook accounts, our online news sources. We are anxious about what information or experiences that weā€™re ā€œmissing out on,ā€ and this anxiety can only be cured by checking the websites or apps once again, much like an obsessive-compulsive disorder. Itā€™s a vicious cycle.

But honestly, Iā€™m not against social media. Itā€™s great to stay in touch with friends who are in foreign countries and to talk to family that I donā€™t regularly see. I just need a break.

See you on Twitter.





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