I was struggling with getting an assignment done. I constantly got distracted by everything. I installed productivity apps on my computer blocking out several websites. However, they only work if I keep up with the restriction. I found myself constantly disabling the the protection just to check up on something. I mindlessly checked facebook. It became a habit, an unconscious move of the mouse and keyboard strokes. At some point I could manage not to check my wall anymore by explicitly just blocking the wall and replacing it with an motivational quote. I realized that I often come there just to chat with people. Making it an art to text long forgotten friends. Refreshing ties with people I like to keep in touch more, connections that fade away. That’s one of the true strengths of social networks like Facebook after all.
Well and then I just decided to deactivate my facebook account. Just like that. I saw it as the only way to beat the addiction. Who am I kidding it was/is a form of addiction. Attention seeking from the textbook. I just told a couple of friends about the decision and the act of deactivating it. They understood, knowing my position with the assignment.
As it is with this mindless habit I found myself constantly on the login page to Facebook. Not because I really chose to go there just out of habit. It takes 4 keystrokes to get there. It is easy as that. A pattern I followed countless times. Branded into my unconsciousness. It got less with time but I still end up there from time to time.
The thing I miss the most is not being able to write/talk with people but then again I actually don’t. It felt more of a relief not doing it for the moment. There are more important things and the people that matter I got in my contact list. I talk a lot to them. Maybe even more. Strengthen the few strong links instead of maintaining a lot of weak links.
I also miss all the events going on. And then again I don’t. Even though my friends get annoyed sometimes they keep me up to date with the ongoing party scene in town. I wouldn’t go without them anyways. It became evident how much interaction is actually going on via social networks. Hosting a party got incredibly easier with Facebooks. You have a medium to reach a lot of people at once and after all you can estimate the amount of people coming. I myself like to organize dinner parties and it helps for the food part. I think I could still do that without Facebook but it gets more complicated to manage.
I think I got more relaxed without it but I also found other means to occupy my time. For instance I began to write up some thoughts. I started an Instagram account to share some of my pictures from travels. Random wikipedia articles are suddenly really interesting. Who doesn’t want to know the story behind international football stars. Thrilling. Haha. Yeah I actually substituted the facebook life with other random things. Poses the questions if it was worth it. I think it was in that way that I don’t look so much for the interaction anymore. Well okay Instagram but hell that’s not much talking. More posting and moving on with life. I don’t promote the account in any other way than posting a picture every now and then.
The best side effect is that I started to read more again. Even multiple books at once. I enjoy it really much. I was drowning in the flood of Netflix episodes. Maybe I should mention here that I also quite Netflix 2 weeks ago! Netflix just is this super convenient platform. It is so easy to forget time in there as it doesn’t take any effort to binge watch anything you want. Automatic start of next episodes. Tons of different content. Especially if you don’t mind the quality of the content you are in heaven. I changed Netflix for books. It takes more time through one story for sure but you learn so much more from books. You create your own idea of the world described.
Also non-fictional books offer so much more than Netflix could ever. I forgot how much I enjoy reading. This might also be correlated with the endless reading of scientific papers for university. After a whole day of reading and almost falling asleep from the content it is hard to then go home and enjoy reading more. At least that was my perception for a while, but I have to tell you I couldn’t have been any more wrong. After all this boring reading (yeah I think most of it is boring, scientific writing isn’t for the excitement) a good book is really nice. Getting excited about a story. Diving into a different world or just learning other interesting things in a more informal manner.
After my assignment I am sure I will return to facebook and maybe I’ll get a netflix account again in the future. I try to be more careful in the usage then but won’t rule out to fall into old habits. I hope not though!
I think experiments like these or the alcohol fasting just help to gain a different perspective of what we are doing. How we act and how dependent we get on certain things. From time to time I think I might just experiment with other things that seem odd to the mainstream. Break some rules, get out of the circle and maybe get some insight to my own behavior. It is a nice way to learn about yourself. I am not saying I want to change everything and just live a life against the mainstream that is not the point. It is purely about learning and understanding what I do and why I am doing it. It helps to appreciate more what we have I think.
Advertisements
