Friday I decided to logout of Facebook at work* and try to not check it. I knew it had become a habit but, wow, was I surprised by the numbers. I kept track between 9 am and 3:30 pm of each time I consciously thought, “I should check Facebook,”: 8 times. Plus once when I thought about posting something there and once that I clicked on a short link from Twitter that was for a Facebook event listing (which took me to the login page; I did not log in).
Last night, another friend posted on Facebook that she “used to be a blogger” — and a damned fine one at that. She blamed her use of Facebook and I couldn’t agree more — we only have so many hours in a day and FB is taking a lot of them.
My new goal is to seriously cut back on my Facebook use — I’m nuking my two remaining games and will try to self-limit time inside FB. However, I have to come up with some new habits — things I can do instead of checking my FB feed and instead of checking other social media feeds (because in almost every case, above, I chose to check Twitter instead). Mike suggested keeping a Google Doc open in a tab instead so I can work on writing something — it may be worth it even though I’m not sure how three or four minute bursts of writing will work. We’ll see.
Other ideas: I have to set aside regular time for crafting and I have also realized I need to make time for off-line reading (whether a physical book or an ebook on my iPod). To this end I will try to keep crafts (knitting, at least) and books handy nearby the corner where I usually waste my time in the Facebook-Flickr-Twitter-Google+ endless loop.
Wish me luck!
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*Yes, I check FB at work. My job requires some fiercely monotonous tasks that if I didn’t break them up would actually damage me mentally and/or physically; those tasks that aren’t monotonous often include wait times while things are uploading, long page scans, and so on (anyone who compiles code can understand these wait times are best spent doing something else).
This absolutely resonates with me. Other than spying on my teens, it’s sucking up way too much bandwidth. And really, I shouldn’t need FB to know what my kids are up to, should I?
Between twitter (which I appreciate and see as a real tool), Goodreads (which I’ve signed up for recently and am rather enjoying), and Google +, what do I really need FB for?
I’ve also blogged way less since FB. Mind you, I needed some sort of non LiveJournal time a handful of years ago, but that doesn’t negate the importance of actual writing for the sake of simply writing…even if it’s *gasp* on p-p-p-p-p-PAPER…in a n-n-n-n-NOTEBOOK….
Anyways, love your post. As usual, you’ve nailed it.
Thanks for the comment, Renee. I used to find Facebook as useful as Twitter. Now, I find it a tangled mess of false obligations.
My biggest concern now is the number of groups who only use Facebook to promote events — keeping that information inside the walled garden may be convenient for the promoters but it is not getting the wider audience many events need.
I did one round of paring down my friends list on the weekend (about 20 names) and I suspect another will follow until I can extract myself more easily.
BTW, pencil and paper is the most efficient way for me to write poetry — everything else generally gets written on the screen.
I suppose you’ve noticed I’ve been posting less on FB – I haven’t even been on a music “binge” in quite a while. I find I don’t have much to say, just an occasional update. Now I need to pull myself away from LOOKING at FB.
I too check it at work – I’m on the computer all day so I count it as a “micro break.” I would be better off reading book reviews or even checking the news (though that gets a bit tiring as well). Here at home I’m trying to plug through my huge backlog of photos to upload to flickr. Slow going at the moment. I’ve alse been reading “real” books a lot more! THAT is very satisfying.
Good luck! I’ll work on cutting back too!
I have pretty much given up on Facebook. I guess it is because mostly friends post.. they are so depressing. I only share stuff there now.. I have moved to Google plus. the content is a lot better and people seem to be into more then just re-post and re-sharing sadness.
Chris, I think that the “re-sharing sadness” really nails it. Thanks for commenting.