30-Day Facebook Free Challenge

Inspired by Steve Pavlina's 30-Day Facebook Fast blog -
I decided to "what the heck, let's give this a try".

Challenging Inner-Stories


First off, like everything else in your mind - we make ourselves think it's going to be hard. I'm here to confirm, that for me - it wasn't.

Now I can't confirm that it wasn't hard due to the fact that I knew it wasn't permanent - if it had been, then these past 30 days might have been altogether different.

I was convinced that it was going to be 'boring' not playing Bejeweled and Family Feud...
But turns out I survived.
I was also convinced that I was going to really, really miss everyone and feel like I was being left-out of most conversations.
...Again turns out I survived.

All-in-all the time away proved to myself that my "mind-chatter" was louder then necessary. "OMG No Facebook for a whole month!? What are you going to do?"
Well turns out, my challenge might have been a little overwhelming to other Facebook users. I kept being asked (or if people didn't see me or contact me outside of Facebook, then they would ask my spouse) how I was managing? "Isn't it hard?"; "Don't you miss it?"; "Are you secretly checking?"; "Are you still getting updates from your family?"; etc.

So to answer most of these questions:
- No it wasn't really hard. I actually liked the "break".

- No, obviously I didn't miss it. I have to admit there were times where I wanted to share with others and since most of my family & friends are on Facebook, I felt out-dated sending them emails (Gosh like who uses Hotmail anymore?? lol - isn't that where junk is collected?).


- No I didn't secretly check it, I deactivated my account and so for me to secretly check it, I would have had to reactivate it and quite honestly I wasn't sure if it would broadcast my "cheating time" through the Facebook News Feed so I didn't bother... and besides I really didn't want to.

- And last but not least, did I still get updates? Answer is yes and no. No I didn't get the constant updates about what everyone was doing but I did get the "important" ones. Like when my brother and his wife posted a video of my nephew laughing out loud for the first time - this was important enough for one of my family members to show it off to me.

Low Priority Noise

Too much "noise" is disruptive. So stepping away from the "noise" for 30-days actually felt good.
I was actually able to re-focus and re-energize myself.

Once I returned to Facebook, I did some cleaning, by filtering my news feed:
How do I control what I see in my News Feed?
...Cause if you ain't got nothing nice to say... I don't want to hear it (or read it).


Lost of Individuality

The Internet is a wonderful tool, and since the birth of Social Networking sites like Facebook came into play it's (the internet) open things up to a whole different level. I personally love it and hate it at the same time.

This Love/Hate relationship with Facebook keeps me guessing.

I love the interaction and the "live" updates.
Great functional use of technology!!

What I hate is the loss of live-interaction.


Yes sometimes the online thing can be fun - however
People need people.

If you are feeling down - you need physical people around you to re-energize your spirits.
If you are feeling happy - you want to celebrate with people and share your happiness-energies!

Social Networking provides us with the ability to share - electronically.
We still need that connective-ness felt in the presence of others - you don't get that online.

Value of Time

During my 30-day challenge I, all of a sudden, got a bunch of free time!?

Previously when logging-in to Facebook just to check on things what started off as 5 mins would/could end-up more like 20mins or even 2 hours. You get so caught-up in this world that you're actually missing-out on the real-world around you.

With all my newly found free-time, I finally found the time I had been looking for to start blogging.
I actually did something with that pile of paper that was in the box at the end of my bed.
I started planning some of my spring cleaning.
I was able to draft out some business plan ideas.

I actually got more time to myself to start doing things I wanted to do - tried out the new Zumba Fitness wii;
I went out to Chapter's and spent time there looking for new reads, actually read a book in Chapter's [The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Pocketbook Guide to Fulfilling Your Dreams (One Hour of Wisdom)
] and bought Excuses Begone!: How to Change Lifelong, Self-Defeating Thinking Habits
and had time to read this one too (at home)!

I also started, slowly but surely, meditating and am looking into expanding this new for me self-energizing learning so that I can do this more often and with more confidence.

Status Updates

Since this 30-Day challenge, I did re-discover Twitter.

I had a Twitter account prior, however never really paid any attention to it - cause I figured I got the updates I needed from Facebook and so why Twitter?

Well with Twitter, I'm able to focus more broadly subscribing to random people of interest. Unlike Facebook where I wish to keep things on a more personal-level, I'm able to select hundreds of various people and topics on Twitter where it doesn't seem as overwhelming.

Since my return to Facebook, I've decided to filter my Facebook account and 'drop' non-personal 'Facebook Friends' that I am now following on Twitter. These 'friends' are people whom I don't necessarily really interact with.

With Twitter, I'm still connected and get their status / communication updates which is pretty much all I'm interested in anyways. Removing them from my Facebook account eases me somewhat since (for me) my Facebook interactions are more on a personal-level: pictures of family and friends; interactions with family and friends; etc. Versus on Twitter everything is about your posted status, keeping it under 140 characters -
So messages are short and sweet - right to the point.

Summary

All-in-all I actually enjoyed my time away and was a little hesitant on whether or not I wanted to come back so soon. I had originally sign-up to Facebook for connection purposes and to keep in contact with my family and friends.

What happened is that I allowed things to get out of control - my control - by wanting everything.
Wanting to know what's going on with everyone.
Trying to keep-up with the Jones but online.
Keeping in touch with people who normally wouldn't have even bothered...

Example of this - I got a request from a classmate:
Why would someone I went to school with in grade 2, in an entirely different province, want to be my friend? Just because I was tagged in that classroom school picture?
You don't know me and quite frankly I don't know you - now why would you need to "connect" with me?
Of course if we had been friends, actual friends - we would have kept contact somehow and/or I would have remembered your name...

So now I'm returning back to basics.
Going to be keeping things simple.

If you're simply wanting "inspirational" status updates, then come find me on Twitter and remove me from Facebook. If you haven't interacted with me and/or if you saw me in the mall and wouldn't bother coming over to say "Hi", then let's do each another a favor and just disconnect.

How about yourself? Have you ever thought of giving Facebook a 30-day leave?
How do you think you'd survive?
And if you have done a similar challenge - share your experience: How did you make out?