Life Without Facebook

photo credit: facebook.com

So here I go. I feel like I'm almost embarking on a journey. Three and a half years ago, I had nothing to do with facebook. Now, it is the first page I open in the morning, afternoon and before bed. If I total those minutes, they are probably minuscule. However, the weight of the relationships behind them are huge.

I love my family and friends. I LOVE to see how their lives are going and what is new and exciting. I am thankful for the opportunities to be apart of crisis that, honestly, had I not been on facebook that would have excluded me from the circle of friends. I am not taking a break because I feel social media is evil nor beneficial. There are many beneficial and enticing things about having hundreds of people available for opinions, experiences, and "likes".

My goal is one year. I have no idea if I will even be able to achieve this goal. There is a draw to facebook. I think for many stay at home moms because it does not require phone conversations in the midst of your day but rather a quick scroll, a few comments, a few "likes" and you feel reconnected with friends and family.

When we moved out to Arizona, I opened up a myspace page for the simple reason that my family could see my posted pictures in one swoop and I would not have to remember who did not see what pictures, etc. Well, come 1.5 later and I joined facebook, forgot about myspace and moved forward.

I could never understand, in the beginning, why people would post about what they ate, or trivial matters, yet, overtime, I started doing the same. I realized that we crave social interactions and in our society of fast moving interactions, facebook is a perfect catchall.

Will I make it to a year? Honestly, I hope I make it a week. I'm not addicted but my "social" experiment is to see if social media, that has been with us for such a short amount of time, is so apart of us now is it even possible to get rid of it from our lives? Will we miss out on friends pregnancy news, engagements, job changes, death in families, or a new puppy simply because we are not apart of facebook?

Does that mean, ultimately, that we are not really, in reality, in that friend's intimate circle of friends whom he/she would call up or visit if something of that nature would really have happened? I don't know. That is what I hope to find out. I love you guys, and you who read this can join my journey if you would like. It may be a long one, it may be short but the more coming along with me, the easier it will be. So, here's to a year without facebook.