Day 10: Unfriending facebook for a day

So I think everyone who knows me, knows about my Facebook addiction. I LOVE Facebook. It's the first thing I check in the morning when I wake up, the last thing I check before I sleep and the thing I go on if I wake up in between. I pretty much live on Facebook. I read a study about highest facebook usage in the world and NZ was second, I'm pretty sure I've made a very hefty contribution to that prestigious ranking.

I can't imagine life without Facebook. It's my most preferred form of communication, my space for self-expression, my tool for stalking, my tool for evaluating, my treasure trove of photos, videos, wall posts, memories (that's why I LOVE the new timeline feature), my source of news and knowledge (I like a million pages for newspapers and magazines and get news about what's happening out and about in the real world in real time). I'm a strong advocate of Facebook and will continue to be on it even if I do indulge in a little bit of infidelity with the twitters, google pluses, tumblrs etc. Nothing compares to Facebook and I'll always come back to it. I might just be Mark Zuckerberg's dream user. If only he would give me a job at Facebook to make it even more awesome and promote its awesomeness to more than 750 million active users! ;)

However I do see that I'm getting addicted to Facebook. I need to check it a bazillion times in a day, having a phone that lets me log in any time I like, fuels this addiction. I sit on it for hours at a time sometimes, constantly refreshing my home page to spot something exciting, checking out photos and videos of "friends", following fiery online debates about topics I may or may not care about, looking at my old photos and videos...OMG, you can enter the world but can never leave. Facebook is sadly actually one of my hobbies! I do feel like I'm experiencing the social networking paradox though, although it feels like I'm in touch with people all the time, I don't really feel a sense of connection. You don't get to 500 million friends without reducing some of them to acquaintances of the status of "Facebook friends". I can send page long messages or drop a quick line on someone's wall but it's not the same as talking to them face-face. I was thinking about it the other day, ever since I've left Europe, I keep in touch with most of my idiota family members on a regular basis through facebook messages/chat/wall posts but when was the last time I actually heard their voice or had a conversation with them? I always know what people are up to through photos, statuses and check-ins but that information feels impersonal and incomplete sometimes. Facebook is good but real life is better. Or should be.

Addiction of any kind is dangerous so I'm trying to slowly reduce my Facebook usage. I thought of giving up Facebook for a day as a part of the Newember challenge. For most people, it's no big deal, but for someone who is as hooked on or logged in as me, that is a HUGE sacrifice. I almost felt incomplete. I logged off Facebook on my phone, deleted the facebook tab off my Google Chrome page and tried to stay away from the computer as much as I could. It was HARD. I was dying to know what people were up to, what the latest meme and re-shared photo/video was, I was dying to update my status or post a photo, I found hard to remember information hidden away in messages and chat history. I felt distant and disconnected from the rest of the world. This might sound really exaggerated but it was really a big deal for me. Logging into facebook is like a reflex reaction for me as soon as I sign into the computer, I mindlessly check in a hundred times just to see what's happening. Not being able to do that was so difficult. I tried to watch more TV, I tried to read, I tried to go for a walk...all sorts of distractions but nothing compared to that white and blue screen of awesomeness. As soon as it was mid-night, I logged in and haven't logged out since.

My name is Rucha Sarma and I am a Facebookoholic. Problem identified. Solution to be found.