So Long, Farewell

The time has come.  I'm pulling the plug on facebook.  Oh I won't stay away forever, but (in addition to sugar), I decided to give it up for Lent this year.  My Stud and I traditionally like to give something up for Lent that we are either addicted to, is unhealthy, a waste of time, and that sort of thing.  So "why facebook?" (fb) you might ask?  Oh many, many reasons...

Fb waters down my communication, especially with family.
First of all, I have to say that I really enjoy facebook.  I have reconnected with countless friends, and after moving last year from AZ to NM, it has been in many ways a lifeline to friends and family from afar.  In fact, the reason I first got a fb is because my sister (in OR) was on fb and I wanted to be able to share photos with her in a quick, easy way.  Then most of my other college and teenage siblings joined one by one and it was a great way to keep in touch.  With one fell swoop, I could share the latest snapshots of Princess (Smoochie wasn't around yet) much more quickly than I could email pictures and try for the life of me to include everyone in the email.  But wasn't that why I started this blog?  So I have been double-dipping.  And I have become shamefully complacent about my non-internet communications.  Hello?  Pick up the phone and call a person! (I don't like the phone so much, but I need to get over it.)   So that's my first complaint:  fb is watering down my communication, especially with family. 

It has been getting in the way of my parenting.
I used to be so faithful about only getting on fb during nap time.  Then we moved to NM and I didn't know anyone here, and had a two-week-old baby to boot.  We holed up for Winter and stayed warm and healthy.  And I spent wayyyyyy to much time on Facebook, keeping up with all the loved ones we left behind in AZ.  But now we know lots of people, we don't have a two-week-old, etc etc.  And yet, here I am, totally addicted to fb still. 

It is so embarrassing to admit that.

It is taking time away from my husband in the evening.
My husband - who works his butt off for the record with 10 - 12 hour days every single day - likes to watch tv to wind down.  I don't.  I would prefer to watch a movie b/c the whole channel surfing concept makes me crazy.  So after the kids go to bed, he watches tv channel surfing style and I...get on facebook!  Puke.

Any guesses what he decided to give up for Lent on his own volition?  I need to ask him if he plans to include movies in that or not so I can mentally prepare myself for that one. :-)

The news feed is superfluous and dizzying.
I really really have no desire to see love notes between friends, who hung out with whom yesterday, and all that nonsense.   And yet it's the "what is everyone up to?" that I'm so addicted to when the correct response should be "Who cares!"  Most of my fb friends are not people I would interact with regularly anyway, and for those who I would/do (family, close and local friends), if they really want to tell me something, they would(should?) call me personally.  Or text.  Or even email.  Yes, the news feed makes me sort of crazy.  My husband would probably (correctly) say that it is because of my nosy (I prefer the word curious myself) nature that I am bound to this stupid thing.  People announce pregnancies, fun updates on their kids, engagements, divorces and all manner of juicy (and mundane) details of life, often accompanied with photos.  I feel like a passive gossip.  I don't really even want to know all of this stuff about people that I don't interact with regularly in real life.  And yet, every time I log on, there it is right in front of me, begging to be read.  For those people that I do interact with regularly, I would MUCH rather find out what it going on in their lives through a face-to-face or phone conversation.  Or even a text message.  Not a status update. 

The things I really like about facebook can be (mostly) accomplished through other means.
And when I return to it in April, I plan to make some positive changes in the way I utilize fb from then on out.  To help minimize the temptation to click over and log on, I already shut off my email notifications.  I might leave the notifications off permanently so that I log on occasionally, and not because people are beckoning to me.  ;-)


I could go on and on about all the reasons I'm quitting facebook in order to break my addiction to it.  But you see, I even went as far as deciding to set a time limit for my nap time computer time, and that time is almost up.

When I think about all the things we're cutting out - facebook, tv, sugar -  I start to get extremely excited about all the family time we will have.  More specifically, I'm excited about the way we will use our family time.  I think the first thing on our list is to take up "all family jogging" as soon as my husband gets home from work.  I have a feeling Clay and I will start playing board games and such for our "wind down together time" after the girls go to bed.  I think this will be great!

We start TOMORROW! 

Hmm...Now that I think about it, I had better have my husband change my fb password. Old habits die hard you know. (Thanks for that idea, Emily!)