Facebook, I'm going to quit you

I'm trying a thirty-day challenge... although I didn't really realize that was what it was until just now.

I'm going off Facebook... not permanently (maybe), not even really totally off Facebook yet... I still check in once a morning to see if there are any notifications I need to respond to (spoiler: There aren't!).

It was a spur of the moment decision that had been creeping up on me for a while now. People (and by people, I mean me, too) are addicted to the stream of information, the validation of "likes", the constant drone of someone else's every minute action that we then add our own bits to as well. For me it had turned into a nervous habit of checking Facebook every few minutes, even though there was no way anything could have changed since the last time I checked. My finger would just slide over the app and I'd find myself scrolling through the news feed before I even realized what I was doing, looking for that little pay-off, some response to something I had said or had been following in the stream of questionable information.

All social media (even this blog) is part of the problem, but some sites are more to blame than others. Facebook is prime suspect number one, in my book. I can waste hours (in little tiny five-minute increments) scrolling through the news feed, reading the updates of my friends, missing them, being jealous of them, judging them... and in the process squeeze out all of the time I could be spending on work or blogging or creating art.

Not to mention the content on Facebook is... troubling. I mean, never believe anything you read on the internet. Question everything. Double-check everything... triple-, quadruple-check it before you share it with others. Only we don't. And we spread other people's opinions around as if they are indisputable facts.

I got sick of it, of the fact that I was allowing a stream of useless (and sometimes emotionally and psychologically harmful) "information" to control such a large portion of my life. So I quit it. If I had ever been a smoker, I'd be one of those that quits cold turkey, falls off the wagon, and claws her way back on a few times before it takes. That's right, I've tried to quit Facebook before, unsuccessfully.

But this time, I hope, will be different. The parameters: For the next thirty days, I can check Facebook once a day (usually first thing in the morning and for a total of five minutes). Other than that, I can use Facebook as my business, Writing Refinery, to curate and post content, not more than two or three times a day. After thirty days I'll reassess, iterate if you will. The goal: To take back my mind and my time from the crazed slurry of the content mills and someone else's social agenda. My mind and my time are my own and I want to do other amazing things with them than stare at a Facebook news feed.

As an extra challenge to myself, I'm going to write here every day, discussing my triumphs and failures, what I've accomplished in my Facebook-free time, and when I fall off the wagon how it feels and exactly what it takes to climb back on.

I technically started this thirty-day Facebook free challenge last week (going to start counting from today, though). So far I've written two-thirds of a short story and a letter to a friend, finished two work projects in record time, and crocheted a blue dragon (only the wings left... when he's done I'll post a picture). I'm shocked and a little sickened by the amount of things that I always said I enjoyed doing that I'd let Facebook take time from.

So Facebook, get ready, because I'm going to quit you. No matter how long it takes.