Saturday, February 11, 2012

30-days without Facebook- Day 1

I'm being quite intrepid in making these thoughts public. Surely, failure to maintain a 30 day abstinence from Facebook is something of a character flaw of the highest order.

It's just a stupid web site.

I decided to go cold turkey on Facebook for 30 days after my Facebook-only friend, Kelly Lynn did the same thing. In all honesty, I expected it to last about 6 hours for her. I gave myself 12 hours, because I have mad self-control skillz.

So, why did I decide to ground Facebook for thirty days? A few reasons

1) I have steadily seen my interpersonal communication skills get rusty lately. I seemed to want to talk to people in bullet points, and I have been composing my thoughts expecting a retort or a counter point.
2) I think that Facebook has been a crutch, to avoid meeting new people.
3) I have been using it as a communication tool, not a networking tool.
4) Some of my friends have been acting a little wild lately.
5) I'm probably addicted to typing "FAC..." into a browser, and hitting enter. It is far too natural.
6) I wanted to measure - in as objective a manner as possible- the improvements in my personal relationships.
7) I will measure, in an objective manner, the improvements in my time management..
8) I would like to measure improvements in my communication effectiveness in other channels.


And, I feel like I'm a junky with a facebook needle in my arm.

So this is for my friends, my "friends," my coworkers, my family and my kids. Let's see.

Day 1 improvements: Almost instantly, when I didn't reach for my phone to check my "status" I found myself making new friends and engaging people I wouldn't have, otherwise. Marked improvement in making new real-life friends, when I didn't have the FB crutch.

--joe

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