Facebook Fast Epilogue

Well, the Facebook Fast has come and gone without much fanfare.  In a move that has apparently become pretty popular, I gave up Facebook for Lent, lasting 40 days and culminating on Easter this past Sunday.  Basically, I was spending too much time on the site doing nothing productive (looking around at pictures and checking statuses) so it was time to cut back.  

Disconnection

To be honest, I did not miss the program much.  I was wasting a lot of time on the site and wasn't really even using it to connect with people except new friends and to accept event invitations.  My blog readership certainly went down because most people were clicking the link I'd put on Facebook before I quit.  Aside from those things I really did not notice my life changing much.

In fact, I'd say it improved quite a bit!  My feeling of needing to keep in touch with people was cut off immediately on Ash Wednesday when the fast started.  I enjoyed being "off the map" as far as the Internet was concerned and preferred that people could not reach me as easily as they once could.  It gave me a sense of freedom.

Connection

While the point of Facebook is to bring people together, I felt more connected with people once Facebook was removed from the equation.  If I wanted to see someone, I had to call or email them.  If I didn't have something to do, I'd have to text a few friends to see what their plans were.  If an event was coming up that I didn't know about, I'd have to rely on friends to tell me or go out and find it.  As a result, I started dispersing the duties of Facebook to other things like Twitter and simple word-of-mouth.

When Death Cab for Cutie announced their Pittsburgh date yesterday, I heard about it on Twitter because that is the site that is giving me my breaking news now.  My friend's going away party that was advertised on Facebook?  Other friends told me.

Did I miss stuff?  Probably.  You know, like all those concerts and open mics that I am invited to and never attend.  And all those people who had babies that I was not aware were even pregnant.  Something's telling me it won't matter much if I missed that some girl and some guy from high school that I haven't seen in 7 years are now engaged or dating or complicated or moving to Kansas or back in town or starting a new communist state in the south of Nova Scotia.  If it's important, someone will tell me.