So, we’re a bit behind. Forgive us. Nikki had the stomach flu, Ellen went to Michigan, things were generally chaotic, etc, etc. Don’t fear! There will still be 52 awesome things for project 52, even if we end up condensing a little bit.
For week 7 we decided to do “No Social Media.” For Nikki, this meant giving up Twitter and Facebook for two weeks. For Ellen, this meant giving up Facebook for the month of February. There are, unfortunately, no real photos to indicate this achievement. This also seems to have varying effects on different people- Nikki told me to write this post because she didn’t notice too many differences.
Things I missed about Facebook:
- Being able to find out what books my book club was reading (mitigation- email or text someone from book club to ask).
- My mother missed being able to look at photos of me.
- Any messages sent straight to me.
As someone who’d previously *hated* Facebook messages (why don’t you just email me?) I now understand why people just joining Facebook tend to use the PM functionality.
Why? The rest of the site is completely overwhelming. When you’re looking at Facebook everyday, you’re getting updates and regularly know where to look. When you just open it for the first time… well… there’s chaos. My immediate reaction upon reactivating was “how did I ever use this?” Facebook basically just gives me one recurring case of “Fear of Missing Out” or “FOMO” as HBS calls it. Facebook definitely isn’t worth that anxiety.
I know other people have mentioned that they felt like they had more time without Facebook- I genuinely didn’t notice this at all. Perhaps I never used Facebook that much, perhaps I wasted time on other things.
Moving past no-Facebook-February, I’m not going to totally delete my Facebook, because I might need to contact someone that I only have information for on Facebook. For now, though, I’m just going to let my Facebook account sit deactivated, and not overwhelming me with all the things I’m not doing.