Friday, July 31, 2009

Life After Facebook

Tuesday July 28, 2009. That was the day I broke-up with Facebook. I'd been thinking about it for while, would I miss him? Was I willing to give him up forever? Were there other kinder, more affectionate social networks out there? Was I even the kind of girl who could have a social network? Maybe I could be one of those people who fill their lives with a bunch of email accounts.

When I finally decided to do it, he didn't make it easy. The first time I tried to tell him, he showed me all of my pictures with friends and said, "Momo will miss you, Misono will miss you, Jenna will miss you". When I ignored him he started to ask why. Was it because we spent too much time together? Was it because he didn't make me feel safe? I knew it wouldn't help to answer, so I said the only words that came to mind, "this isn't working out."

When he finally realized that I couldn't be swayed he conceded, but not without letting me know that he'd be there waiting for me. If I ever wanted to come back, all my friends and settings would be right there where I'd left them. We could pick up and forget the whole thing ever happened. If I wanted, we could still be friends and he would just send me emails letting me know if our mutual friends were having a party or something. I told him not to bother.

"What's done is done, let's not make this any more painful than it has to be", I pleaded.

A few hours later I thought it was all over, but then I checked my email and he had already emailed me to remind me of what I'd done. I felt terrible, but I knew I had made the right decision. The truth is, Facebook wasn't making me happy and hadn't been for a while. I found myself hanging out with him simply out of habit. I felt trapped, I wanted to be out in the world talking to people that I actually cared about. Instead, I was looking at wedding pictures of people I didn't even talk to when we lived in the same town. Also, the mystery was gone, I knew what everyone was doing all of the time and it turns out, most people are pretty boring. I also found out he was doing things behind my back and I felt like he wasn't the same person anymore.

Maybe I'll have regrets in the future, only time will tell, but for now I feel as free as a bird. I'm hoping to put all my extra time and energy into productive activities and keeping in touch with those who are in my life beyond Facebook. More importantly, I did this for myself and pass no judgement on those who enjoy Facebook. It just wasn't beneficial for me any longer.

4 comments:

  1. I kind of love this post! :)

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  2. how am i supposed to stalk you anymore?

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  3. please update your blog with another post.. because all of your blog stalkers right now will think there IS no life after facebook. You have to make facebook jealous now by showing him how much fun your having now that you have moved on.

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