Facebreak

It wasn't triggered by anything specific, just the nagging, seemingly obvious fact that I spend way more time on Facebook than I probably should. I think it’s less about the social-media phenomenon and more about my own anaemic will power. I seem to have a very hard time giving things up and/or slowing things down. As such, in much the same way I frequently endeavor to taper off my beer intake or cut down on my coffee consumption, I thought I’d try stepping away from Facebook for a while, and see how that goes. If this exercise is anything like my attempts to curtail my affinity those afore-cited vices, I’ll probably be back on Facebook by next week, but … we’ll see. I want to give it a shot.

I should point out, however, that I don’t feel guilty about my usage of the platform. At its best, Facebook is indeed a great way to stay in touch with further flung friends, keep apprised of certain social events, learn about breaking news, evangelize favorite music, gather insight from one’s peers on a host of different topics, etc. By the same token, it’s also a tremendously powerful and frequently pointless time-suck. At its most banal, it can be distraction. At its worst, it can be a needless irritant or even a day-ruiner, if you find yourself embroiled in one stupid spat or another over any number of idiotic subjects. For me, it’s invariably about some ridiculously pedantic fine point about a former member of some long-forgotten punk band or something equally trivial. I used to regularly cross swords with people about our boundlessly stupid and irresponsible president, but I believe I scared off any remaining Trump-supporters from my friends list long ago. Suffice to say, I feel absolutely zero regres about that.

I don’t know exactly what I plan on accomplishing by doing this, and fully plan to return to the platform at some presently indefinable point, but I feel it’s an exercise worth exploring.

Have you ever stepped away from Facebook or other comparable, life-engulfing social media platform? How’d that work for you?