The One Week No-Facebook Challenge

Tweet

"Do you remember that time when there was no Facebook?" These were the lines that caught my attention last November 20, 2015. It was the first line of an article I stumbled by upon my Facebook wall. It really got to me and for a brief moment, I paused to remember those times when Facebook did not exist (I was born on 1992 so I got to experience Facebook-less days.) After my short reminisce, I continued reading the article. It was about a research done by I forgot who they were about the effect of removing Facebook from the daily life of people today. The participants were mostly teenagers. They were divided into two groups, one group being allowed to continue using their accounts and the other group prohibited from doing so. I believe they were asked to do it for 3 months, I'm not sure. I can't really remember the details because something greater inside me was asking to be acknowledged. It was the idea to try NOT using Facebook! It was absurd. Really, I thought it was. I always logged on to my account early in the morning, throughout the day, before the close of the day, I was glued to it. It was a challenge I gave myself. It was scary because it was a part of me. And we all know what happens when we remove something so engraved into us. It hurt. Being the adventurous person that I am, I really wanted to do it. So on that same day, I committed to not use Facebook for one week. I posted a status that I would be on hiatus or something and that my friends could reach me by phone. So, that was it. When I clicked on that "LOGOUT" button, it was goodbye. So, Day One. It was the most horrific, most horrendous, most disturbing day I had ever experienced. It was affecting my work, my communication with others all because that I had not logged on to Facebook! Then and there, I saw how attached I was to Facebook and truth be told, it wasn't a healthy attachment. The situation I was in that day told me that I could probably die without Facebook. It wasn't a pretty conclusion. Somehow, though, I got to live that one day without dying. Days two and onwards weren't that disturbing as that first day. Although the thought of logging on to my account haunted me, I was given the strength to control myself. The urge lessened as the days passed by. So, what did I get after my one-week challenge? Well, I drew from it a number of lessons, dear friend. First and foremost, I got to focus on what I should be doing in the present. You see, whenever I am into Facebook, I forget that I am in the present, in the now.I get drowned in the many memories presented in my wall and I try to live in their moments. That first day when I wasn't on logged on, I did not know what to do. Really! It seems I forgot how to live presently, in the real world. Not being on Facebook all day helps you focus on what you can do now. Disconnecting from it also helped me to connect real-time with others. I texted them, invited them for coffee, picked them up for strolls. It was amazing. Though I did these things when I had Facebook regularly, it was different. It was just really being there, you know? I really cannot explain it. It's all so real-time. I had no reason to look at my phone so I kept it away. I talked with them, laughed with them, albeit more heartily than I had ever been. Generally speaking, taking a vacation from daily Facebook refreshed me. I have not stopped using Facebook but after my challenge, I realized the importance of NOW. Of living in the present. Of focusing on what our hands can do, not what our eyes can see in the computer screen. It's a beautiful realization for me, who has probably logged on to Facebook ever since its creation. It is a beaitful realization. You may ask about those teenagers who went to participate in that research? Findings were that those who continued using their accounts were happy but the group who were prohibited from logging on became happier. They made more firm decisions, had more productive days, and learned to not let the days waste by sitting glued to the computer screen. Cheers to this good life!