Saturday, May 11, 2013

Life without Facebook


I had been flirting with the idea of deactivating or shutting down my Facebook account for a while. Increasingly convinced that I was so unhealthy preoccupied by that website, I would still waste time to craft absurd numbers of witty wall posts, imagining how it would look through the eyes of the others by generating the most “likes”.  When I cannot help stalking someone I shouldn’t care, the monotony of Facebook finally got on me and I quitted. But I didn’t delete the account.

After eight months of life without Facebook, surprisingly, how little I miss it. My friends made fun of me as an anachronism, when they were forced by the fact I wasn’t on Facebook to contact me by emails or messages. Sure, I feel out of the loop when gossip was around or jokes from Facebook were mentioned.

However, compared to what I have gained, life without Facebook is tremendous. My day is quitter now in my mind world. I might miss a lot of interesting details of others’ life, but I got most important things by personal contact. No longer do I wonder about what is or isn’t worth sharing online. Instead, I focus on more introspective stuff. I read, I watch, I write (still not that much), I have long conversations with my friends, and learn things. I am still able to express myself by talking face to face, or this blog (rarely be reviewed).

Life overseas seems strange without Facebook when most of your friends are scattered over every continents. But have you even thought about that friendships take place not through the amount of comments, likes or messages we share.  Are these the friendships themselves? Friendships should be in a heart to heart type of fashion. Sometimes we lose track of it. It is not that important being always connected, and the connection in hearts is the only thing real.

I must admit sometime I miss the convenience and the social connectedness that Facebook provides. But it is useful to learn to stand on my own. It is powerful to know I can. At the end, “life everywhere is life, life is in ourselves and not in the external”. 

I am thinking about getting back on anytime soon. I know I am a different user now.

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