I gave up my Facebook for a week…and survived just fine.

I’ve always wondered how those strange mythical creatures that are people without a Facebook profile get by in this modern world.

It’s become so popular that there are now over 1.1 BILLION users. Even my parents have one.

Having been a Facebook user for quite a few years now, I had begun to question why I kept logging in so frequently, at least 3 times a day.

Was it because I cared about some school acquaintance’s latest hangover? No.

Or to see pictures of somebody’s new cat/shoes/hair colour etc.? No.

Was it to hear updates from the weather brigade? “omg snowin down now!” … “thats a fierce wind.” Definitely no.

There’s more time for life’s big questions without the interruptions of FB

So why then? I’m still not too sure, other than the fact that it had just become routine. Checking Facebook was like visiting the fridge when I had nothing to do.

And I wasn’t accomplishing anything by being on it, just mindlessly scrolling down, down, down, and not even noticing my brain cells begin to euthanise each other.

So I decided to see what it would be like without it for a week. And it wasn’t that bad at all. The first couple of days were the hardest, only because it was strange to go without it for such a long time, having been used to having it at the tips of my fingers.

Facebook say its users spend an average of 17 minutes daily on it, and this was time that could be better spent on other things, like catching up on dreaded long neglected uni work.

The face of learning

The Temptation.

It also meant I was becoming less and less one of those people with their heads buried in their phone, which can only be a good thing.

And a few days later, they were even sending me emails to come back, dangling notifications in front of me like a carrot.

The harsh reality of cold turkey was starting to kick in.

Gotta get dem notifications

The best thing about Facebook is that it’s a great way of communicating with people, but it’s not the only one. I also know well that it’s a great method of procrastination.

Moving forward I don’t think I’ll go into full-on hermit mode and delete my profile but I will spend less time on it now that I know it’s really not that difficult. So in the spirit of Lent, I plan to wean myself off the teat of Mark Zuckerberg & Co.

Such sacrifice. Jesus would be proud.