My Tenuous Relationship with Facebook
Several things are converging:
This post from Seth Godin about “Modern Procrastination,” the impending arrival of Lent, a growing passion for other pursuits, and reality is setting in that with a growing church and a family of six, I have less and less time that is “mine.”
I’m setting limits on Facebook. I will only check it 2-3 times a day. That’s all. No more checking it every hour. First thing in the morning, sometime in the middle of the day, and at night; that’s it. You may see more activity, but it’s only because I have a button on my browser that says “Share on Facebook” that allows me to share links without actually opening Facebook, and my Twitter feed automatically updates my Facebook status, as does my blog.
A year or so ago, I did the same thing with Google Reader (where I read blogs). I limited myself to looking at it once a day. I may soon adopt similar strategies with email. I find that email, Twitter, Facebook, Reader, etc., are just too distracting and work against my ability to focus. I’ve also had to limit my “social gaming” – bejeweled, wordtwist, etc. for the same reasons… I get obsessive and hyper-competitive.
I already do some of this. For example, on Sundays, after church, I don’t open my laptop at all (or, since football season is over), I don’t turn on the television either (at least until after the children are all put away for the night).
This post serves as my public declaration, that will (hopefully) give me the motivation to do what has needed to be done for some time!
Facebook, I own you now.
February 2nd, 2010 at 11:21 am
Good call. I did the exact thing with Reader a few months back – in addition to cutting out LOADS of subscriptions. I’m still owned by FB though… I’ll probably need to just delete the app from my phone entirely before I can take control of that one.
February 2nd, 2010 at 1:08 pm
I came to pretty much the same place via Godin’s article, but instead have gone cold turkey (see the “on hiatus”) in my status line. its been freeing, and i am certainly much more productive, though I miss the quas-relational aspect of seeing what people are up too.
February 2nd, 2010 at 1:21 pm
That’s why I can’t just leave it completely behind. I think that there is an underlying assumption that if we’re friends on Facebook, then you know the basic “stuff” about what’s going on in my life. I can’t tell you how many conversations with people begin with “I saw on Facebook that…”
As a pastor, it’s such an easy conversation starter.