Facebook Hiatus and De-Toxing

Detoxification is a process in which the body rids itself of undesired substances, used as a treatment for substance abuse patients. After being bestowed upon the title of "most likely to be on Facebok" by a large group of my peers, I impulsively decided to go on a Facebook hiatus for a pre-determined amount of time. And to be honest, it has been hard.

Part of my addiction to Facebook is caused by how easily accessible I made it. I have the Facebook mobile app for the iPod Touch (read: NOT the "iTouch"), which allows me to check Facebook anywhere I can get Wifi on my iPod Touch. I set up my laptop so that if I hold down the shift button, press the escape button, and type "fb" (short for "Facebook"), my laptop will automatically open a new tab in Google Chrome and access Facebook. As most of you reading this from Facebook may already know, any chance I had in front of a computer or in a Wifi zone, I would check Facebook and post interesting articles that I come across my subscribed RSS feeds.

The first step to resolving a problem is to admit it. Yes, I was addicted to Facebook. But it was not an unhealthy obsession: I will always like to be kept in the loop about EVERYTHING, part of the reason why I post so many articles on Facebook. I believe information should be freely passed between people and knowing is most of the battle (contrary to what this T-shirt claims) of life.

So I decided to test my self-discipline and stop going to Facebook.com. I adjusted my email notifications so that they would still collect in my Gmail, but I would not be notified of new notifications unless I wanted to look at them. Therefore, when my hiatus is over, I can keep track of what I missed out on. Meanwhile, I have still been accessing my Twitter, Formspring, instant messaging, and obviously my blog. Some have argued that this defeats the purpose of my hiatus.

My answer to these naysayers is no. No, I am not disrupting my Facebook hiatus by accessing these other websites. The purpose of my Facebook hiatus is not to distance myself from distractions, but instead to test my self discipline, to test that if I want something done, I can see it through.

See you on Facebook after 11AM on the 17th. Don't forget that there's daylight savings time this weekend, so my hiatus is actually only 211 hours. Good luck for those on the quarter system and have their final examinations.

Catch you on the flip side.