Day 4

Deactivating Facebook Day 4

Jan 4, 2015

Now that I am not using Facebook I have more time to read articles. But I have also been visiting 9GAG app since last few months. Amazingly, I have also been able to reduce or keep track of the amount of time spent on 9GAG. These days, I sleep more and use less junk internet. 

That’s it for today about Facebook. 

Day 3

Deactivating Facebook, Day 3

Jan 03, 2015

Nothing. I feel nothing about Facebook. No curiosity. Perhaps also because I am reading ‘Choose Yourself’ by James Altucher at the moment, whose blogs I read a lot and it is giving me a determination to write something every day, just getting into the writing zone and keeping me away from wasting time on. However, why I am still writing this blog is beyond me. How long the post will be is also beyond me. I guess it will end here.

Ok, some thoughts from yesterday. What if I have stopped using Facebook because I was not getting anything from it? I was getting something out of it, but not something significant, which is why I decided to quit. Does that make me selfish, that I chose to use it as long as I was benefiting from it, and suddenly when I do not see any benefit, I quit? Am I selfish or am I only 'choosing myself' as Mr. Altucher puts it. The point is there is latent fear in me that people will perceive me as a person who will only do things when I have something to gain from it, which I hope is not true. I guess I can be eccentric. I have been described as ‘selfish, proud, and arrogant’ among many but I have also been nice, kind and selfless although, not many has been nice enough to say it to my face. But, the important thing is I get to believe whatever I want to.

And perhaps, this deactivating is temporary and I will be back on Facebook after a month with a month of experience on how I stayed off Facebook and what I felt, missed and gained. Ironically, I am still writing about Facebook, even though I am out of it. Perhaps, a month of journal can be complied and will help a reader when she decides to do the same. Then, I will use Facebook to promote it, hah.  I use ‘she’, not because I have a ‘she’ is mind, but because, my motto at the moment is ‘why not?’

Lastly, I think it would be premature celebration to think that I have been able to stay out of Facebook. It has just been 3 days (2 days and 21 hours to be precise). Thankfully I am not as curious as yesterday or the day before. 

Oh and I am working on a report that has been due for quite some time now, which is also keeping me away from Facebook. Using Facebook and not using that time to the report would just make me feel guilty.

The internet speed has not helped today either. This is Nepal. Anyway, adios for today.

Day 2

Deactivating Facebook, Day 2

Jan 02, 2015

It was not very hard to stay without using Facebook today. I realized how less I used the internet today. I checked my emails, looked into my LinkedIn account, and opened my Twitter account. All I did was read a few messages. There was none that needed replying. Then I read a few articles that were twitted. I also clicked the like tab on few of those Harvard Business Review (HBR) articles. I am afraid I had ran out of limited articles I had access to last month, so I am really careful about what I try to read on HBR. I also did read a few articles by Ethical Corporation and by Forbes.

I believe I am also deactivating Facebook, so that I could devote a little bit of my time writing about the experience and improve my writing skills. Lets’ see how that works out. When I do finish writing on this issue, I do wish to write articles like those on HBR someday. 

I do wonder, if I had missed some posting by my friends wishing a Happy New Year on their wall. But I guess it does not matter, if it is not on the message. Those wishes are only beautiful when they are personal. Like the dozen Text messages I sent and received.

Do I miss Facebook? I don’t and I don’t care. Has my friends realized that I have deactivated? I don’t know. They certainly have not said anything. Some of them might not have any other way to contact me, but I am sure they could if they really tried. It is a small world and most of them are a few degree away, not much. But Sapana at Creative Touch did ask me about my Facebook. I was so proud to tell her that I had quit.

This is all I have to write about Facebook today. 

Day 1

Jan 1, 2015

I deactivated my Facebook account yesterday at around 10:30 pm. I wish to be able to live without using Facebook for at least a month. I felt that I use a bit too much of time every day using Facebook, checking updates, commenting and liking. It is useful in a few cases. It helps you keep in touch with some good friends and good people. However, some of my best friends are not on Facebook, and I think, it will not make a lot of difference. Facebook is good in developing new relations, but does this compromise the time available for work.

I actually started this process a few months earlier. First I deleted Facebook app from my phone, thinking that if I do not have an app, I will need to go through website which is much lengthier and it my demotivate me to use less Facebook. It did not help. I still checked Facebook every hour when I was with phone or laptop. I opened a group a few days ago called, ‘Facebook Addiction Treatment Centre’ giving a lot of opinions on the harm of getting addicted to Facebook. Guess that was just a step towards this. So this time around I have deactivated it. However, I have deactivated with an option to get back when I want. Hopefully, this experiment will give me enough reason to sign off from Facebook altogether. I am afraid, I am into 9GAG though, which is just or even more addictive. On a positive note, it is not as good as it used to be, so 9GAG addiction will also pass.

I do feel, like I am going to miss conversation with some of my Facebook buddies, whom I share regular conversations with, whose articles and pictures and share I try to read, to see. These conversations makes me feel like I am still socializing and compensating for not being so social on real life. The problem was that I think I was using time that could have been used to write blogs, to develop products for my company, to develop professional network on LinkedIn, or to give some more time on Twitter and to read more articles on HBR, Forbes, Triple Pundit, Inc and LinkedIn which have helped me tremendously in the last few months. And I think, that I should be putting more effort on my work and career at the moment, than on Facebook, which I think might be very helpful in the near future. As for now, I think it is time to focus more on work and less on being in touch, which I will be with emails, phones and personal visits.

Today has not been easy to go without using Facebook though. I have this urge to go back and reactivate my account. However, it does seem like I will be going there only to look into the lives of others. I do not really share a lot of my life on Facebook. I hardly recommend any articles on Facebook either. It is just like a walk through a shopping mall for me, window shopping, I feel like a bit of a pervert. (Rest assured, no I do not search for naked pictures).

But the slow internet speed has come to my rescue as well. So actually, I have not been able to go to any internet sites today.

Surprisingly, this blog is posted.