FACEBOOK!

Yep, all caps! Facebook is serious business and very serious business to some people, it gives us a way to connect to family, friends, even strangers in ways and on levels that might not have ever been possible before.
I’d like to believe that the majority of Facebook users joined with good intentions in mind (but we all know there are those nefarious people out there) and that’s just what I thought when I first signed up for Facebook.

In 2009 I acquired a Facebook account at the request of my husband for the soul purpose of keeping in touch with him while he attended grad school in California and I was left in Alabama. We were used to being apart for extended periods of time; a few weeks, a month, but this was going to be two years and we knew it was going to be a hardship. So rather than just relying on phone calls and text messages, my husband suggested FB. I was a little reluctant at first. . . I felt like I didn’t need Facebook, that our marriage would be fine without it and that there couldn’t be anyone on FB that I would want to talk to that I couldn’t just pick up the phone and call.

Fast forward 4 years later and it’s and integral part of my life. I couldn’t imagine my life without it. Like most people it started off great, yet, I began to see a negative to the whole “Facebook Life”. . .
If I can’t reach my husband I go to FB. Hundreds of pictures of our Ninja Baby to scroll through. . .thank you Facebook! Talking to my family and friends more online than in person. . .yes please! Ignoring my child so I can finish reading/posting a very important post…..umm hmm not so good Facebook.

I decided to “unplug” myself from Facebook on August 25th after we realized our daughter thinks it’s weird if we don’t have our phones in front of our faces 24/7. So I deleted the FB app from my phone with the intention of giving myself a “Facebook detox”. And I have to say to admit to myself “WOW I AM/WAS ADDICTED TO FACEBOOK!”
The first four days I kept getting on my phone just looking at the empty space where the app used to be. Of course I was too lazy to actually go on to my laptop and sign in to FB (Because really who has time to do that!? It’s so much work!) which was actually a good thing. After that I came to the epiphany that; “maybe I DON’T need to take my phone with me every time I go to the restroom!”

I started to see myself as a better mom and wife, after years of being extremely hard on myself. I wasn’t tuning out my husband and daughter with Facebook. If I had something that I wanted to share with my family I texted them or called them. If I really wanted to share something with my little Facebook community I did it while my daughter was sleeping. I spent more time playing with my daughter rather than just “being” there. I’ve had more real conversations with my husband. I saw that if I didn’t have something to distract me from doing the housework and I would get more done in the day.

I started out doing my “FB detox” with the idea that I would give up FB for a few months and then go back to it. But after talking to a friend I saw that Facebook isn’t “evil”, just an outlet that I was over using to compensate. So for me just making sure that Facebook isn’t readily accessible helps me stay focused on the things that matter most. Detoxing from FB has allowed me to return to my original intention of using it to strengthen my relationships. Facebook detoxing may not be for everyone, many people use it for marketing their business or promoting other causes, which is awesome! But I’m glad I did it, and it’s never a bad idea to take a step back from something and reevaluate.

I personally feel I still have a lot of work to do to get over my Facebook “addiction”……but hey at least I’m not “Catfish-ing” anyone! 😉