By:Stephanie Wertz
Oak Staff
I gave up Facebook for 40 days. I didn’t think it would be that
hard until I began to feel left out of the loop from my family and friends. With
this feeling of emptiness I switched to a new form of social media, Instagram.
To begin with, I was never really actively involved with
Facebook, I rarely posted statuses and pictures. I was only on there to past
the time or catch up with an old friend from back home. However, before temporarily turning off Facebook, I was on
the popular network everyday at least three times a day.
I wasn’t obsessed with Facebook. I just became accustomed to
going on it in between classes, when I was alone or checking up on group
messages and upcoming events. Either way, I was on it quite often and not being
able to go on the social media device at first was extremely hard.
I deactivated my account. I hid my Facebook App on my iPhone
just so I wouldn’t see it and give into the temptation. The first couple of
days were hard. Like I mentioned before I had this routine down, and without it
I was more observant of what was around me. In a way it made me realize how
much I had missed when I was looking down at my phone all the time. I was friendlier
in person than I was in the virtual world, literally.
People came up to me and
or texted to me and asked why I didn’t have a Facebook, I explained and they
really didn’t like the reason. I had ruined their “tags” and mentions on posts.
People even questioned if my boyfriend and I
were still together because my Facebook was gone; as we all know Facebook
“officially” determines the status of one’s
relationship.
There was another thing I realized. People knew about my
business and life from Facebook because of my posts and pictures. During my
deactivation, I didn’t seem to mind the privacy of my life. However, there was
a downfall to this when it came to the life of my friends. I wasn’t aware of
the parties and people’s birthdays. I did feel bad when I forgot my friends’ birthday, but again I
should have remembered it regardless, I shouldn’t rely on Facebook so much.
Facebook, and the technology around us makes so much more
reliant on them. Ever since I got my iPhone I feel like I have become an even
worse speller than before. As I am typing right now I am automatically assuming
my MacBook Pro will autocorrect for me. It doesn’t. I have to actually go back
and edit it. But, that’s another story to talk about.
As the days wore
on, my challenge felt easier and easier, but that’s
because I was hooked on another form of social media, Instagram. Sure, it may
seem that I was cheating but I really wasn’t! I was on Instagram and I was able
to still be connected with my friends and family which made things a little bit
better. Actually, It was a lot better because I became obsessed with Instagram.
I started digging deep with the app and I was following all sorts of artists
and celebrities, friends of friends just so I could have a variety of people to
follow and entertain me.
Instagram was and still is my go to app ever since I substituted
it for Facebook. Now that I was off Facebook for so long, I hardly care to go
on it now. I actually started deleting people that I really never talked to.
Even today, I started unfollwing pointless people on Instagram. The world of
social media has become overboard and people abuse the networks. That’s why I
avoid Twitter, there are too many pointless comments and hash tags.
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