The day I quit Facebook

I quit Facebook.
I actually did.

The guy who was "always online" , always posting, commenting within 30 secs of a new post/status message,  last logged onto Facebook 26 days ago. It wasn't easy , but I did it.

You all might be having the same questions in your minds : " Why? " , "How?" "Are you freakin' mad? "

Well, it all started as a social experiment; I wanted to see the effects/benefits/cons of social networking on my life. And as the saying goes "You don't miss the water until it's gone" , I decided to take a break from Facebook (I'll just use "Fb" in my further references).

Photocredit : ecolumns.net

It's not like this was the first time I attempted to do this; my first attempt was an utter failure, I logged on within 45 minutes of de-activating my account. That was a few months ago.
This time , my resolve was stronger, I decided to make another attempt.

As I stared at the Blue/white screen displaying a questionnaire asking me to select "why I was leaving Facebook" and that "Person ABC and XYZ were going to miss my presence" , I wondered, would I be able to make it? Would I be able to stay away from the buzz and activity of the Social Network? How could I stay in touch with many of my friends living in far off places? Well, only one way to find out. I hit the button.

The first day off the grid was the hardest; I found myself spontaneously loading the website while I was on a voice chat with mom and dad, only to realize that I'd deactivated my account.And I was quite restless, all the time I was thinking," what is Mr.A upto today? ", "wonder if B.Inc has any special offers for Fb fans today",
"oh its Mrs.C's birthday!If only I could post a greeting on her wall!".

But I also realized that I was now getting a lot more time for myself; I could now take a 30 min power nap at noon post-lunch rather than a measly 15 mins. I also started to spend more time on informative websites , and I started reading as well! It'd been ages since I'd read a decent novel and now since I was free of the routine-disruptive Fb, I had all the time in the world to do so.

My Fb addiction had also made me a bit of an attention-seeker ;I'd post an image/photo/internet meme and wait for someone to "like" it, a behavior akin to a predator seeking its prey.Leaving Fb, put an end to those tendencies.

Another thought I had was, "Well, I've left Fb, surely my 500+ friends are gonna miss my presence." The stark reality is : they didn't (most of them anyway). I bet my dollar that a few of them still don't realize I'm no longer there on Fb. Its not that I'm some weirdo who lives in a the middle of nowhere in a trailer,with eccentric tendencies / strange fetishes.The fact is ,Fb is such a large collage of information / events , its easy to get lost in it.

Also, another thing I realized was that though I was no longer on Fb, I was able to get in touch with most of my friends through other media (Twitter, Email and the Mobile phone). Sure, I lacked the versatility of interacting with everyone on the same platform but hey, I was able to do it.
So, a little more than 3 weeks later, I'm still Fb free and I'm loving it.

Only regret : Why do all the companies require you to login with your Fb ID for those lucky giveaway draws ! :(

UPDATE : After 5 weeks of being Fb free, I finally decided to login and well, apart from a few catchy music videos and a wedding invite or two, there wasn't much happening that piqued my interest.Perhaps the only good thing I require Fb for is to promote my blog posts ! :P

Books vs the Internet : An Essay

These days , one can source any kind of information from the internet ; be it the daily headlines , recipes for Yorkshire pudding or medical information on how to treat Uncle Joe's frequent heartburn episodes.
The internet has it all.
Or does it?
Does staring for hours in front of a glowing computer screen trump the experience of flipping through the pages of a book?
Do you feel the same level of accomplishment when you dig out information on Wikipedia as when you referenced the same on the Almanac or The Encyclopedia Brittanica?

Source : caribarena.com

For those of you who say that the internet is also a way to pass time, I can justify as well as counter this argument. In all fairness, the internet is definitely a good way to pass time in situations which require you to exercise patience, which in the fast-paced world of today, is becoming increasingly difficult.So yes, a quick log-in on Facebook or a Twitter update would definitely help in passing those monotonous moments.
But conversely, immerse yourself in a novel or a magazine and you'll hardly realize how quickly time flies.

The internet as a cure to chronic boredom. Really? So ,opening and closing Facebook and your email inbox every 10 minutes cures your boredom? Maybe a few tweets, a few photo uploads, perhaps watching the grey line of a YouTube video of cute fuzzy kittens advance agonizingly as it buffers, or reading this article on my blog at the end of it all because you already did everything you could do for the moment?

Alternatively, once you pick up a book , there aren't many things which come into your mind. As one-dimensional as flipping through pages may seem, it enables us to push or minds to the limit, helping us visualize, imagine, opine, innovate.
Books are the cornerstone for evolution and revolution.
"The Republic" by Plato ,The works of Shakespeare ,Charles Dickens , Das Kapital by Karl Marx, "The Prince" by Machiavelli are literary masterpieces which either inspired change, portrayed the conditions that prevailed at the time or offered a ray of hope in the darkness.

Sure, you could download ebooks from Amazon.com , but the experience wouldn't essentially be the same.
At the same time, you wouldn't really want to purchase a book everytime you need reference for a small paragraph of info; not unless you have a reading room that parallels the Smithsonian and the finances of say, Warren Buffet.

Conclusion : I certainly have no qualms about searching for information on the world wide web, as it's definitely faster and more accessible, but nothing beats the thrill and sense of achievement of flipping through the pages of a book.

P.S : I thought of writing this as I was going through a pile of Readers' Digest. Kinda proves a  point. :)