The Student News Site of Central Oregon Community College

The Broadside

The Student News Site of Central Oregon Community College

The Broadside

The Student News Site of Central Oregon Community College

The Broadside

40 days without Facebook (The Experiment Part 1)

Bethany Hargrove
The Broadside

What happens when someone who is admittedly a total Facebook addict completely gives up the #1 social network for 40 days straight?
Being a spiritual person, I, Bethany Hargrove, chose to deactivate my Facebook account for Lent. The idea was that I would spend the 40 days in more metaphysical meditation. But the 40 days without Facebook turned into a battle of wills within my head and without.

Week one: First half of the week, I had withdrawals. I kept wanting to post status messages; this was the hardest stage. I took out my typing energy by texting more, and then I started writing a novel. Many of my friends teasingly told me I wouldn’t
make it the 40 days, which just made me more stubborn.

During the second half of the week I started to feel a wonderful sense of anonymity. I didn’t have to answer to anyone or anything; an illusion that was created by my constant use of Facebook.

Week two: I was positively basking in the autonomy, but I almost turned to Twitter to spew my thoughts into the Internet. However, I decided that this would be cheating. I filled up the procrastination time with guitar and writing.

Week three: In the thick of week three, my resolve began to weaken. I thought about all the fun conversations I’ve had on Facebook, witty exchanges between family members, mis-quotes being reposted, and the like.

But then I thought about how much I would get teased if I gave in early, and that strengthened my resolve.

Week four: At this point I finally was getting used to the lack of Facebook. This week and week five were pretty uneventful.

Week five: Since I couldn’t procrastinate with Facebook, I became very good friends with Stumbleupon.

Final week: Because none of my friends really used any of the Internet boredom-outlets I tried, was really tired of not having a proper social network and missing out on Internet-related shenanigans, so I basically spent the last week counting down to when I could log in again.

However, the first day I was back on Facebook I felt like I’d spent the day looking in people’s windows and/or reading their mail.

Coming next week, 40 days Without Facebook pt. 2 the Re-Entry.

Bethany Hardgrove can be reached at [email protected]

Leave a Comment
More to Discover

Comments (0)

All The Broadside Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *