Facebook

You may never find this post if you were banking on my posting about this on facebook.

I did it.

I deleted my facebook account.

Now, don't get me wrong. I can get it back whenever I want to. However, I'm not sure if I want to.

I didn't want to delete facebook, but my husband challenged me to. And of course, I'm a sucker for a challenge. Don't EVEN try to triple-dog-dare me. (Let me add, my husband joined the challenge and has deleted his account, too, but more impressively, he is taking a break from his VolQuest account.)

Now that facebook is gone, though; it turns out our lives are about 150% better than they were before. However, your life may be less exciting. These are some of the facebook statuses that you would have gotten to read this week if I were still on facebook.

• Kristina Hagerty Parnell marriage retreat at Otter Creek tonight!!!
• Kristina Hagerty Parnell yes, Eli, you're right. when you dump Cheerios in the carpet and step on them, the right word to use is "mess."
• Kristina Hagerty Parnell who needs an early shopping pass for the Otter Creek consignment sale?
• Kristina Hagerty Parnell when should I stop swaddling Kate???
• Kristina Hagerty Parnell is drowning in safety pins and index cards!!! Hello, consignment season!
• Kristina Hagerty Parnell is cuddling with her two precious children on the couch. Life doesn't get any better than this.

 So I know what you are thinking, "How can I survive without reading Kristina's facebook statuses?" I question how I will survive without documenting each of these precious moments in my life.

However, now that I have been without facebook for a week, I have come to a few realizations:

• I don't need to know what everyone that I have ever known is doing every second of the day.
• I WAS addicted to facebook.
• I actually THOUGHT in facebook status updates. (This urge is almost gone now!)
• I'm pretty darn proud of myself for quitting cold-turkey. Didn't even need a patch.
• My relationships that were important were suffering because of the time I spent on facebook.
• The relationships in my life that weren't important were doing great because of the time I spent on facebook.
• Social networking has its benefits, but for me the negatives were outweighing the positives. Facebook was addicting, taking too much of my time and causing my laziness and lethargy to increase.
• I have gained 1-2 hours each day by deleting facebook. Facebook was the greatest time-killer of my life.
• When I see people, I can honestly ask them what is going on in their lives (without already knowing the answer from my facebook stalking). No one knows what is going on in my life (unless they call me!!! Amazingly, not many people are calling to ask, which provides more insight into the shallowness of facebook relationships. People want to know what is going on in others' lives, but not many people want to be truly involved and invested in others).
• I really love facebook, and I miss it. Maybe I need to reconsider finding a patch to curb my addiction.

To be (on facebook) or not to be (on facebook). THAT is the question.