The Great Facebook Challenge

I’ve almost reached the end of the first day in a five day challenge to completely detach myself from Facebook. Being the social media junkie that I am, I’m sure many of you are wonder how this challenge is going.

Basically, I freakin’ hate it!

Okay, perhaps that a bit of an overstatement. I’m actually doing all right without my daily dose of Facebook comments, likes, and what not. But first, I should probably give a little background.

This little challenge was the brainchild of my girlfriend, who sometimes questions my relationship with the social network. There’s almost always an update or two waiting for me to read when I log in, mostly because I comment and “like” many of the statuses, pictures, and other bits of activity my friends post. I see it as a way of maintaining and sometimes even strengthening my various friendships, especially since I might not see some of them on a regular basis. However, I do admit that I am perhaps a little too attached to the service. Going on a trip is often akin to torture, since it will mean complete detachment from this social sphere for whole days at a time. What if someone posts a funny status, interesting note, or neat photo? My inner information junkie craves the sustenance it gets from Facebook and its ilk.

Perhaps it’s a little unhealthy, but I just really like being up to date with what’s going on. It’s why I’m such a lover of Google Reader: it lets me keep up with websites (and, therefore, information) that I find interesting. I also enjoy participating in conversation, a symptom I acquired after almost two years as a Twitter user. The interaction may not be as intimate as face-to-face or even via phones, but it often serves as a nice stop-gap between these kinds of interactions.

But alas, for the next four days I’ll have to learn to come to terms with a life minus Facebook. I’m finding that I’m more attached to Facebook than I’d like to admit. The urge to check it this morning was powerful, and although I was strong in my resistance, I know this feeling is only going to get worse before it gets better. My coworkers in particular are afraid that they’ll find me hunched over in my cubicle, suffering from Facebook withdrawal. Foaming at the mouth is almost guaranteed to occur at some point this week.

In all fairness though, my girlfriend did agree to give up something that she’s attached to as well, so at least I’ll be in good company while I suffer.