On November 27, 2013 I watched a video on Vimeo that my boyfriend sent me. Minutes prior to watching, I was giggling at all the dogs of Reddit photos he kept sending me. He prefaced his last text with: On a sobering note…this video is incredibly profound: (above)

So I watched it. I hope you consider watching it too. Not only is it incredibly well executed, I connected with it. More than I can really control.

I know that social media has played a beautiful role in connecting humans all around the world. I’ve experienced that first hand.

Social media causes immoral organizations to fall, and encourages incredible causes to rise. It helps educate, inform and entertain. But more than anything, as I can only speak for how it affects myself right now, I am “sacrificing a conversation for a mere connection.”

I do not want to use technology to define myself. I want to define me, by letting me be. I want to disconnect from loneliness.

So this is my plan, or experiment per se. Out of all the social media that I participate in (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and my blog), Facebook is by far the most time consuming, superficial platform (again, I can only speak for myself and how social media affects me). I should mention I work full-time from home/my computer 8-9 hours a day. Anyway, I’ve decided to deactivate my Facebook account for one year.

The idea sounds so freeing to me. I instantly think of all the time I’ll have to do the things I want to do (or more realistically, forced to do). I want to be forced to have conversations in real time. If that’s what it takes to wring this habit out of me, then so it will be. I think of books I’d rather be reading, dogs I’d rather be giving my attention to. I think of my boyfriend and nice things I could be doing for him, I think of writing, running, yoga, traveling! I believe this “experiment” will ONLY add value to my life.

At first I was afraid of losing my connections with friends. I then remembered that I’m almost claiming to have these friends… my family and friends have my phone number and email. And even if they don’t, we all have the ability to be resourceful.

Here it goes… and why not. I bet I’ll write more on my blog. I bet I’ll be happier. I think I’ll take that chance.

-C