And that was the point of the experiment. What would happen if I switched off the noise ? Was I going to miss it ? Was anyone going to miss me ? Would I miss any opportunities, and spill behind on “ news program ” ?
The claim inverse happened. But let me rewind and give you the full experience .
The week when Robin Williams passed away, curtly after Facebook launched the sport that notifies us when a ally publishes a “ democratic photograph, ” my head was about to explode from excessively much subject I didn ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate care much for. So I decided to experiment .
Facebook Makes it Very Very Hard to Leave
arsenic soon as I tried to deactivate my history I got the message below. These people would miss me. Except at least one of them sees me every day…
Out of curio I kept refreshing the page to see who else would miss me. People I interact with the most appear frequently. Except for my ma and a friend from Kurdistan, it didn ’ t very seem like anyone would truly miss me. But hey, Facebook may know my friends and stalkers better than I do .
Below this friends tilt I was asked my reason for leaving and was given options related to Group and Apps administration. If you are the admin of a group you ’ ll be removed from it. If you have developed apps you must transfer their administration or delete them before deactivating the Facebook explanation .
once I went through all of these, I was Facebook spare ! And switching over every app and group was no little task. therefore, one hour by and by I was finally Facebook dislodge !
The Day After – Death or Hackers?
not even a day later my ma emails in a panic. She asked me if something had happened, and asks me where else she can find me. Three days subsequently she started a Twitter history and started favoriting everything I posted… .
adjacent, a caring ally emailed to ask if my account had been hacked. other than that, no one noticed. Over the next workweek coworkers would say, “ did you see that thing I posted on Facebook… oh you ’ rhenium not on Facebook. ” The tone of voice, each time, was similar to discovering person couldn ’ t experience or hear. “ Oh, you can ’ triiodothyronine see that. ” Or like you ’ vitamin d spill to person with a terminal illness that you can ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate understand. And just like that, I was declared blind by way of being off Facebook .
At the end of the experiment one of my employees said I missed the wholly Ferguson thing. I said, I didn ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate. She insisted. I said, I got to see it on Twitter. person else intervened that it was all over the media. She said the mainstream media didn ’ metric ton cover all nuances. And we left it at that .
In early words, diagnosis – news blindness and deafness ; cause – miss of Facebook .
Identifying an Illness by Its Symptoms – the ABCDE of Addiction
I posted on Google+ that I was running this experiment and person replied : “ how chilling ” and “ I get nauseated just think of what you are doing. ”
Whoa ! Scary ? Sickening ? Should I be ? From not being on Facebook ? You know what else is chilling and makes one nauseating ? secession from means dependence and addiction recovery. I mention both because the early has a physiologic lawsuit that can make one ill, the latter has more to do with the ABCDEs of addiction :
- Inability to consistently Abstain;
- Impairment in Behavioral control;
- Craving; or increased “hunger” for drugs or rewarding experiences;
- Diminished recognition of significant problems with one’s behaviors and interpersonal relationships; and
- A dysfunctional Emotional response.
The Mindless Site Visits
then during this time I did track my responses related to the ABCDE. A and B reared their atrocious heads for about two days. But I found that besides the accustomed and asinine type of the Facebook URL, I didn ’ thymine miss it or have any other response at all. I didn ’ thymine actually need to go to Facebook. I precisely seemed to instinctively go there when I needed a distraction or wanted to read news program. The way some look out the window when trying to gather a thinking, I ’ five hundred type in the Facebook url .
Day 1 I typed the Facebook url 3 times and went to the iphone app 3 times. mindlessly. With no real purpose. Out of the habit of fill time. I entirely know because my influence team told me to keep track and I did .
Starting on Day 2 I tried to open the Facebook app once and then wholly forgot about Facebook. Day 3 I started getting notified by different call apps that one of my connections needed to be reset. Day 4, I couldn ’ thyroxine log into a shopping web site where I had only used Facebook as a login. I realized that probably saved me a few bucks .
Over all I thought I was going to have a lot more fun with NOT being on Facebook. And I was disappointed. I was going to write this epic post about all my blunders. I wanted to miss it so I would have something BIG to say. But I didn ’ metric ton .
I Quit Facebook, Can I Still Have Spotify?
Lucky for me I had set up my Spotify account independent from Facebook. For those who set it up through Facebook, or with the Facebook login and password, a migration would be necessary to continue using Spotify after quitting Facebook.
Peter, Spotify Community Yoda and Bug Whisperer wrote a tutorial on how to get back on Spotify after quitting Facebook .
Half a Book Later…
rather, in my release time I read half a book, figured out how to use SnapChat better, got “ this ” close to Inbox 0 and all in all had a generative week .
I learned that…
1. I cannot not be on my company’s Facebook group.
2. I cannot be without Twitter.
a. Twitter allows the freedom to find and tune into what I want to know and learn .
b. I can talk to strangers, and it ’ south accepted as the thing to do
c. I can easily filter out what I don ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate want to see, without having to block people and pages
All of these are not easy on Facebook .
3. Facebook chooses what we see and it’s a lot less of your friends’ content than you’d think. And it ’ s not even new content. Washington Post ’ sulfur Tim Herrera did his own small experiment and discovered that near to one-half of the posts Facebook showed in his flow were old posts. Overall he only saw 29 % of the new contentedness produced. And even more interest to me, 69 % of the contentedness he saw came from pages not friends .
Twitter ( if you know how to use it ) gives you the exemption to find the content and people you want. So hands toss off, I prefer chirrup when it comes to consuming subject .
4. I did not die. And the world didn’t end.
5. I gained some time back but not as much as I would have thought.
I redirected my time to other sociable networks. I had more fourth dimension to read but I besides put more time into Google+, Twitter and SnapChat. Instagram and Pinterest though didn ’ triiodothyronine catch more attention. Neither did LinkedIn. Again, except SnapChat ( where I fair wanted to learn more about the joyride itself ), it may have to do with my predilection for networks that allow me to find well find other people and conversations .
The Memory that Remains…
The most impressive memory that remains was the reaction of those around me. Others who pulled the plug in the past told me they were told they ’ d miss it. Yet I underestimated how generous people were with their predictions of how much I ’ vitamin d miss it, and how much I ’ d neglect. Some asked me how I will communicate with others. apparently some alone commune via Facebook…
I besides didn ’ metric ton expect people would look at me with pity. As if I couldn ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate recognize this jewel that was in front of me. As if “ missing out ” was tattooed on my brow .
Which made me ponder how people place value on social interaction vs. personal free time or in-person interactions .
When and how did our emotions get so wrapped up in this online platform?
As a seller I see opportunities. Where there ’ south emotion, there ’ south a casual to instigate action. I ’ ve always had the ability to separate life from commerce and be analytic about it. It served me well as a seller. So I saw no problem with mixing animation updates with market updates. After all, walking down the street I will experience a mix of both. But now I am starting to doubt that ’ s quite the case with Facebook .
Facebook is no longer free.
We are paying Facebook with our time and attention ( to ads, to news, to sponsors ) so we can have a feel of belong and not missing out. Facebook ’ mho got us all pretty wrapped up around their little feel ( or should I say thumb ? ). Which is why no count how much we all complain about ads, and noise, and clutter, identical few of us actually stay aside. We are not mixing the sociable with the commercial. We are in the commercial. We are kept there by manner of the “ social. ”
It ’ south quite admirable the machine Facebook has built. I can ’ thymine but admire its exponent. And I can ’ t but be more mindful from nowadays on .
