Sunday, November 8, 2015

My Facebook sabbatical

Espresso

THE NOVELIST Butch Dalisay writes, “For the umpteenth time, last week, another person asked me, with profound astonishment, why I wasn’t on Facebook. I told him that, in my seniorhood, I wanted to lead a quiet and peaceful life, and that Facebook was antithetical to that ambition.”

I’m on my third week of Facebook sabbatical; I want "a quiet and peaceful life," too. I made the decision when I realized that a lot of my idle time was spent checking for updates—a hobby facilitated by my ownership of a smartphone that can connect to the Web anytime, anywhere. At first I thought I could limit my Facebook immersion to once daily, but there was the itch to see what was happening in the world, to see the goings-on in the lives of my so-called friends, some of them I haven’t seen in years, some I haven’t even met at all. It got unhealthy. I would, in some days, prioritize checking Facebook over reading my Bible first thing in the morning. Something had to go.

This is not to say that social media is inherently bad. Facebook has brought me good things—like the chance to connect with old friends and initiate small, personal conversations with them, like the one I did with Lawrence (still alive!), a second grade classmate who cried when I sang a mournful song in Mrs. Jover’s class in 1997. Facebook has also been a convenient birthday reminder platform; I am terrible at birthdays—I even forget to greet my own parents. My groups in Facebook allowed easy sharing of prayer requests, of organizing PDFs and PowerPoints for scientific projects, and of making sure everyone got the message about a meeting for Monday morning.

Tony Reinke writes, “Technology is almost always centripetal, naturally pulling us away from others into a habitat of loneliness.” The paradox is real. I found this especially true when I would get envious at seeing friends traveling abroad or climbing mountains or eating hearty lunches when I haven’t even taken a decent shower after a 36-hour shift. Comparison became inevitable; contentment was hard to grasp.

Another reason why I left: Facebook gave me all sorts of information I didn’t really need. In this sense, ignorance is bliss—ignorance of what’s unnecessary, trivial, and inconsequential. It is in the nature of social media to allow its members to chronicle all details of their lives; which details those are may differ based on a person’s definition of what’s acceptable or not. One cannot simply share enough of his life—there are no limits. I had a problem with that.

It makes me laugh to read what I had written for Scientia, the UP Diliman College of Science’s student publication, in which I had a regular column:

“While signing up for Facebook—which I did out of a whim, not out of a deep-seated desire to accumulate friends to satisfy an inner longing—it occurred to me that this social networking site was a glorified Friendster, only with ten times the egocentricity.

“People have painlessly migrated to Facebook because of the plethora of options available there—and understandably so. The built-in chat lessened the need to log on to instant messenger clients. The photo-tagging feature increased the number of a user's photos available for viewing. The ubiquity of status updates affirmed one's existence. The "Like" button showed that such existence was actually worth living.

“In my case, I signed up for the birthday updates—you see, I suck at remembering dates. Since then, I've received invitations from family, friends from church, high school classmates, college group mates, med school batch mates, and—I'm really sorry—people I don't even remember meeting. However, I haven't signed up for the games; I'm not too good at hand-eye coordination, and those things make me sleepy.”

Obviously I didn’t think it through, my joining Facebook—but I got sucked in the vortex of over sharing and overhearing, such that it took me a few years to realize I needed out.

So what did I miss?

I suppose a few things—like the funny photos of my colleagues caught off-guard while doing rounds, or seeing those birthday reminders, or enjoying photos of my nephews and godchildren (how quickly they grow!). But in general: nothing. For the past three weeks, I feel like a vast void has opened up, and I’ve been given additional time. I now read more books. I can stare blankly into space and think things through. I have more alone time, but I also have more time for real friends, those whom I meet over meals and cups of coffee. I’m playing tennis now—badminton occasionally. And I have more time sending emails to random friends all over the world.

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I don’t know if I’m able to sustain being out of the loop. I told myself I’d give it a month, but I like the absence of mind-clutter, the more defined borders of my privacy, and the peace of blissful ignorance. My sabbatical could take forever.

6 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Email! So many people don't check anymore. They're all on FB instead.
I signed up on FB to get photos since hardly anyone uses Flickr or Picasa for sharing these days so I have to be content with tiny, low-res FB images.
But it's a real time-suck if you check even once a day.
I manage my FB by never posting anything except essential messages to groups, and by limiting the friends I add so as not to have too many things going on in my news feed.

Mon Nov 09, 10:23:00 AM GMT+8  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I agree with you completely Lance! I deleted the facebook app in my phone early this year because it really "sucks you in". You won't realize it but an hour has already passed just looking at the news feed. Unfortunately, I still have to maintain my facebook account for the messenger option. I have no means of contacting other people except through FB messenger. Anyway, send me an email when you have time! :) - AA

Tue Nov 10, 12:43:00 AM GMT+8  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"My sabbatical could take forever."

Welcome to the Club, Kuya Lance!

-Dennis

Tue Nov 10, 01:17:00 AM GMT+8  
Blogger Lance said...

Nothing quite like good old-fashioned email. I suppose writing real letters, with pen and paper and an envelope you seal with saliva, is even more personal, but the Post Office is too far away from where I live. Yes, being sparse in Facebook is a great way of getting through it—but that's one foot out of the enterprise. But I go with email!

Sat Nov 14, 08:11:00 AM GMT+8  
Blogger Lance said...

I will email you soon, AAce. Facebook is a time-warp, and it feels glad to be out. I realized I didnt't have the self-discipline to limit my connection; hence, my decision.

Sat Nov 14, 08:13:00 AM GMT+8  
Blogger Lance said...

Since when have you deleted/inactivated your account, Dennis? You sound extremely pleased.

Sat Nov 14, 08:14:00 AM GMT+8  

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