STOP clicking and think for a moment about how you spend your time online.
They are all the rage nowadays – facebook, twitter, instagram, Google+ – and we should be challenged to take a hard look at our Internet usage.
Do you read, research, watch youtube or simply regard the time you spend on the Internet as time for social networking?
A good friend recently took a break from facebook because of a flood of political stories and hate messages.
“My usual moments of connecting with friends suddenly turned ugly. I find I have to start my days with rumours, threats and dirty words.
“What’s more disheartening is my friends who are considered learned, highly respected and credible are all posting videos, links and posters, smearing others without considering whether these are true and edifying. This is senseless and sheer madness – I start my case.”
She continued: “So I unfriend some of these friends but found out soon there is such madness in everyone.”
That’s my good friend taking a short break from her online net-work and not intending to come back in the near future after fasting for a month.
Interestingly, a recent study Coming and Going on Facebook by Pew Internet and American Life project revealed 67 per cent of American adults who are online are members of facebook and many people are taking more short-term breaks from their online networks for a wide variety of reasons.
My friend’s reason for going off facebook is that there is too much drama, gossip, negativity and conflict on the social network but realistically, this forms only nine out of the 61 per cent of facebook users in America who voluntarily take a multi-week break from the social network.
That’s worrying because it reflects the fact that many Malaysians are sharing on facebook – 13.6 million, to be exact, out of a 28.3 million population, according to socialbakers.com.
Imagine the amount of gossips that could have been spun by just a small percentage of users.
The top three reasons for Americans to leave facebook are personal with lack of time taking 21 per cent, and no interest and irrelevant contents taking 10 per cent each.
My good friend was ready to tell me what happened to her when she gave up facebook.
I THINK BETTER. That’s her claim.
“After three days off facebook, I can focus on stuff that is important to me. My creativity increases and I have more room to focus and my thought retention improves.”
That’s amazing.
But why not? She has a point here. Scroll down our facebook newsfeed, probably 80 per cent of the posts are irrelevant to you and of low quality.
There is an endless stream of thoughts from other people flowing through our minds all the time. We are dumping a large percentage of information that we do not need to fill the space in our brain – which, by the way, is poor use of our brain!
It’s good to hear our own thoughts once again – which is a lot more coherent, definitely.
I INTERACT BETTER. She further claims.
“The only place we can talk to the wall is our facebook. Years pass, we develop a very poor quality interaction through facebook – no facial expressions, no body language, no voice, probably just some emotion signs.
“But since going off my facebook, I have started emailing, picking up my phone to call and putting more thoughts into my blog.”
She couldn’t be wrong. Communicating via facebook is shallow. We feel we are doing something worthwhile in connecting with people but from a more objective perspective, it’s just touch and go with no real interaction.
A hug isn’t a real hug. A smiley isn’t a real smile – all we are doing is just pushing some buttons!
Think of our time spent browsing the newsfeed and liking the statues of erstwhile online friends. Isn’t it more wonderful to have some socialisation face to face than just sitting alone in front of a computer, clicking away?
I HAVE MORE TIME. I have no doubt about this claim of hers.
“I don’t browse photos of people whom I don’t know which is taking a big chunk of the time on facebook. I don’t click link after link that gets me nowhere!
“These messages don’t have much depth. Most are trivial and mundane. Some are clever or witty. Few are memorable and life-changing. I have time to enjoy some really better quality reading materials online.”
No one can argue about it – facebook wastes time – it give us a feeling of connectedness but the long-term benefits are negligible.
I LOSE WEIGHT. My friend must be kidding but no, she is very serious about this last claim on the benefits of facebook fasting.
“When I’m on facebook, I have to take every picture of the food I eat and post on the social network, if not tweet or instagram. It’s unpresentable to put a cereal breakfast, a banana lunch and an apple dinner on facebook if that’s what we can have for meals in real life.
“With facebook, I think food. I go the Malaysian way to show what I eat. I’m intentional about what I eat so that I can put it online. And as time goes by, I put on weight because I overeat! I eat because I want to share my cool pictures online and get some likes!”
Losing weight or not aside, the killing of the desire to impulse-share would definitely connect us better with the people right in front of us while dining!
Are all these reasons good enough for us to go facebook fasting? For one, there is no button here for you to click a like nor will this be on my facebook for you to like.
Exercise your citizen’s right by VOTING today. But remember, don’t take picture of your ballot paper and put on facebook – it’s a criminal offence.