Whilst Sarah is out being tutled (ie with her stats tutor), I have two choices for the remainder of the afternoon. I can take a nap, or I can play Gran Turismo 5.
Really, not everything you do will necessarily be productive outside of facebook, but it certainly gives you options. Today was fantastic. We went grocery shopping in the morning, made breakfast, and then I went off to recommit myself to my band Aperture. No one thinks about facebook while their jamming, this is a fact. Unfortunately, because I haven't quite signed off of facebook yet, when I got home, I absolutely had to check this thread in which someone threatened me over my sociopolitical opinion on a photo he posted. Threatened with violence? Why yes. That's right, this was an adult conversation. Hence future involvement of actual law authorities. Think about how outside of facebook, this isn't a problem.This guy is a friend's brother, and even my friend doesn't know how dangerous this certain individual is. I don't mean dangerous like Hell's Angels dangerous. I mean dangerous like writing a 1700 page manifesto and then shooting people in Oslo. This isn't the kind of problem that comes up in real life. Back before facebook, you would be having a sociopolitical conversation only with any other individual in person. If that person decided they didn't like that you were challenging their views, they could take a swing at you. You could fight 'em, or call the cops. I'm 28, and sure, over facebook, I could invite him down for a good ol' fashion face pummeling. But that's not what an adult does. Hence, call the cops. But generally, we're assuming you would know the person you're talking to, because the people you hang out and talk to outside of facebook are actually your friends and people you know in person such that you know if they are actually a threat to you or not. I have many friends I know in person that express "extremist" political views, and I'm not trying to insult their views by calling them "extremist" - they are alternative political views, but many interpret these as extremist. They definitely like to defend these views, as anyone passionate about their politics would. But I know these people. I know if they said they'd take a swing at me for something I said, we could talk it out, and go home friends at the end of the day. And if they took a swing at me, no harm, no foul. I know them. I know that's all it is. I don't need to wonder if they're going to start stalking me. This thread really shows two things
- 1) It is a complete waste of time for me to think about this person, and to have gotten involved in his discussion about comparing Obama to Hitler and
- 2) Facebook is full of one off relationships like that...aquaintences, met-onces, friends-of-friends who could also be aquaintences and met-onces of those friends or peculiar relatives. People you don't know. Possible hazards in your life.
When facebook is gone, I can engage in sociopolitical conversations with my friends who I know aren't going to go crazy if I disagree with them to the point of threatening violence.
Anyway, no facebook also is kind of strange. Because at first, quitting is like, you open up your computer, and you want to go on facebook. But you have no facebook. So instead, you're kind of lost. I searched 'tired' in google, and came up with this:
http://tired.com/
Who is 'us' in this scenario?
This is the first problem you'll encounter when quitting facebook, especially if you used it all the time like I did.
Managing Down Time
So you have some down-time, we all do on the weekend. And like I said, I could play Gran Turismo, or I could sleep. Ultimately though, without facebook, I can take more time to do either of those things. Sure, they aren't productive as, say, working on music with your bandmates (but you can't do that all the time unless 4 other guys live with you), and we all appreciate our rec time, and sometimes just engaging in lazy activities. Usually I'd spend some time on facebook not really doing anything before I'd do any down-time activity. Now I can forego that. So I either have more time to sleep, or more time to play GT5. Perhaps, I can get in a little of both with the time I'm saving. Either way, I think I come out ahead. Even my down time productivity is increased.
-Ryan
