Why would someone give up facebook for 3 months, when the bulk of their social non-familial interactions happen on-line? Why would anyone stop eating cheese? All this and more answered below.
I’ve been in a period of ascetism ever since I met a man named Jonas at an open house who sold me on the idea of a juice fast. I had long ago realized that giving up dairy made me less loud in the intestines, and generally able to breathe better. And figuring that I may well have allergies to other food (or non-food products) that I eat, I figured giving things up and introducing them slowly might be a way of detecting the lurking menace in my diet. And I blame diet for everything that’s wrong in the world.
And I applied the same reduction and reintroduction principle to my online interactions. Maybe checking facebook from my phone while I’m at stop lights is a bad thing. Maybe it was contributing to my general sense of panic and schedule mayhem. So I gave that up to. The general idea is to become less angry. Sure, I’d tried McYoga, and even meditation and didn’t seem to get anywhere. So I’d gradually replaced the idea of exorcising anger through calmness with exercising the living crapfuckles out of anger – displacing my anger at the world by smacking seven shades of daylight out of some kickboxing pads.
Other things I gave up:
- Alcohol – 143 days
- Facebook – 93 days
- Chocolate – 42 days
- Caffeine – 42 days
- Processed foods – 42 days
- Real estate – 15 days (on vacation)
- America – 15 days (see above)
- Eating carbohydrates after 5pm (21 days)
Am I any less angry? Maybe a touch, maybe less often, but I think I’m probably doing it from the outside in, rather than the inside out. Which means it may well not be what I’m putting in my body and mind, but my general circumstances.
What did I miss on Facebook in three months?
- A friend died and I got a drunken call from a mutual friend in England to tell me about it. A much nicer way to find out I suppose
- A friend went to hospital, probably due to a life of heavy drinking. Again, I find out from a friend, this time by skype.
- Four people contacted me to tell me they needed some help with new houses for sale at Mueller. That’s a bit sad that they think I’m terribly unresponsive. I guess I could have left a “gone fishing” message on facebook, but I didn’t.
- Some videos of cats
- Some invitations to things I wouldn’t have been able to go to
- A whole lot of nothing.
I’m thinking that the important things (aside from the work opportunities lost) I found out about through more personal contact with people, although I’m guessing there are some things I don’t know that I don’t know that are still to surface. Am I going to hunt through facebook for things I’ve missed? Hell no. I declared facebook bankruptcy and called it a day, starting over again.
Am I going to start eating processed food and drinking diet coke and eating cake at Cherrywood Coffeehouse late at night? I don’t think so. While I’m perhaps only a little less angry, I’m also twelve pounds lighter, and I wake up in the morning feeling more alert, which is by and large a nice thing.
Quick tip: I’ve found a great remedy for feeling tired that doesn’t involve caffeine. It’s fairly safe, it has few side effects, and it’s really quite inexpensive. It’s called getting a good night’s sleep. I may well swap the hour a day I spent on facebook for an extra hour of sleep.
A Facebook diet and/or fast is a great idea.