So Long, Farewell!

It is my last day of facebook for the next 4 months, so I figured I should explain the reasons that I am fasting, in more ways than one, for this entire semester.

I am a facebook addict. Most of us are, honestly. However, I am choosing to do something about this because my addiction is actually holding me back and pulling me down. I don't know when exactly I started to realize this, but my addiction was getting out of hand. You might think I am exaggerating but this is very real to me. I played a few facebook games everyday, two fish tanks and rooms full of cats and dogs, and honestly I would worry about the well being of these virtual pets. I would interrupt conversations or completely miss certain opportunities in order to take care of these pets and click around on facebook. When i started prayerfully considering this facebook fast, I got anxious about deleting my animals, as if I were abandoning living things. Sad, I know.
That's not it. I would spend hours on end profile hopping, status changing, and comment loving, all at the expense of school work and spiritual growth. I'm very serious when I say that I probably spent 3x as much time on facebook as I did studying for school, and my grades showed it. That might even be a modest estimate. This could be your story, and you might be thinking 'big deal, thats just what this generation is about,' but here is where it gets serious. My obsession with facebook became a major stumbling block in my life, spiritually and emotionally. To be completely honest with you all, facebook allowed me to be apathetic and unloving in the lives of many friends and acquaintances. I knew that all I had to do was look at so-and-so's pictures and read such-and-such status update to get my twisted need for knowledge of everyone else's business. Consider this for yourself: facebook has made us incredibly and secretly nosy. Have you ever even thought of it this way?
Yes it's an excellent tool for 'staying in touch' as we all say, but reflect as I am on what this actually means about your ability to care for a person. So many people, especially my generation, are actually nervous about communicating face to face with people of any age. How many of us would rather text or email or facebook instead of make a phone call or visit? Many of us even prefer ordering pizza online over calling in. The technology we have today, especially these social networking sites, is incredible and often makes our lives easier, but at what cost? For me, as I was saying, I was enabled to continue not really loving the people that I was 'staying in touch with,' and that is a huge conviction that I was hit with when this whole idea came about. As you read in my last blog, the LORD has really been teaching me a lot about love, and the lessons that I learned really sealed the deal for this fasting idea. If I want to stay in touch with someone, I need to really make an effort beyond checking pictures and status'. My friends need to know that I am concerned about them, hoping they are doing well, and are happy. I'm no longer going to use facebook as a crutch and as an excuse for friendship. Even when I announced, through status, that I was leaving facebook for a while, I quickly realized how many friends I had on there that didn't really care about me and my well being. They wouldn't miss me. There were also those who didn't want me to leave because they wouldn't be able to see what I was doing anymore. It helped to realize that my friendships should be so much deeper than this, but I have let myself remain in those relationships.

Is this all a little much? It hit me hard though. Often I would attempt to have a quiet time to study the Word and the whole time I'd be itching to get on facebook. I could be out volunteering and genuinely caring for people as Christ has called me too, but I spend hours on facebook. I could be reading books and learning incredible things, but instead I pour over facebook. I could be growing as a person, becoming a better me, spending more time caring for my fiance and preparing to be a better wife but instead I put so much time into facebook.

Remember, this is purely personal and individual to me. I'm not trying to put this on anyone else, I'm only explaining why I'm leaving.

But not only am I fasting from facebook, I'm preparing to change a lot of things about my diet and the way I take care of my body...Daniel Fast and P90X here I come!!