This semester I am taking a class called Church and the World. The main focus of this class is how the Church has interacted with the world over the past 300 years. One of the topics includes Presbyterian Church history. Why am I telling you this? Well, one of the assignments for the class is called a technology assignment. For four weeks, we have to give up a technology that has made life easier. Whether that means giving up the microwave, cable, cell-phone, texting, Twitter, Facebook, email, or the internet, among other things, the purpose is to go without a technology that has changed the way the world operates.
I would have given up cable, but we’ve been without that for about a year now. I would have given up the cell phone, but we don’t have a land-line. I would have given up the internet, but we don’t have cable, and March Madness is about to start and Spring Training is in full gear right now. I think I would die. I would have given up blogging, but I don’t think I do that enough to make it a legitimate project.
So, I have given up Facebook. For four weeks. Let the detoxification begin. At a time when Facebook is used by more people than the toilet, I am going to become a hermit and refuse to log on. Facebook started when I was in college, around 2005. In the past 5 and a half years, there have been about 50 days when I haven’t logged on to Facebook. I think we can call it an addiction. I haven’t been spending as much time on Facebook recently, because I’ve been buried in books, but you get the point.
I get on Facebook when I wake up, and it is typically one of the last things I check before I go to bed. I get addicted to the news feed. If I go 7 hours without checking it, I’ll scroll through all the updates in the news feed until I get to the ones I had seen before. I’m addicted to ESPNU College Town. I thought I’d never fall for the Facebook games, but I guess no one is that great. If you haven’t eventually you will. They are mind-numbing and distract one from the normal cares in life, like eating lunch. In effect, I’m breaking a norm, a habit, a sickness.
Maybe I’ll just spend that time on other websites. Maybe I won’t. Maybe I’ll blog more, maybe (and probably) I won’t. Maybe I’ll actually get done all my work for school. Maybe I’ll still have to pull 3 all-nighters to get the work done. Regardless, I won’t be wasting time soothing my need for pseudo-friendships with people I have never talked to or haven’t talked to for about 6 years.
Wish me luck. Pray that I don’t go through withdrawal.
