My name is Kyle Cooper and I’ve been Facebook(less) for over a month now. I think you could consider me a child of the social media generation; I grew up with my own Myspace page at the age of 14, the Internet was at my fingertips and information overload was an ever-occurring thing. When I got to college Facebook was just taking off and you needed a college I.D. number to join. Now with over 800 million people on the social network it’s almost impossible to find someone who doesn’t have a Facebook. Through college I was the administrator for many Facebook pages and groups from the college radio station to planning a prank on the school’s basketball team at their last home game. There are plenty of perks to being on Facebook none of which stood out enough last month when I decided to deactivate my profile.
I was becoming very anxious…many times a day I would find myself filled with anxiety. I noticed this feeling was lessened when I checked my Facebook profile on my iPhone. My battery life started to last only half a day because of how often I would check my profile. I was constantly checking profiles of the people I missed. Nothing ever changed. I would have a few updates every once in a while and new people would pop up as “online” in the chat bar, checking my Facebook was becoming a problem.
The day I deactivated my Facebook was interesting my phone life lasted all day and was less anxious. I got multiple texts from friends asking why I deleted them as a friend. I replied with I deactivated my profile and often got the response “good luck.” It’s been over a month now and I rarely think about re-activating my Facebook profile. I enjoy the weight that seems to have been lifted off my shoulders. Yes, I miss friends and seeing pictures of what is going on in their lives but don’t think it’s a crucial part of life.
Will I return to “The Facebook” as my dad likes to call it? (He is the most upset that I deleted my self from the cyber web.) The answer is most likely yes. As a Mass Communication Major with a love for what social media can do for a product…I’m bound to return, but until then you will not find me on Facebook. Life without Facebook is full of time to do other things!
Social Recess 