the hand of facebook

Last year I took a few months off Facebook. It wasn't really intentional, at least not at first, but I later realised that avoiding the time-sucking site was amazing. I felt so clear in the head and I seemed to have much more time. In the end, I found existing in without the site was difficult, with many people only using the site as their only way to communicate with others. I gave up and returned to the site, but spend much less time on the site than I have previously.

So when I found myself looking for distractions while trying to study, I decided facebook had to go! Unlike the past, I now have an iPad and that has been my main mode of using the site. My password has been a long string of characters randomly generated online for some time and I haven't made an attempt to memorise the password. Instead I've been breaking the one rule of passwords - I've had it written down.

Unable to remember my password, I knew locking myself out would be relatively easy. I didn't need a friend to change my password and just needed to 'lose' the password. I sent a facebook message to a friend, asking them to hold onto the password and gave it on a piece of paper with a set of instructions to a housemate. I instructed both of them that I would argue that I needed facebook to check an answer with a friend but they were not to give me the password unless I articulated what I needed to ask. Simply stating I needed to check something for Trusts would be insufficient, but if I was to say I needed to ask about exceptions to perpetuity periods I would be able to get the password back. They both laughed, thinking I was going overboard. I just wanted to cover all bases.

Of course, my plan relied on one thing - logging out. I logged out on my phone and ipad immediately but, as I've realised now, never actually logged out on my computer. I also never threw out the piece of paper with the password on it and it remains in it's place on my wall. What I find fascinating is that I never tried to go to facebook. I haven't wanted to and I certainly don't miss it. I feel exactly like I did last year when I took my hiatus from the social networking site.

Even though I thought I was unable to get on the site for the majority of the past 3 weeks, I would like to think that my lack of attempts is evidence of my superior self-control. The fact that I attempted to lock myself out of the site is irrelevant in my mind, as I've glanced around the library, looking down on the many people who aren't studying but facebooking instead. Yeah, I know it's hypocritical of me, but I feel so much better than everyone else here. While I have found other ways to waste my time, facebok hasn't even crossed my mind and I've gotten more work done than I usually would.

While it is rather extreme, I definitely recommend you think about getting ride of facebook when you need to get work done! You don't have to change your password to avoid the site as there are many ways to block you from the site for shorter periods of time. The only downside is that you will have too much time to study!