The Tab Tries…A Week Without Facebook

Facebook. We all spend hours on it, it’s the ultimate time bandit for procrastinating students and it has the power to turn even the most innocent among us into cyber stalkers. But what would life be without it?

Only 5 years ago I didn’t have a Facebook account. Social networking seemed an odd and unnecessary phenomenon. These days I’m your regular Facebook addict.

Last week I returned to those bygone days without FaceyB for ‘The Tab tries…A Week Without Facebook’.

There was a shaky start to my week going cold turkey. I began my anti-Facebook journey the day after my birthday, so naturally I wanted to see all of the photos of the night before. The urge to cheat and have a sneaky look was definitely there.

Things got easier by day three and I actually started enjoying the freedom of life without Facebook. Yes, there were probably shocking pictures of me on my birthday being tagged left right and centre that would render me unemployable in the future, but for a few blissful days I didn’t have to worry about them.

The main benefit of my little experiment was definitely the amount of work I got done. I’m pretty sure it is no coincidence that I produced double the amount of words for my dissertation than I did the previous week. Shocking really.

Although I’d certainly ditch Facebook in favour of academic productivity, the week did have its down sides. Turning up to Dance Squad because I didn’t know it was cancelled was a low point. I also had to text the Dance Social Sec about our night out because I had no idea what was happening. Plus I missed the ‘almost sold out’ warnings of The Halloween LCR so I’m still without a ticket. Crying.

On day 6, I was meant to meet a friend on campus (we hadn’t specified where) and I had forgotten my phone so couldn’t text. Usually I’d have popped into the library to send him a quick Facebook message to explain, but with this option removed I spent half an hour wandering around campus trying to find him instead.

So what did I actually miss? Awaiting me after 7 days of Facebook abstinence were 2 friend requests, 3 private messages and 38 notifications. 38! Aren’t I popular? Well no actually, I’m not. It turned out that 10 of those 38 were advertisements for guest lists and club nights that I had no intention of going to…Such a disappointment.

All in all, I rather enjoyed my week without Facebook, the pressure of instantly replying to messages and keeping up with the world was removed. I will certainly be cutting down on my FB time. Unfortunately, however, it seems Facebook is essential for communicating in today’s world. We need it to socialise but we also need it to work. An internship I recently saw advertised stated that placement responsibilities include ‘regular use of Facebook and Twitter for promotions’. I have since set up a Twitter account…This can only be bad news for the dissertation.