30 days without Facebook
So, you need a break from Facebook?
Hi, i’m tyler garrett. If you haven’t taken 30 days off, without Facebook.
You don’t even know if you need a break from Facebook...
We humans enjoy trying our best. We try stuff until it either works awesome, we learn how to make it awesome, or we stop trying because it did not work.
Sure, we humans enjoy trying our best…
But lets face it, keep it simple, Facebook is complex and impacts you, your friends, your family, hell even facebook executive team is struggling to keep it together.
3 simple points I need to make before you continue.
- You don’t have an end game with Facebook.
- Facebook doesn’t have an end game for facebook.
- It’s an app founded by stealing from friends.
If you agree with these 3 simple points… Continue.
BUT Before you begin, check out this ‘blog post disclaimer’…
- I have nothing to sell you
- no flashy e-book
- I don’t want to capture your email
- or sell you a subscription service
Taking 30 days without Facebook is my strongest recommendation to anyone eager to do more with their life. Anyone I’m mentoring today, this isn’t a recommendation, it’s a requirements because I understand the positive impacts of getting away from Facebook or apps like Facebook.
The way we are all using Facebook is a bit twisted…
Today, everyone is busy generating micro bubbles, in a sea of 7.53 billion (2017 population)…
We block each other… We block other humans because we disagree, fear, hate, dislike,…
My block list is massive at this point, lame x-managers, lame x-co-workers, etc. So, I took Facebooks suggestion and “took a break.” And you should too.
And if this blog post seems long… haha, you really need a break.
Don’t kid yourself, you need a break from social media…
If you are reading this I promise you — you’re a lot smarter than me. You probably never cheat, always play by the rules, and do what is expected of you.
Me… I’m different.
I’m a big time cheater, and I cheat at every aspect of life because I’m lazy!
I know I’m lazy, I own it, I will build an application out of code just because I don’t want to click something 30 times. I forecast the differences mentally, and aim at the whatever saves me the most time.
I build code to abuse systems too… and make algorithms tell me truths.
I find people who need help with saving time and teach them how to automate the boring stuff.
I abuse code, force it to do things… So that I don’t have to do it manually.
Similar to how you’re manually reading this blog, if this blog was too long, I’d scrape it for insights.
I’d scrape this page in 1 second and give insights, and maybe read the blog in 8 minutes, woh… that’s savings.
I innovate applications to do what others do manually, and professionally I’m paid to simulate success, manage projects, mentor new tech users and help business users make tech easier to utilize.
I’m paid to abuse code, applications, and iterate until I succeed.
Like you, I’m paid to try…
Like you, I try everything.
We have to try, it’s a human condition.
Even right now… You’re trying.
You’re trying to read without skimming.
You’re trying to fight cognitive dissonance now, or later this week.
Hey! Without trying… how will our story progress?
Keep trying.
Professionally, I get an opportunity to come to a project where a bunch of smart people are working together for 5-10 years+, and they give me a chance to try and make it better.
There’s always something that will make something faster, better, stronger, work more efficiently, etc.
IRL is where life lives… but here we are, surfing through what people did in the past. An archive for each other to stare, comment, add an impression, and pay the big monetized beast.
We ask simple questions, until it makes sense.
It’s the human condition to ask simple questions and complex questions.
Professionally, I try to ask simple questions…
If the question is simple, it will be easier to make sense of their response.
People usually have a lot to say and if you ask complex questions, you tend to lose them in the message.
So, professionally, I help solve puzzles, then I grab from a bucket of developing tips and tricks and google searching more than others by sheer force. And I ask more questions.
That’s what I do…
Again… I have nothing to sell you. I don’t have a solution for you to go to another social media platform. I rather you go take a walk outside.
#1 Don’t make a big deal of it.
No one cares if you’re taking a break. If anything, they will think less of you for saying something.
Let me explain to you…
You should not take this as an opportunity to get online more in the future…
Don’t blog about it, I don’t want to see 30 videos of how you stopped doing social media just so can record yourself for 30 days.
And don’t go IM everyone and tell them you’re going, they don’t care.
This time, is for you, to completely, disconnect.
Trying to not be on Facebook is complicated because I only communicate with a lot of people on Facebook.
But be strong — they are going to go on hold and no one cares.
How do you know right from wrong?
To start — We humans try and fail. We learn from our mistakes quickly.
If you have taken time off of Facebook and it felt good- why did you stop?
The key is “we try.”
We try to “setup our profile picture.”
(THIS FRICTION GENERATES A SENSE OF OWNERSHIP)
We try to look presentable when necessary.
(MORE FRICTION GENERATES MORE OWNERSHIP)
We try to make our LinkedIn account look decent.
We try to make our twitter cool.
We try to post about politics, sports, our food, our music, none of it seems to be good enough to receive likes from all your friends, so we continue to try & strive for the day we get maximums likes, loves, and the appropriate usage of other emoticons.
Now that we thinks about it more…
you can’t like a post about someone’s dead cat.
Or picture of them at a funeral.
Wow, so we can’t just like anything or love anything?
This application sounds complicated.
I loved my friends dead cat but I’m conflicted.. 😻😿
we try & fail & try again
We think it’s important for others to see our face because we like our faces.
Also, we know it’s only a few clicks away in Facebook.
Plus — our parents enjoyed our faces and we enjoy updates from our parents.
Right?
Cut to scene with a flashy car.
Then fade to black.
Print text “Facebook.”
You try the task until you fail.
We try and fail; a measurable amount, a miserable amount, and mostly due to a lot of mistakes we get better at not failing.
Facebook consumes that data and sells it for profit, while adjusting their software with free test data.
Facebook is a software built by a software company.
They try and fail with their own calamities as a company.
Do you know the mental side effects of working every day, 12 hours a day? 15 hours a day?
You get burned out fast.
So what do you do? You take a break?
And after a lot of those little breaks, you try and take a long break, like a vacation or summer off from school.
Do you know the mental side effects of not sleeping enough?
You get burned out fast.
So what do you do? You take a break?
And after too many short naps, you get a good nights rest.
Let’s start.
Have you ever posted something on Facebook and immediately forgotten about your post?
You don’t think about every single person who will see your Facebook post? Not even a little?
Some of us think about it so much…
there is an entire security functionality around every Facebook post.
Talk about a lot of thought and consideration…
How can you use Facebook for a minimal amount if you put the phone down after seeing 5 minutes worth of content?
Where is your brain after getting hit with ironic political related posts?
Shh… goes my family, this is about taking a break from Facebook.
Maybe even a “30 day break from Facebook challenge”…
But without a stupid hashtag, a hashtag that merely celebrates your independence from your generational application addiction.
What’s next lol…
Today, How do you feel… because of Facebook?
After posting a picture and/or funny bit of text…
Thinking about what filter to apply so you don’t look wrinkly and real? Tell me about it. Makes my kid look glossy…
Did you open the post functionality before you had the idea to post a picture and/or funny bit of text?
Why do I need a filter, who cares!?
Do you care if I have a filter on my face? New generations follow celebrities who use it constantly, could be most of their day with a filter talking to someone on Snapchat…
What’s that doing to their brain development?
So, You were thinking about posting,… before on the application you’re thinking about the application… woh, starting to sound a little crazy…
So you were just thinking about Facebook, you were thinking about Facebook well before you opened the post functionality, and do you know the mental ramifications of always thinking about these things, all the time?…
Sounds a little addictive. Sounds a little repetitive. Sounds absolutely insane because ask around… what have you gained from Facebook? Has it out weighed the good yet? Consider the time…
Imagine how much time you’re actually spending thinking about your social media shotgunning… how much are others thinking about it comparatively? You can do easy math… 50 likes, 500 friends…
Dang…
I guess … Your mind doesn’t escape the basic fact that anyone can disagree with you and attack you privately, in front of your friends and family… sure you can block as many people or family members as you want but there is no escaping the fact that all softwares leave a lasting impression.
You memorize Facebook user experiences to make your user experience faster and less frustrating.
Train you must and good you will be, Facebook at you. Says yoda……
You get upset when Facebook updates Facebook!
If I could get paid for those posts I’d retire by now. I should trade mark that and get royalties.
Talk about a lot of thought and consideration….
This little app has become…
You block people….
You block a lot of people!
Do you know the mental ramifications of being blocked by someone?
Anyways…
Maybe you have a few next steps after reading this mess…
Maybe we collectively have some questions to answers about your own usage and brain usage before and after the fact… it’s a massive time suck.
Do you know anyone who took a break from Facebook without saying they were going to take a break from Facebook, on Facebook?… give me a second of my life back for every person in my friends list who has said it… I’d be looking pretty good today! Less filtering.
30 days without Facebook, try it, you’ll see what I mean.
A little bit of data privacy related research, and a little bit of learning about the data that Facebook is keeping about you… is enough to turn most away for good.
Thanks for your time.
I will be making a survey related to this topic for future blogs… Enjoy.
Check out my page about Knime.
Typos by Tyler Garrett, tableau consultant.
