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When I open up the Internet there’s always one thing that I do; I go to Facebook. It’s nothing that I ever think about either, it just happens. It can be quite a bothersome thing though because when I need to get work done and I have to go online, at times I will get distracted for hours on end just perusing the many pages of Facebook’s domain. It is at the same time a Procrastinator’s best friend and worst enemy.

To my dismay, we were given the task in class to not use Facebook for a week. It hasn’t even been an entire week and I hate this assignment. I had to disable my phone from getting Facebook updates so that the little notifications wouldn’t taunt me with recent activity. When I was through with that I said my farewells and signed off.

Naturally, my mind needed something else to idle itself with. So like a child to a shiny object I let my hands wander across the keyboard typing in “tumblr.com” and “twitter.com.” If I could not post to Facebook I would post somewhere else to get the social stimulation I craved.

Reading back on this I sound like a drug addict with regards to Facebook, and I find this both amusing and sad. In a way Facebook is an addiction I suppose. I’ve tried to “quit it” before and deactivate my profile for a period of time, but I’ve always found myself wandering back within a few days.

Though, in a way it makes sense that it’s so difficult to quit. See, Facebook has a trick that helps to ensure its users wander back to it eventually. It doesn’t really allow you to delete your profile. Instead it merely gives you the option of “deactivating” it and all you must do to get it back is login with your old information. That means you don’t lose any of your old information on there so users are more likely to be willing to return after they’ve deactivated it because it doesn’t take time to set everything back to your preferences, information, friends, etc.

I feel like a hypocrite in a way pointing out the lows of the social leviathan and still using it, but it is a useful site. For instance, I can’t wait to get back online and have easier access to the people back home that I don’t get to see down in Texas.

Alas, for now I wait.