A Day Without a Facebook: Day One

I gave up Facebook and Twitter for Lent. There, I said it out loud. And so desperately, in a hopeless attempt to communicate with the outside world, I am blogging. Is this cheating? God I hope so.

I chose to give up Facebook and Twitter for Lent for a few reasons. Number one: I am not actually religious. ("What?" you might say. "Lent is a religious thing!" Is it? I don't care.) So I'm not too concerned with giving up, say, the Seven Deadly Sins, mostly because I am way too awesome to even think about that stuff. (Was that pride? Who cares!) Reason number two: I always look for something that's difficult but not necessary. Like the year I gave up soda, back when I was chugging three bottles a day of that stuff. (My teeth were yellow.) Or the year I gave up red meat, back when I'd have a hamburger every other day. Giving up Facebook and Twitter is going to be difficult for me, but it's not like I need it to function. (Right? R...right?)

So I use Lent as a time to test myself, to try new things, new lifestyles and ideologies, like I'm trying on new clothes in a clothing store. It's safe, because there is a distinct end point- Easter- and hey, everyone else is doing it. When I fail, there's tons of people there to point at me and laugh, which I'll pretend is supposed to be encouraging. Everyone else is going through the same thing that I am going through.

So yesterday was my first day without Facebook and Twitter, without social networking. I prepared for it- I took the Facebook and Twitter app off of my phone and un-bookmarked it on my browser. But within a few minutes I started to twitch. I'd think of a funny comment ("Fat Tuesday and Women's Day are on the same day? Who's brilliant idea was THAT?") and want to post it. Or I'd be reading a really good news article (like anything by Joan Walsh) and by GOD, who was I supposed to share it with? It's not enough that I spend my days aimlessly clicking through profiles of people I never speak to anymore, judging them on their baby daddys, but what about when I have something to say? Now that I'm not forced to limit my wit to 140-characters, how will I express anything at all? (She says, typing away at 96-words a minute on Blogger.)