The Facebook Test

Question: Can I survive without Facebook?

Motivation: Over a two-day period, May 2nd to 3rd, 2009, I found my Facebook usage out of control. My average daily usage, irregardless of whether it is a weekday or weekend, is approximately 20 minutes. However, on the two days mentioned, I must have spent almost 4-5 hours in total on Facebook. I spent a small fraction of the time chatting with friends. However, most of the time was spent looking at friends’ updates, browsing group pages, and checking out people’s profiles. As a result of this unusual behavior, my productivity was diminished during the weekend and I didn’t accomplish my academic-related goals. Therefore, I decided to take a leave of absence from the popular networking site, even though it’s my lifeline to the rest of the world.

Interestingly, in April 2009, a study by Ohio State University doctoral student Aryn Karpinski appears to show that Facebook usage is linked to lower grades and diminished study time [1]. However, other examinations of this issue found that quite the opposite trend was true, where Facebook served as a medium for students to study [2]. To segue into my little experiment, apart from determining whether I can do without Facebook, I also want to see if there is any impact on my productivity, since what I do now doesn’t really impact my grades, apart from completion of the tasks, and I don’t have papers, assignments, or exams that are graded, so there is no studying per se.

Hypotheses:

1) I will be able to do without Facebook until Sunday, May 10th, 2009

2) My productivity, namely work on my doctoral proposal and other school-related work, will increase significantly compared to prior weeks.

Observations and Results: I logged off Facebook at approximately 8:30 P.M. on Monday, May 4th and did not log back in until Sunday, May 10th, at 8:00 A.M., or nearly 5 and half days. I left a status message that said “Jawaad is taking a break from Facebook for the week. Call, text, or e-mail him if you need to reach him.”

Messages posted on my wall or inbox are forwarded to my e-mail account, so I was able to see if anyone noticed and responded. The first wall post was received about an hour after I logged off, asking “Why?”, and the second message was received about 12 hours later asking “Call, text, or e-mail…can I knock on your door? :p”.

The first 24 hours were a challenge. I had to physically restrain myself from logging in, and I found myself wondering what was going on. I also regretted not wishing an early birthday to friends whose birthdays I was going to miss during the course of this “experiment.” I knew that wall posts and inbox messages would be forwarded to my school account, so I caught myself checking my e-mail more often than normal during this time. I usually only check about 3 or 4 times a day, but I must have logged into my e-mail 10 or more times. So far, my productivity had not increased, though I attribute that to watching the Stanley Cup Playoffs online (Monday) and being exhausted from a long day and a 5-mile run (Tuesday).

On Wednesday, I had recovered a bit from the urge to check my school e-mail an abnormal number of times, cutting down the logins to 5. However, I was still left wondering what was going on in Facebook, asking one of my colleagues, “Anything interesting going on in Facebook?” Early Thursday morning, just before I woke up, I had an unusual Facebook-related dream. I saw condolence messages posted to the grieving friends and family of a classmate of mine who was recently killed in a plane crash in Ohio, as well as pictures of a dinner held in his honor. It’s interesting how news that unfolds in Facebook can affect one’s psyche even in offline mode…and I didn’t realize how deeply this tragedy has affected me, even though I barely knew the deceased.

Thursday and Friday were uneventful in terms of thinking about Facebook, although a friend mentioned checking Facebook if I need to find out how her conference/trip to Seattle was going. I did sign back onto AOL Instant Messenger after a two week hiatus. This and MSN Messenger were the two modes of communications that Facebook Chat usurped. I did talk to a couple people who I hadn’t talked in a while.

Saturday was the first day I didn’t even think of Facebook. Sunday dawned, and I was anxious, excited, scared for what I would see when I logged in, which I did at approximately 8:30 A.M., 5 and a half days after I last was on the site. I was disappointed. Apart from the two messages I mentioned earlier, I had received one event invitation and a couple causes request. So it turns out nobody really missed me. Either way, I was happy to be back on after my self-isolation experiment.

Conclusions: I successfully stayed off Facebook for more than 5 days, indicating that I do have the ability to cut down on an addiction. However, I felt lost. The only people I could keep in touch with were those who were connected via phone or those who I physically met almost every day. I joined Facebook in April 2005 for the purpose of keeping in touch with current friends, making new friends, and rediscovering old friends from my childhood. There was time I used it for adding applications and playing games, but that fascination was short-lived. Yes, spending too much time on Facebook is a bad habit, and I have to watch that, but my reasons for being on Facebook are sound. Therefore, I can stay away from Facebook for a short while, but it definitely is my lifeline, and in the long-term, my best way to be connected to the rest of the world.

As far as my productivity is concerned, it did increase, but not as dramatically as I had anticipated, or to put in other terms, it wasn’t due to the fact I wasn’t on Facebook, but more so to my better time management and motivation to get things done. I figured that my nemesis was really the plethora of audiovisual distractions online, such as live streaming hockey, Hulu, and Youtube. However hard I try, I really can avoid these, since my brain needs to be entertained every so often.

The relative lack of responses did leave me a bit down, but then again, the very way I phrased my status update showed I wasn’t really seeking attention and implied that people should only respond if they needed to get in touch with me….my mistake. I think the other reason is I may have created the impression that I’m able to hold my own fort and there is no reason to suspect something is wrong, which is the correct assumption. Though I’m not the type of person to let my feelings be known in public, if there was something seriously wrong, I would be sure to let at least some people know. Finally, the objective of this “experiment” wasn’t to judge people’s response or the lack thereof, just if I could control myself with regards to Facebook.

One major positive outcome of this “experiment” was that I started blogging for the first time ever. I was never one to keep a regular diary, much less share my thoughts with more than a select few, but motivated by blogs kept by friends and family, I decided to construct my own little niche on the web. I am rediscovering my long-lost creative side, piled under layers of dust and strung with cobwebs, hidden in the recesses of my brain. I’m not big on sharing things on Facebook, but I hope this little project really serves as a way for others to see a different dimension to me.

[1]http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-04-13-facebook-grades_N.htm
[2]http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8033466.stm