The Time We Kill...

The last two days, I've been pretty busy.

I've only opened Facebook about twice. Not so long ago, I would have written about my lust to open my notifications like a child on Christmas morning, but today I sit on my couch with 20 notifications, two PMs, and two friend requests, choosing to blog instead of socialize.

Is my addiction broken?

Nahnope. I’m planning to go through them after I post this.

I never wanted to quit Facebook cold turkey; I really don’t mind social media. I've just effectively cut down my dependence on the site for entertainment purposes, and for that I am glad.

My day at work yesterday went much smoother without the distraction of Facebook IMs or the temptation to “Facebook creep” on my friends. Last night I sat down and read a Q&A with Ron Wood from Rolling Stone’s early October issue. I worked on a drawing for my art class for about an hour while my friends played games. It was a nice day.

I opened the site once yesterday. Once. And that was to create an event to invite a large group of friends over for a party next week. I saw that little red balloon coming out of the half-inch globe in the top left of my screen, yet I chose not to click it.

I've been contemplating why I don’t feel the need to quit socialnetworking in general.

I know how bad it is for my work ethic, how unproductive a Facebook tangent can be. How obnoxious my posts to Twitter must seem while I’m with friends.

The truth is: I’m not a robot. Facebook is fun, Twitter is also fun, Myspace is (was) fun, Last.fm is a lot of fun. I really don’t see the need to be 100 percent productive 100 percent of the time.

These sites have their practical uses too.

Facebook is the best tool I know of to keep in touch over 400 of my friends and acquaintances, Twitter is the best way I know of to send a message to a large group of people without having to message them individually, Myspace (though barren compared to it’s active population in the early 2000’s) is still a great place for bands and emerging artists to showcase their music, and Last.fm is a great way to find new artists to listen to.

I’m not sure if going on Facebook tangents is such a horrible thing…

They have the capacity to distract and can certainly lessen one’s productivity. Twitter, for example, can surely take away from an experience when people feel the need to remove themselves to send a 140-character message to their followers. I'm sure the men and women who excuse themselves at parties for a cigarette probably feel like myself and my fellow Twitter users most likely feel like we don't care either. For that I am truly sorry.

However, if someone enjoys these acts and somehow manages to avoid being consumed by them, then I really cannot judge them. Some people like to scrapbook, some people like to play video games and some people like to socialize on the Internet.

I think this is best said, or sung rather, in a song by Rise Against,

“The time that we kill keeps us alive.”