Deactivating Facebook : Insights of Tech Detoxification

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             I am here to offer you my insights from just one simple act. An act that is not popular and perhaps at the expense of inconveniencing others. I decided to deactivate my Facebook for one month and here is what I discovered. Facebook was not the only thing I disabled. I also offed all my notifications from my phone save the chats with my fiancée. I also turned off all the suggestions I had from google, Instagram, and YouTube. What it had resulted is a change in lifestyle that includes time, productivity, and freedom. These words are simple, but it’s significance is life changing. Let me break it down and tell you why.

Time

               Seriously you might not notice it at first but it was the painful realization that Facebook was taking most of my time away. For those who aren’t affected good (perhaps it is something else, YouTube or Instagram). If you aren’t sure, download the app called Action Dash. And if you have a pixel or an iPhone you may check that wellness being thingy. Facebook inherently is not bad. And no I do not want to discuss the ethical side of things where they were listening to our conversations or intruding our privacy for “best customer service”. In fact, Facebook had deduced what kind of person I am that the news and articles they were showing me we so relevant that I could not stop reading. But ultimately, even that did not justify. Because it is not reading those articles that was worthless. It was the in between mindless scrolling before I reached the next article that was sucking my time. Then occasionally thought of stalking old friends wondering what they are doing with their lives. You know, because you are lazy to ask them yourself.

          But from 5 to 6 hours of usage I have maintained it to 2 and a half hours of screen on time my phone. Dang. 2 hours a day on Facebook would mean 14 hours a week. What could I have done in 14 hours? Did you realize that your time is your life? That the fact that you know time is ticking is the realization that you are still breathing. It is also the realization that with every breath you are aging which means, as you live, you are dying. Mitosis will one day stop. Our bones will one day be brittle. Our skin will sag. And we will one day regress. We were born wearing diapers, as we age we will one day wear diapers as well.

        Time is the only resource where you cannot make more of it. All of us are capped at 24 hours a day. No one has above that. Which is why to know what is your greatest investment you look at where or what do you spend most of your time doing. Let’s just say getting good grades is what you value but you spend most of your time mobile gaming. It just shows a contradiction. Because where the most time is spent, it is where the heart is also. And it is in mobile gaming and not studying. I wonder what return of investment you get. When you spend hours on Netflix, gaming, lazing. Not saying you cannot chill, but when is it too much? You probably still value good grades but it definitely does not translate into your life. Actions speaks louder than words. Which brings us to the next point.

Productivity

        Now that I have 14 hours on average extra a week what did I manage to do? Deactivating Facebook was paired also with shutting down my notifications and suggestions. It truly meant this time, the phone serves me not that I serve my phone. I do not reach for it every time there is a notification but I will check my phone when I want it not when my phone demands it. Only notification left is from my fiancée because that is a good investment in my time.

     

  I was able to create new habits. I start off my mornings with prayer and doing devotions. I ended my nights with prayer and reading. I continued this consistently. Saturdays are my rest days in which I do no work and I just read and have my me time with God. Wanna guess what happened? I somehow was able to read three books in two weeks. So now I leveled up my reading habits. Cultivating that love for reading and so I just read and read and read. Not that I was not reading before that. I just leveled up.

        During the day, without looking at Facebook on the computer screen I would be busy creating modules, bible study materials, and writing. Materials for the Christian Fellowship and Christian community. Guidebooks for life groups and outreach. Even started writing on a topic called “Living because of God” championing the idea that it is pointless to want to live FOR God before you have come to understand what it means to live BECAUSE of Him. So what was the outcome of gaining more time and increasing productivity?

Freedom

       

Freedom was the outcome. By the way, do you realize there is no such thing as true freedom? You will always be a slave to something. Do not take it as a bad thing but as an indication. How do you see those indications? Simple, where you put most of your time in, that is what you are a slave to. If you put most of your time into training for basketball then you are a slave to that. So what is true freedom? True freedom is being a slave to what gives you the most joy. Now please please please do not tell me that PUBG gives you the most joy. If gives you a fun time yes but I plead with you, gaming is definitely not the platform to gain fulfillment. At best it is a false sense of self-actualization (leveling up online but losing out in life) at worse it is an escape from the harsh and cruel world.

        But what I had? I had the freedom to do what I couldn’t do. I read three books in 2 weeks. Goodness I didn’t know that was possible (for me at least) but cause of the time I had, I had the freedom to invest my time into better things. Find out what are the “better things” for you. Bluntly speaking I am a slave to my job or reading because that is where most of my time is at. But it also gives me joy. So I do not mind putting my time there.

        And for that my only encouragement and reminder is that you need to learn to prioritize what you value over what you want. E.g. I value my health but I want boba tea. One is a value, the other merely an interest in that point of time. It takes lots of self-discipline to remind ourselves what is it that we value and to trust when our decision making is on what we value we have that clarity reminding ourselves that we know what is better.  

Conclusion

        I do not want us to take these things for granted. The simple progression that your time is your life. And  if that is the case then how do I make the best use of my time? How do I become productive? How do I be the ‘me’ I was intended to be? And once you have figured that out, it is when you start to taste the sense of freedom. The freedom of making the choices you have reflected about and not suggestions by Google or Facebook. The freedom of not responding to every buzz on your phone. The freedom to seek out the videos you want to seek out and not the super accurate suggestions by YouTube. The freedom and the wisdom to use technology for yourself and not let technology use you. Which is why I am so afraid of giving a kid a tablet. I will only do that if I know I will invest 24 hours into observing how the kid learns. But I do not have that time.

        But as a simple reflection questions to help getting you on track would be, where is most of my time going? List down what do you actually value and then learn to prioritize what you value over what you want in that moment. Learn to be mindful of your surroundings and hopefully it will be a start of your journey to freedom. And of course my answer to that ultimate freedom is found in Christ Jesus but I leave that as that for now. These are just some insights I have gained from deactivating my Facebook account. Which means I will continue deactivating it unless I have something to post. 

Writer: Eddryll 
Author's views are his own and does not represent the entire team