A Facebook-free Life

photo taken during my talk at AkyatCon 2.0

It's been a week since I deactivated my two Facebook accounts. And I feel free. I no longer feel like I'm living a life that others wanted to see or that I wanted others to see. I can't say it had been a bad life. But I sure can say it had been a life preoccupied with vanity. Now I can feel more peace. The clamor in the audience has died down. The audience has disappeared. Now I can catch up on my reading and blog posts. 


Blogging is quite different. My audience is anonymous. And I like the thought that I am not actively drawing people into my blog. I love the idea that people who land on this page are those who are genuinely interested in the content of the post. And what a pleasure it would be to see authentic appreciation again through typed comments as opposed to the clicked 'like' button! I am aware that there are only a few of you who get to read this post because I can't link this on my Facebook page now. I like it that way. That's how Lagataw gained a good following in the past. This is also how I filtered the audience. 

But apart from giving vanity a very powerful blow (I have always had this long-standing war against vanity), the bigger reason I deactivated my two Facebook accounts is that I wanted to focus on the things I truly love--writing and farming. They have been continually back-burnered because I had to give way to the life that Facebook had dictated I should live. I'm not sure if it's just me but working from home, I would sometimes find myself letting Facebook occupy 8 straight hours of my day. Like many of you, I have become drawn to glib memes that offer temporary entertainment and tiny bits of wisdom and trivia. But once, I found myself in a bookstore and leafed through the pages of a World War 2 book and I felt that it was what reading was supposed to be. It should involve materials that are published by real publishers. And I am happy now that I find more time to read real books not just 'Facebooks'. And hey, this has been my second article for this month. In the past, I could barely write one article within a month. Farming will come real soon.

Along with the deactivation of my Facebook accounts was the deletion of thousands of photos, files and videos in my Drive C. There was one moment in Antique that made me realize that the value I put on my 'treasured' photos is not real value. Maybe I'm just like you. We're reluctant to delete photos because we think that someday we'd be needing a particular photo for a variety of reasons: it could be as proof for a precious moment in time; for reference in status posts or probably for a research. But about a week ago, I was having dinner with a very good friend. It was a special dinner because we both talked about deactivating our Facebook and going back to the old ways of keeping in touch-- through call or text or probably snail mail. And I realized, I was not taking any photo of that dinner. I did not feel the need for a proof or memory of that special dinner. I was just okay with it being a fleeting moment. You see, we often love to immortalize things. Why can't we just embrace our humanness--that we can't contain time? It's called 'past' for a reason. 

So there, I've so far freed about 5GB of space in my drive. And I'm planning to have a second or probably a third decluttering session with my computer. Doing this does not only declutter my drive but it also declutters my life. When I lose one file that's one less file to think about; when I lose 500 Facebook contacts, that's 500 less individuals to preoccupy myself with. As a result, I find more time for myself. I am able to channel more energy into more things that matter more.


I'm definitely loving the change, or shall I say this revival of my old ways. Now I don't have to keep monitoring likes and purposelessly scrolling down my news feed. I am able to cultivate new worthwhile habits.