Facebook Fast

A friend, who happens to be a university chaplain on sebatical and spending much of it researching internet residents/non-residents, asked me yesterday what my experience of fasting Facebook for Lent has been like. I thought I'd post my resulting reflections here :) I have definitely found it liberating. I am enjoying living my life in 3D, free from the self-imposed enslavement that Facebook brings. It feels good not to be translating life experiences into stati as they happen, not to be wanting to portray myself in a certain way and instead just getting on with being. That's part of why it feels liberating. I've been spending a heck of a lot more time with God, reading the bible, listening to UCB Christian Radio, singing worship songs, writing out scriptures that catch my attention and sticking them on the wall, praying. I'd rather get my identity and intimacy from my my creator anyway :) It has crossed my mind that maybe I'm brain washing myself in so-doing but I figure washing my brain can't be a bad thing as long as it's with good stuff, right? "Whatever is pure, whatever is noble, whatever is praiseworthy, think of such things" - that's somewhere in the bible :) My fast also happens to have coincided with the most stressful, anxiety-ridden few weeks of my life so I'm glad I haven't been distracted by Facebook when I have felt summoned to go deeper with God because I don't want to miss a trick with Him, especially at times like this, but also at all times; He knows best (maybe that's why, in His grace, this intensely challenging time has happened when I haven't been sucked into Facebook?).

I haven't been legalistic about my fast; my sister had a baby in America at the beginning of Lent so I have been going onto her account to see the pics, and glancing at my pm's while I'm there, to check I'm not missing any important messages, and I've allowed myself Sundays off (or should I say on?). But on those Sundays it feels strange to me that I found Facebook so all consuming before because now it holds far less appeal than it did. I like to see what people are up to and feel in touch with people I don't see but I am really pleased the whole thing has lost its grip on me! As a single mum Facebook can feel like my connection with the outside world when I'm on my own in the house of an evening but actually, as I have read during this time, "In vain we rise early and *stay up late*, for the Lord grants sleep to those He loves" (also somewhere in the bible) and I have been going to bed with the kids and feeling much better for it (not that my eldest goes to bed that early)! So I like Facebook but I think I will use it differently from now on, trying to avoid using it to present myself in certain ways (I've gone off politics anyway!), and also giving it its right place in my life so I don't gravitate towards it so much xxxxxxx