Tomorrow it will have been exactly two weeks since I gave up smoking. Since the age of eighteen, I'd smoked at least ten cigarettes a day. I had tried quitting on three separate occasions in the past, and had used patches, gum and even inhalators, but I was kidding myself every time - there was no substitute for a cigarette. So this time, I decided to go cold turkey, and having got over the initial bout of nicotine withdrawal, it's been plain sailing.
I can't help but feel, however, that it's been made comparatively easier by my decision to give up something else that's even more addictive, even more time consuming, even more distracting and - in many instances - has been even more stressful. Facebook.
I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that I logged onto Facebook every single hour of every single day, other than when I was sleeping (and thankfully, I don't recall every dreaming about Facebook). A compulsive need to log in was quickly met with a rush of adrenalin when I realised I had a notification. A status update that got a lot of "likes" was an attention-seeker's dream. However, there came a point when the content - usually people I don't really know telling everyone they're off to Nandos tonight - didn't justify the time wasted on there.
That point came on Monday evening. When undwinding, I used to bounce between Facebook and Twitter. As Twitter provided me with an endless stream of information, anecdotes, reactions and quips, Facebook presented me with Eggbert's holiday photos. Like all addictions, my obsession with Facebook was no longer rational, and I'm sure I'm not alone. A colleague of mine recently set up a Facebook Jar at work, where she has to pay every time she logs on as a penalty for getting distracted. She may have to reinvest the proceeds into a bigger jar.
My only worry was that Facebook was useful in that it helped me keep in touch with my friends whilst at university, and some are still in different cities. But deleting Facebook has meant that I now feel obliged to call and text, which is far more personable.
Whilst one of the arguments for deleting Facebook is that the user feels constantly data-mined whilst logged on - and I don't disagree - upon my self-exclusion I felt the urge to fill the void that Facebook left. So there I was, on Monday night, signing up to Foursquare, Flickr (I need somewhere to put my photos!) and Vimeo, just in case a video I want to share with the world violates Youtube's terms of service. Something that I can assure you will never, ever happen.
Because really, nobody cares about the fine details of your life, which is why I lose followers on Twitter whenever I post a generic "this is what I'm doing today" Tweet. I hope you don't care about this article enough to delete Facebook, too.