Refuse to be sidetracked.

So it’s kind of weird, but probably not that weird,  but I am a little addicted to Facebook. It is my biggest distraction in life. And I bet if you thought about it, you are too. I’m on there all the time! whether it's on the computer, on my phone, my Ipad. It’s getting a little out of hand. It is such a loathsome time suck. Or is it? I am able to keep in contact with and participate in the daily lives of people who I would never have kept in touch with otherwise. Not because I didn’t want to keep in touch, but rather I would not have the time. Could you imagine calling all of the people who show up on your daily news feed every day just to ask what’s going on? With Facebook you can do that and that’s a wonderful, community-building thing. But what are the down sides? A study done by Nucleus Research recently found that Facebook cuts worker productivity by 1.5%. A similar study conducted by Ohio State University that claims that students who regularly use Facebook have a GPA of between 3.0 and 3.5. While those who don’t use Facebook (and subsequently study more) have an average GPA of 3.5 to 4.0. So Facebook is making us less productive and more dumb. But is the “lasting friendship” trade off worth it? I aim to do a little life experiment to find out. I like the idea of life experiments. I first heard about the concept from Erik Kennedy’s guest post on “The Art of Manliness” blog. The basic premise is simple. If there is something that you think needs to be changed, change it! And then see what happens. Or in Mr. Kennedy's words;

1. Think of a way in which you might live a better, happier life
2. Do that thing — at least for a short time
3. Reflect on what you learned and change your behavior accordingly

You may find that you don’t like the change and that’s ok. But you may find that you have changed your life forever, and that is priceless. So here is my first experiment. No Facebook for a week. It’s as simple as that.