Is Life Possible Without Facebook?

A Facebook friend was recently considering a permanent exit and I suggested she try a vacation instead. Back in 2016, Facebook was working my last nerve, so I decided to avoid it for a full month (except for a private group with extremely limited posts).

What happened?

I did not miss the people posting fake heartwarming quotations by Hemingway, Oscar Wilde or other famous authors who couldnt possibly have written them.

I did not miss adorable animal videos (gerbils making friends with giraffes, etc.) which I confess Ive often re-posted because, well, thats what Facebook has re-programmed our DNA to make us do without thinking. It is Borg, and I have been assimilated.

I did not miss the climate change Miami-is-doomed posts, even though I had posted some.

I did not miss the Sanders fans bashing Clinton.

I did not miss the Clinton fans bashing Sanders.

I did not miss people mis-reading posts and replying with a lecture.

I did not miss the latest inflammatory quotation by some politician followed by Well, they could have said it after the quote was exposed as bogus.

I did not miss any of the mindless crazy anti-Obama comments that cropped up on friends pages no matter what they were posting about.

I did not miss embarrassing oversharing. You know what Im talking about.

I did not miss people arguing about religion.

I did not miss people criticizing other peoples spelling when they were clearly pointing at typos, or attacking someones word choice when they were just plain wrong or over-zealous.

I did not miss posts inviting me to take quizzes like What Kind of Pirate Are You? or Why Havent you Read At Least Two-Thirds of These Great Novels, You Moron?

I did not miss people instantly disagreeing with any positive comment I made about a film, movie, book, song, video or anything else I happened to like.

I did not miss the temptation to instantly disagree with someone elses opinion about a film, movie, book, song, video or anything else I happened to dislike.

I did not miss other writers humble bragging about how few words they wrote that day when the tally was in the thousands.

I did not miss posts that asked things like What are the first seventeen adverbs you find in this letter scramble?

I did not miss reports of peoples vacations in luxury Dalmation villas complete with a staff.

Though I missed some great friends, I was glad to be spared the noise and nonsense. During my month off, I had more time to read, watch movies, walk my dogs, nap, spend time with my spouse, study a new language, work on my hobby, go to the gym more often, and write.

Did I return to Facebook? Of course! I had to post about my time off.

Lev Raphael is the author of 25 boooks in many genres, including a guide to the writing life, Writers Block is Bunk!

Follow Lev Raphael on Twitter: www.twitter.com/LevRaphael

Lev Raphael Author, reviewer, and blo