A post-Facebook world.

That sounds nearly apocalyptic, now doesn't it.  Hey Internet friends.  I return to you a little worse for wear, but a lot hopeful for the major life changes to come over the next six months.  I have a largely-written dissertation to my name, and job applications floating out there in the academic ether.    I've got a plane ticket to Austin for Wednesday.  I'll spend the holiday there recuperating, writing, and hugging my niece.

I've found lots of pieces scattered around on the Internet about "going Facebook free."  There seems, sadly, to be an air of pretension associated with this particular way of going off the grid.  Me?  I'll be totally honest.  I left for two reasons: embarrassment (and let's not dwell on the details of that one) and my web reputation.  I doubt academic search committees want to see me out partying at Normal Bar or read my statuses about new bands or where I ate lunch.  I want a clean slate.  I admit my own faults in allowing a social media site to infiltrate my life as much as it did.  So it is without pretension or expectation that I have exited the world's most popular address book.

Here are a few things I've noticed since my Facebook page went black:

1) In order to know what my friends are up to, I've actually got to call them or text them.  So far this new form of check-in has resulted in several fun and spontaneous outings.  I look forward to actually talking to my friends again, and finding out about their life's happenings in person.  Over coffee, or cocktails.  Imagine that--NOT knowing what everyone is up to every second of every day.  Makes you think a lot more about what YOUR day looks like too.

2) Emails are letters again.  They can't be short anymore, because they're no longer backed up by the information I updated on Facebook.  Most of what I email is actually news again, and I check my Gmail account excitedly now--because I know there will be more waiting for me there than Urban Outfitters ads and Graduate School paperwork.  And if there are links I want to send out, I can send them directly to the people I know will be most interested in them!

3) Any romantic relationship or friendship I enter into from now on, I realize, will be lived out ONLY in the real world.  If I want to disconnect from someone, I can just do it.  None of this "defriending" crap.  None of this "what are they up to" drama.  Why would I want to wake up every morning to that?

4) We have all gotten WAY too used to expressing ourselves through brief status updates.  It's like we want to constantly contradict ourselves.  Or convince everyone that our day is actually more interesting than it is.  Now that the Facebook avenue for talking to folks is gone, I'm evaluating my time a lot more realistically.  Today I: ate breakfast, paid bills, made some mix CDs, went on a walk, and now I'm writing.  Not that exciting.  But I am me, so I know all the little ins and outs of significance, all the moments that meant something to me today.

5) I do not miss seeing endless albums of baby pictures, birthday parties, vacations, or random mobile uploads.  But I do miss seeing my friends' faces everyday.

See y'all more often again!