Junior finds new entertainment without social media

When I come home from school, my favorite pastime is to check notifications on my Facebook account while simultaneously watching new videos posted by my favorite YouTube channels. 

So when I pledged to not use Facebook or YouTube for a week as a challenge for newspaper, my self-control was truly tested. To make matters worse, the week included Labor Day weekend with its three days of boredom. 

I decided early on that I would allow myself to log in to Facebook once a day to receive my daily rewards for my games. I was not going to lose my Social Empires 50-consecutive day login reward just because of a challenge I made for myself. I clearly have my priorities straight.

Following the experiment, it was clear that  I had relatively no trouble avoiding YouTube because before the challenge, I would only check every so often to see if my subscribed channels had uploaded new videos. But when I saw my little brother watching videos of STAR_ beating up Jerma on Team Fortress 2 or laughing at the Yogscast failing at reviewing games, I could only smile back, my insides full of sorrow.

With Facebook, though, I was really in a dilemma. I could not chat with other people or post on my class groups asking what the homework was. I also could not view, comment or “like” other people’s posts, images and videos for pure entertainment. I felt deprived.

I had always depended upon Facebook and YouTube as my main sources of procrastination. With these mediums gone, a vast expanse of hours opened up to me. Ironically, I spent most of those hours thinking about what I could be doing on Facebook or YouTube instead of actually being productive.

Eventually, because I now had a plethora of free time, I began concentrating more on my studies. I had time to learn several the concepts of calculus and biology I was unfamiliar with. Because I could not check the Facebook groups for the homework, I began paying more attention in class and noting the homework on my own.  

I started downloading apps, such as Angry Birds Star Wars and Enemy Strike, to play on my Galaxy S3 and fill the time that I used to spend checking Facebook. I began to be more interested on online flash games and reading online manga. 

I also found more time to practice my euphonium, and my practice sessions extended from the half an hour they used to be to one hour or more.

 Some of the SAT, PSAT and ACT prep books that used to rest on my desk untouched now sat under my desk, all the practice tests taken and lessons learned. 

By the end of the challenge, I found out that my homework schedule had only slightly improved; I was still procrastinating and finishing my homework by midnight. On a positive note, I discovered new forms of entertainment, such as online games, that I only used to periodically check. 

I guess that this challenge was a good experience. I’ve never had over 20 notifications on Facebook at one time as when I checked Facebook for the first time in a week. As I felt the waves of pseudo-popularity, I realized that I had discovered a new form of addiction: The social media fast.