Social Networking Fast

Although I was able to achieve and maintain near perfect grades in graduate school even after the advent of Twitter, I admit that I have become overly dependent on social networking. I call the people I follow on Twitter my friends and share some of the more intimate details of my life with them. I rarely make phone calls or check my voicemail messages because I assume people will just tweet me or facebook me.

Well, I am going on a break from social networking.

No Facebook, no Twitter. I am going to remove all notifications from both sites and uninstall the mobile applications. I need to find what is missing and I believe that is real connections. Maybe getting off will cause me to go out in the world and reclaim the friends I have been avoiding. For me, social networking was a cop out. I was able to retreat into the virtual world in an effort to not deal with the actual world. It's easier to appear social if you never have to leave the house. I don't want to become a hermit, but I have hermit-like tendencies.

So tomorrow I am going to leave my house. Maybe go sit at Lake Ella, take a book, read for a while and just enjoy all that outside has to offer. After that, I am going to return home and pick up one of the books on my summer reading list. Monday, I will go get my GRE fee reduction certificate and print off some papers I need to work on. Matter of fact, I will add my personal statement and writing sample to the mix so I can edit those as well. So for at least the next week, my life will be circa 2006 before the advent of Facebook and Twitter. I am going out to face the world with bravery and courage.

I will have a personal photoshoot of me and the elements. The ducks at Lake Ella. The sun in the sky. I will wish upon a star and remember what life used to be like.

I hate that I am always home. So starting tomorrow, I won't be...

See you all in the real world.