Taking a Break From Facebook

I have no strategies for keeping my son off Facebook, but you can be sure I will be sharing your daughter's excellent example with him, and daring him to do the same!

I have recently become concerned with the amount of time that he stays plugged in to technology, and began a discussion with him about electro-magnetic fields (EMFs). Surprisingly, this jarred him out of his techno-trance long enough to begin a conversation about them and their effects on humans.

I will let you know if it provides reason enough for him to take a break, or if if his pause was just a blip before diving back into the ether.

I wish I had some strategies..i somehow got sucked into facebook myself about 4 months ago..a number of family and friends were using that as a mean to communicate. The back and forth is too much and very time consuming. I also do not turn my computer on but what about my blackberry which lures me back to my computer. I forbid my children to use phones, computers etc after 10pm but what about me? who is watching over me?

It's funny, one of the random messages that Facebook offered me was the answer to the question "Is Jonna Espey a hypocrite?" I didn't pursue it, because, as you say, pursuit of anything on Facebook requires more that just the answer to the question. And the truth is that yes, I am a hypocrite, because I check gmail and Facebook daily and even created a blog which touts letting go of technology.....

It won't necessarily be Facebook forever, but online social networking is here to stay. Just like television. When I was growing up (early 80s), the only television in my house was in the basement. It was there; it was available when I needed it (Little House on the Prairie), but it meant forsaking the sunshine and the company of my family to get it. Can our Internet habits be subject to that kind of restriction? Only, perhaps, if they are self-imposed.

My daughter is the OTHER half of the experiment.....and i didn't KNOW that she was doing this WITH her friend! I thought that she was listening to us (the parents who have been saying: "we just don't see you anymore...you're always on your computer") and actually doing something about it... Maybe she is, maybe it really resonated and it WAS her idea (you can bet I'll ask in some discreet way). Whatever the reason, I'm glad that she and a friend acknowledged the overuse and are doing this test. But what do we do when the test period is over?

Before this all came about, we'd been talking about quietly putting timers on our internet service so they won't use it beyond a certain hour. Maybe we'll tell them, maybe we won't....it just might be OUR test.

Brillant idea! I will pass this information to my children and hope they will be inspired.

Very cutting edge experiment! Go, girl!
For 5 months I've had fun reconnecting with long-lost friends on Facebook--but also wasted time & energy (esp. when offensive jerks, friends of friends, would appear on my wall). I seem to achieve a balance when I 1) post only once or twice a week & 2) am really selective about "friends," so they're either infrequent posters, like me, or so interesting I don't mind hearing about them more often.