Alone or Lonely without Facebook?

Loneliness. Do you remember that feeling? If so when was the last time you felt it?

Well today, I feel lonely. I was having a fairly average day and everything was going fine, but then something happened. I am not going to say what it was, but it upset me. Now here I am around none of my friends, or family, or actually anyone, and I can not stop obsessing over what I am upset about.

Now for the first time since I deleted facebook I truly wanted to go on it. I wanted to see familiar faces, distract myself from feeling so alone. As tempted as I was I did not reactivate my facebook, but sure enough I found myself on twitter. Here were some familiar faces, and it did make me feel less lonely. Then I realized with the constant connect of social media have we tricked ourselves into thinking we are not alone? If a friend is just a click away can we really ever feel lonely?

Well I think we can still feel lonely, but social media sure makes it easy to forget we are alone. With social media we can always rely on someone to be there. We never have to wait around to talk to someone or for someone to call. In my opinion its easy to forget how alone we truly are when you can see your friends online.

Coping with the feelings of loneliness  without social media  requires self reliance. I have started to realize coping with anything without Facebook requires self reliance, and confidence in yourself. I noticed after deleting Facebook how often I would go on it for last minute advice on assignments. Why could I not rely on my own knowledge to get me through it? Why did I think anyone may know better than me?

Being off Facebook has made me feel like my own person again. Up until today I enjoyed feeling like I was out in the world by myself, alone. So why was it that when I felt lonely the first place I thought to go was Facebook?

e-mail me your thoughts at: disconnect2reconnect@gmail

posted by: Courtney Wright

Remember that video...

Hello again.

Remember that video I posted a while ago called “Socially Active?” Well, I posted it on our YouTube account and received some sweet feedback from user: Klemperer.

Here’s what Klemperer had to say:

Nice view :). I left facebook last June, and indeed, I read more and meet more people since that day^^. 0’40 onwards is great ;-)). Social networks do have advantages, but there are better possibilities, I am sure. Lovely to ask a musician 5000 miles away what music she’s doing - but that’s possible without facebook^^. Read more books, meet more people, all :)!

Then, I messaged her just to see if she wouldn’t mind me posting her feedback on the blog and this is the response I received:

Hi Leviana,

of course you could! I think it’s a very lively and superb video. You know, I met a lot of cold snobs at university in Germany during the last years (I’m a tad older than you^^ so can compare a bit). What we generally lack is the spirit that is in your very video :-))! Stand up and fight, so to say, for what you find important and right, or funny^^. Don’t let the “I got 127 “i like it” on facebook - stuff make ´just another fashion-and-style-follower out of us :-)). I met so many people who had good ideas, but after the third “sarcastic cold, but cool” answer stopped.

So I would say, each and everyone who will watch your video will be delighted, you seem just as you are (well this is wild guessing over the internet^^ of course, he he). Those who would not like it - well, we are in free countries. I think it’s a very nice video, post it if you like it too, because of course it’s of not so big an importance for you what I think :-))).

All I can say is I was happy to watch it, and especially after all those postmodern hate-blurb-speakers in german universities and scenes I found the spirit in it I like - it’s funny, it’s convincing, and it’s without the need to “make points” (which is the beginning of desaster anyways^^)

I’ll bookmark the blog right away.

Ciao, and thanks for the great video, this is life, and I like it^^

Georg

Let us know what you think by e-mailing us at disconnect2reconnect@gmail.com.  

EVEN BETTER: Record your own vlog and send it to us. We’ll post it ;)

posted by: Leviana Coccia

All Posts

To view posts between October and November please click on this link .

A friend's attempt to discourage me from participating.

Challenge: Face Value Revision

Last night we had changed our challenge description for “Face Value” on the events page. So here is the new description on the event.
Challenge: Face Value

On Sunday October 24th, “The Reconnect”, a group of Media Studies students at the University of Guelph-Humber challenge you to delete your Facebook for one week, and “Face the Change”. Before you click “Not Attending”, read on.

Firstly we would like to inform participants that by “deleting” your Facebook it does not truly delete it. You can simply re-activate your account by signing back in, and all your information will be there just as you left it. The only difference is no one will be able to post on your wall, tag you in pictures, message you, and so forth, during your time away. We ask you to delete your Facebook, as appose to simply not singing on, to encourage you to avoid the temptation of signing on to check if someone has posted on your wall, invited you to an event etc.

We are proposing this challenge as part of our experiment to disconnect to reconnect. To view our overall mission click on the following link: http://disconnect2reconnect.tumblr.com/post/1345562212/the-mission . Essentially we are challenging you for a week to remember how you used to connect to friends and family without Facebook. During this challenge we will be challenging you to connect in ways you may have forgotten like this challenge featured in the following link: http://disconnect2reconnect.tumblr.com/post/1354594728/mini-challenge-before-the-fail-whale-there-was . The purpose is to decide what forms of technology and social media are useful and vital to you.

During this experiment we encourage participants and non-participants to think about the integration of technology and social media forms are affecting their lives. We want people to make their own decisions, and form their own opinions, as well as, inform us at disconnect2reconnect@gmail.com. Now some participant’s opinions may be formed before they participate in the event, however, we believe it is important to constantly be re-evaluating and challenging your own opinions.

Here is how to participate:

We ask participants to commit to delete their Facebook for at least one week. If participants can we encourage them to keep their Facebook deleted, move on to the next challenge, and continue disconnecting. Here is how to participate in this week’s Face Value challenge:

1. Join the Facebook event.

2. Invite everyone on your Facebook to the event, do not be shy.

3. Check this tumblr, and/or the event for the days’ status. Post the status to your Facebook.

4. “Like” anyone who has the status posted, as this will aid in creating awareness.

5. October 24th, delete your Facebook by 12pm and get ready to start experiencing your life before Facebook again.

6. Join the conversation here on tumblr. Submit your concerns, experiences, anything you want us to know at disconnnect2reconnect@gmail.com, along with your age and name.

*As some of you may notice the description of the event has changed. We have not deleted our old description entirely as we are trying to document as much of this process as possible. We are also not denying the mistakes we make during the process. This is an on-going discussion and conversation in which all our opinions will constantly be changing and that is part of the experimentation. To view the original description click on the following link: http://disconnect2reconnect.tumblr.com/post/1345698137/challenge-face-value

Our life means nothing if we don’t have social status.

I was writing a midterm for my Sociology of Consumption class yesterday and while studying, I came across this sentence in my notes. I believe it was discussed by my professor in lecture.

What does it mean to you?

posted by: Leviana Coccia