Life without Facebook

Four days without Facebook and it feels like an eternity.

I've e-mailed them twice about the incident, hoping they will restore my profile, but I have not heard anything. I guess I just have to be patient. It is the holidays, after all. I might not hear anything until the new year perhaps...

It's bizarre.

I have had my facebook for five years and checked it every single day. I didn't realize how much a part of my life facebook was until it was gone.

I find myself going to the computer and typing my username, only to remember what happened. It's just instinct.

And now I'm not quite sure what to do with my free time.

There is nobody to poke. No witty status update to write. No photos to upload. No walls to write on.

I feel like I'm standing outside of society. It makes me uneasy that I don't know what my cousins did over the weekend or what new band my best friend in Milwaukee is listening to or what that kid from my high school biology class ate for breakfast.

I'm so used to knowing these little trivial things about people that it feels wrong not to know anymore.

I don't think I am the only one who feels this way. Our generation revolves around Facebook and other social networking sites in a way. It's how we communicate with each other, it's how we learn more about each other, it's how we meet each other, and it's how we feel confident about ourselves. Our profile is our mirror and our number of friends makes us feel more popular, even though in reality about 85 percent of those people are basically former acquaintances.

I can't even remember what life was like without facebook. What did I do with my time? How did I contact friends? Did I even have any friends? I don't know. I don't remember.

I guess being on facebook helped me feel like I was part of a community. My friends list was a huge number (382) of people from all aspects of my life. Former school classmates, girls who used to be in my ballet class, that guy I had my first kiss with, my old professors, my coworkers, all the people I hung out with in college, etc. Pretty much almost every person I interacted with at some point in my life was on my facebook. Like a small town of people I know.

Even though I might not have spoken to a person in 15 years, the protection of a computer screen allowed me to compliment their new hair style or "like" one of their status updates.

And now I'm stuck in the real world with nobody. If someone says something witty at the grocery store, I'm not going to give them a thumbs up. It doesn't work that way.

I'm not going to bring my poking war with my coworkers into the real world. That would be weird and creepy. And sometimes if you have long nails, poking in real life can hurt.

I'm not going to stand up on top of my apartment building and tell everyone what book I'm reading. I'm not going to stand on a street corner and status update my life.

So I guess I will just have to wait until Facebook responds to my e-mails. As torturous as it may be.

I am a child of the digital age. What else can I say?