The Facebook Problem & Solution

So, I may spend too much time on Facebook. I also obsessively check my email. These seem pretty ridiculous for a lot of reasons, the main two being: what important email am I waiting for, and am I really gaining anything from excessive FB use, or just wasting time? The answer of course is that I am just wasting time. Because I have two small children I often have a minute or 4 here or there, but not often long chunks of time where I can do something like sew two pieces of fabric together, read a chapter in a book, etc. However it takes about 10 seconds to get on the computer and see if I have any interesting emails, and if I am good, only a couple of minutes to see if there is anything amazing, new, or hilarious on Facebook. I tell myself it is not really so bad, and just an outlet to the boredom I sometimes feel, but I think in actuality it makes me feel worse. Not like by reading posts on FB I feel depressed because other people are out doing cool things (chances are if you are posting about all the cool things you are doing on FB instead of actually just enjoying them, you aren't really having that cool of a life anyway) but more like it is very unsatisfying. I cling to the lame excuse that I use FB to keep in contact with my friends, which is true, but I don't really need to check it many many times a day to keep in touch with my friends. It's not like I email, text, or call my friends 10 times a day, why would I need to see if they've posted in the last 2 hours?

This has led me to wonder what I could do differently to be more "satisfied" with my interneting. I hate when I put my kids to bed and am so tired that I feel like I can't do anything except sit around and play on the internet because that's all I have the energy to do, and two hours later I have nothing to show for it except for 10 more pins on pinterest of things I will someday (maybe) think about making and perhaps a comment on someone's photos on Facebook. That is to say, not a lot.

So, say you spend 1 hour a day on Facebook. I have no idea how much time I really spend on it, because really I don't want to know. I figure if I check it even if just for a minute 10 times a day that is too many. So we'll use an hour, because that is where I am going with my idea. Anyway, if I am spending an hour on FB to "socialize" and "keep in touch" with my friends, couldn't I do that in a better way? For example, if I used even a half hour a day to write a friend an email, write a real piece of mail, or call someone on the phone? All of those things sound like they take almost as little energy as clicking around on the internet, and I would venture produce better results both for me feeling fulfilled and keeping good friendships. Bottom line is starting today I am going to check my FB once a day, and spend 30 minutes that I would have been wasting there doing "friendship building/life fulfilling" type activities. For a week. Maybe in a week I will find that I didn't really like doing that and will go back to wasting my life on Facebook, but maybe I will find I am happier instead.