12 Most Splendid Ways to Spend the Time You Used to Spend on Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg has really done it now. The newest Facebook changes make us hate the site more than ever.
What many of us haven’t realized yet is what an amazing favor Zuckerberg and his Bookface cronies have granted us. They have returned to us nearly 90 minutes of our day that we used to spend on the website.
Now we won’t sit in front of the computer reading our Walls and losing an hour in what seems like seconds. We won’t whittle away the last two hours of daylight checking to see if anyone likes our most recent post. Most importantly, we won’t spend more than an hour a day complaining on Facebook about how we can’t get anything done because we spend too much time on Facebook.
Mark & Co. have screwed with us one too many times. We really don’t like the New Facebook. No, seriously, we don’t.
We just hit the time management jackpot, since we used to spend more time on Facebook than anything else online. Leo Babauta’s advice on finding an hour a day has nothing on this change. Thank you, Mr. Zuckerberg, for giving us back our lives.
Now, what will we do with all of this time?
1. Read a book
You remember books, right? They’re what we used to look at back when we read things that taught us something besides who was stressed or who was brushing their teeth.
2. Take a walk
Fall has arrived and the weather is amazing. Take a walk around your neighborhood, a park, or wherever you desire. Just lace up your tennis shoes, grab a jacket and head on out.
3. Watch a movie
When was the last time you cuddled up on the sofa with a blanket, beverage and great flick? Ahhh… I exhale just thinking about it. You also could *gasp* go to a movie without ticking off everyone sitting near you because you can’t sit for two hours without at least letting your friends know what you’re watching.
4. Go out with friends
Go to dinner, a club, a museum, or concert. You’ll need to reconnect with your actual friends, since you won’t be sharing the mundane details of every day with them and 500 other people you purport to like.
5. Visit family
Your mom, aunt, cousin, and grandma are super interested in those mundane details referenced above. You’re going to be forced to go visit them, but maybe your Grandma will make your favorite pie while you’re there.
6. Exercise
Let’s face it, it’s difficult to update Facebook and exercise at the same time. You could make a noticeable improvement in your health in an hour a day.
7. Go on a date
Whether you are in a relationship or not, giving another person your undivided attention is emotionally healthy.
8. Organize
If you’re anything like me, there’s always something you could be organizing, cleaning or repairing around the house or office. Take the time off of Facebook to be truly productive.
9. Write
I always wish I had more time for writing, blogging or journaling. You could write a book in about two months by writing an hour a day.
10. Start a new hobby
You know how you wanted to learn to knit or to take up scrapbooking? Have you been jonesing to join an indoor soccer team or learn how to edit video? There’s no time like the present.
11. Read a magazine
Magazines are my guilty pleasure. I subscribe to about a dozen, but I’ve noticed that they increasingly sit in the magazine rack, only to be recycled when the new one arrives.
12. Volunteer
Imagine the difference you could make in the lives of others.
When I think about all of the things I could do instead of Facebook, I am disappointed about the time I’ve already wasted. Thank you, Mark Zuckerberg, for taking a social network that I used to love and totally screwing it up. Thanks to you, I just earned seven hours a week. It’s like time I don’t remember having before.
I think the first thing I’ll do is figure out this Facebook timeline thing.
Featured image courtesy of Jo Naylor licensed via Creative Commons.
http://www.profkrg.com
Kenna Griffin (@profkrg) is the blogger behind www.profkrg.com, which aims to create an ongoing educational dialogue between professional journalists and media students and educators. In her spare time she teaches journalism, multimedia, public relations, media law, and media ethics courses as a full-time university professor. Oh, and she is a doctoral candidate in mass communication on the side.
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