I didn’t even realize it was happening and before I knew it, I was addicted. It went on for years. Every day. Multiple times a day. Every free second I had. As soon as I woke up. Last thing before I went to bed. It had me.

Facebook.

What started out as a cool way to blog about what I was doing and keep in touch with life-long friends that I’d lost touch with slowly became arguments, hatred, racism, sexism, bigotry, partisanship.

I wasn’t innocent. I posted my share of partisan information, because like everyone else I felt it was the truth. I didn’t do it to change anyone’s minds, I did it to let those that think like me know that they weren’t alone.

The problem was, I kept finding out that people I know, people I grew up with, people I respected…are racist, sexist, homophobic, intolerant, and just plain ignorant. It made me sad. It made me angry. It disappointed me. The arguments never got resolved, no one’s minds were changed. All that I was left with at the end of the day was that disappointment.

One day, after a particularly disturbing…conversation…I decided it was enough. I decided to tell everyone I was logging off, made a post with my contact information via other channels and I logged out. I logged out on my phone, logged out of messenger, logged out on all of my devices and walked away.

At first, I felt the draw…the call… I should log in and check, see what’s going on. That’s when I knew it was truly an addiction and that strengthened my resolve NOT to login. It had a hold on me and I needed to escape.

It’s been a couple of months now, and I checked back once to see if I’d missed any messages. I had and re-posted my contact info so that everyone would know not to expect any response via FB any time soon.

You know what?

It feels great. I don’t miss it. I’m happier. I have so much more free time. I’ll just let everyone else continue to yell at each other and argue about things that they’ll never change their minds about. I’m off to work in the yard, play with my granddaughter, read a book…

Try it. Sign out. Log off. Just step away for a while. It’s ok. You’ll feel weird at first but it will pass. You’ll feel great and after a while, you won’t even miss it.