For 2 years, I have without the world of Facebook. I was tired of people’s desire to publicize their lives and receive attention. I felt as if Facebook was unnecessary and unneeded in my life. I wanted to be an individual without having pictures reveal who I was. So, I deleted my account with no regrets. And it was a blissful 2 years. I felt strong and dignified, allowing my life to reveal the person I was.

Last summer, I worked a public policy internship. As a part of the experience, the other fourteen interns and I were required to collaborate in a project and the majority agreed that Facebook would be most convenient to work on. So, very reluctantly, I created an account. For a while, I only posted 1 picture and had 30 friends for 3 months. But very soon, as more people requested to be friends and as others tagged pictures of me, I became less aware of that distance that I kept for so long from Facebook. Months later, I blended in with the Facebook community and felt the desire to post pretty pictures. In the fourth quarter of my senior year, my friends and I went to many fancy dinners and birthday pictures. These events were revealed to my 173 friends and I shared pictures again and again. The more time I spent looking at my profile, the more I became addicted to Facebook. My fingers memorized the order of keys to log in, username and password and all. I loved the attention that I received.

Last night, I woke up from my long dream. I realized that long hours in the night and large portions of my day were easily spent on the website. If I continued this, I would lose track of how much of my life would be wasted on this superficial website. If I were old and looked back at my life, I would regret how long I spent pouring over pictures and silly comments. I remember my promise to myself not too long ago and will abide by it. Although my profile will still be present, I will embrace the fact that “my life, not Facebook, dictates who I am.”