Can you do a digital detox?

For Lent, my husband and I gave up cable TV. This, however, did not mean the internet. Rather than getting the latest news from Mansbridge on channel 6, I instead turned to the internet and CBC.ca. We so loved not having the TV incessantly on and enjoyed talking more and listening to music more. As a result, we got rid to our cable altogether! That Easter weekend our cable met its Golgotha as we made a trip to Rogers and sentenced our cable to death. Our viewing habits have now been resurrected into a new form: the internet!

Getting rid of the internet is something that I cannot fathom. So many of my habits, both social and professional, are tied to the online world. Some of you may have tried giving up Facebook for Lent - temporarily deactivating your account and forcing yourself to have face time with your friends.

Read the Adbusters article by Carmen Joy King entitled Facebook Suicide. Comment on her angle and writing style. King takes her personal experience of being Facebook-obsessed, connects it to larger issues, such as the tendency for people of her generation to be self-absorbed, and ties it to her existential struggles with her well-crafted online identity. Can you relate to her? Why or why not? Do you think Facebook is an ego trip, or is it more than that? How do you use social networking sites? It is all smoke and mirrors for our fragile, egotistical selves? Could you go offline?