Why?

I decided to give up facebook for a month for quite a few reasons. There are plenty of scary privacy invasion/ marketing things which you can read about here:-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/14/facebook

When I read that article I thought that it was time to get rid of facebook, so I went to delete my profile information and I found that I didn't want to. I liked my own flattering constructed identity, I wanted people to know that I'm a feminist who loves gorkys. I wanted all my 'oh so endearing' quirks displayed and veiwable.
I wanted random acquaintences to know what sort of music/films/books I like because, you know, they might like the same music/films/books, and then after some thorough poking we would type our way into the sunset .....

Facebook allows us to represent ourselves so that information that would usually take a little while to find out is instantly accessible. I think my virtual self is simoultaneously more and less me.
I would never put one of my interests as 'Routing through charity/vinatage shops for clothes' because it is not part of the 'me' that I want to represent (too vain/shallow too much conforming to indie girl norms). It is something that I do ridiculously often though...
I include amusing quotes rather than serious ones - feminism is much farther down my list of interests and activities than is actually justified, really it is not me. Then again it is - I have difficulty taking things very seriously, I do like music and films a lot. If I delete my profile, am I deleting a little part of me? When I write that I think , god that's ludicrous, but really I mean the internet is definately a public space which people exist in, and 'networking sites' form the main medium of this interaction.

The fact that I didn't want to get rid of this made me feel as if perhaps, I was too attached to my 'virtual identity'. Also I go on the damned thing far too often because I like people watching. I always have enjoyed looking at people and wondering things about them from the way the walk/dress/appear and facebook totally encourages this. Looking at profiles is just like people watching only you find out a lot more, and you can do it anywhere or any time ( particularly when you are supposed to be writing essays or going to sleep)

So I have decided to give up facebook for a month and to find out if this increases my productivity/sleep and maybe even the strength of my friendships ( hopefully I won't lose touch with too many people). I decided to write a blog about it because I still want people to look at me on the internet. I also really like writing, and without television I am not sure how I would fill my procrastination time !!

Anyway it promises to be an epic journey filled with powerful insight into 21st century interaction. Or something. Thanks for reading - comments are very welcome :)