By Kendra Srivastava | Mon Feb 27, 2012 3:40 pm
Facebook addicts are giving up the social media site for Lent, highlighting their increasingly common struggle to balance online connections with real-life friendships.Christine Melendes of Chicago won't be poking anyone or checking status updates during the forty days before Easter, according to CBS.
"I kind of feel like I forget to do something every morning before I go to work, but I'm doing pretty good. I haven't cheated yet," she reports.
Melendes is not alone in her quest, as 28-year-old Glena Suiter of French Island is also avoiding Facebook for Lent.
"I'm not sure I'll make it, but I'm going to try," Suiter said, adding, "I didn't think about how much I use it until now. I didn't think it would be such a sacrifice to give up."
Suiter plans to fill the Facebook gap by knitting forty infant hats during Lent instead of posting videos and browsing friends' photo albums.
Neither Suiter or Melendes consider themselves extreme Facebook addicts, but their difficultly in ditching the social network suggests it is increasingly hard for some people to balance online activities and real life.
Facebook and Twitter are actually more addictive than cigarettes, according to research from Chicago University's Booth Business School. The study ranked social networking just behind sleep and leisure time, which people regularly prioritized even above drinking and smoking.
These findings explain "Facebook Depression," a phenomenon occurring when users are unable to visit the site and connect with friends, prompting feelings of isolation and distress.
A study last spring documented students' reactions when told to shut off digital media for 24 hours. One participant reported, "I was itching, like a crackhead, because I could not use my phone," highlighting his visceral connection to Facebook.
To combat Facebook addiction, some like Suiter and Melendes are turning to "tech fasts."
"The Winter of Our Disconnect," for example, details Susan Maushart's attempt to live for six months without the Internet, cell phones, television, iPods or video games. The author says this experience drew her family closer together, although she admits it was difficult at first.
Last year the "National Day of Unplugging" on March 19 saw professionals of all persuasions avoid technology in favor of live communication, followed by a similar "No E-Mail Day" on October 18.
Whether or not Suiter and Mendeles succeed in their forty-day technology fast, their determination may encourage others to consider occasionally unplugging from Facebook to forge stronger real-life connections.
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