Regardless, there are always things to do — or at least organize. In preparation for summer and subsequent terms, my mom and I cleaned up the forgotten side of our office desk so it could function as, well, a desk. I don’t have a before picture, but this is what it looks like now:

I have a weird obsession with life’s instruction calendar quotes, so they’re everywhere. I also am addicted to purchasing office supplies, so I’m a little too well-stocked (especially in the post-it note department). I’m really looking forward to school starting now, seeing as I’m completely prepared and bored out of my mind. However, my goal is to avoid social networking — ok, Facebook — in these times of boredom.

Things to do instead of Facebooking

1. Read things that aren’t status updates or quiz results.

2. Sort and donate old clothes/other stuff that’s cluttering your space.

3. Explore the world, socialize in person

4. Sleep

5. Take up a hobby — photography, scrapbooking, cleaning, something that intrigues you or makes you forget the time.

6. Play a game. Maybe not Sims 3, though; I’m preeetty much addicted at this point.

7. Discover some new music. I always find random, awesome music I’ve never heard of on last.fm.

8. Netflix an old tv show that’s been off the air for a while. Suggestions: Arrested Development, Seinfeld, and The X-Files (the latter two I discovered only recently; I wasn’t interested enough during their original runs to watch. I watched way too much Disney during the ’90s to notice).

As time goes on, hopefully I’ll think of some somewhat more unique alternatives to Facebook. Three days in, though, the best I have is cleaning your desk.

It’s all about moderation. Work when you need to work; play when you can play. Personally, I have somewhat of an addictive personality, so it’s hard for me to follow my own advice. Ideally, if I keep off Facebook for three months without cheating, I’ll realize that a website doesn’t have to be an integral part of my day.

I’ve been Facebook free for just a few hours, but thus far I’ve found Google Reader to be an interesting replacement.

It started innocently enough in the fall of 2005, when Facebook became available to high schoolers. Wanting to follow the trends my older friends were partaking in, I became the ninth person to join my high school’s network which, unfortunately, did not allow you to converse with anyone in college. This separation was so important to some people that one girl didn’t approve my friend request until after I had established myself in a college network 18 months later.

In February 2006, a friend told me Facebook now allowed interaction between high school and college networks, and thus my addiction began. This was at the height of MySpace insanity, and as it was getting banned in school, Facebook was flying under the radar, causing half my newspaper class to sign up solely for its availability. I soon lost interest in (and eventually deleted) MySpace, as did many of my friends who graduated that year. By summer, Facebook had exploded; this is still evident in the size difference between groups for the Class of 2009 versus those for the Class of 2010.

I immediately drank the Koolaid and became active in my Class of 2011 group. Although no tangible friendships resulted from answering random questions and telling people what dorm I was in, it was a fun way to stalk my future classmates. At its peak, the group had roughly 1800 members — over half of the freshman class.

Like almost every other college freshman, I used Facebook for putting up photos of my dorm, adding every person I spoke to as a friend, and pissing hours and hours away in the library. As time went on, I tried to hide my addiction by stripping my ‘About Me’ down to make it look like I was apathetic toward Facebook. Hahahhahahaha.

I spent last summer without Facebook — well, most of it; every few weeks I’d log in early in the morning, stalk some interesting people, then deactivate it again without anyone knowing the wiser. Sly, sly me. It really wasn’t so bad. However, my addiction grew during my sophomore year. I’m now at the point where I start typing the URL without realizing it. It’s become a pointless, time wasting routine that I would really like to quit.

Is it sad that people are transfixed with something as pointless as a social networking website? Uuh…duh. I’m deleting my Facebook for a few reasons:

1. I’ve been less than productive during my college experience thus far. In fact, I would go as far to say that it’s been a waste of time, which is why I’m extremely happy that I’m transferring. However, by a) changing my locale and b) eradicating a pesky habit, I hope to actually get something done now that I’m starting anew elsewhere.
2. I’m way too creepy as it is, and Facebook is merely an enabler.
3. It’s summer. I’ve spent three of the last four summers on my ass in front of MySpace then Facebook, and last summer proved to be fun without them.
3a. I’m gonna try joining the Infinite Summer folks.
3b. I’m way behind on my reading list before taking 3a into account.
4. I’m taking six summer classes spread between Monday and September 10th.

For now, I’m still on Twitter, though. Baby steps.