My roommate recently made the commitment to log off from social media more frequently. She feels that her mental health has improved; she's glad that she made that commitment. I wish I could do that: to disconnect from facebook and other forms of social media. However, I don't feel like I really can. And when I say "can", I don't mean any lack of will-power. I literally feel that something will be missing from my life if I do visit my feed less often.

A year-and-a-half-ago, I moved from Maryland to Utah, leaving all of my connections behind. I love every single one of my new connections in Salt Lake, but I still miss my old compadres back home. I'm also not the biggest texter, and I like to visualize my friends and what they're doing: facebook is perfect for that! I can still feel like a part of their lives when I actually see what my friends are doing, as opposed to having events described over text.

I have also made other friends on facebook that I don't have any social interactions with. The only way I can connect with some people is through social media. I have also learned about events and social gatherings solely through facebook and the frequent visits to the site. If I want to search for a person fairly fast, I use facebook for that as well- no more vague face descriptions for me!

I completely understand the argument for logging off of social media, and I recognize the different studies describing the harmful effects of living your life online. However, I have invested so much into facebook, that if I do log off, my life won't be as full without it.