Today marks two weeks since I've been without Facebook. Honestly, as lame as it is to remark on the occasion (it's only a website! you say, but for someone as innately shy and lonely as I am, it was more a way of life), it's quite a sea change for me. I love that phrase, 'sea change.' It makes transformation seem inevitable and liquid.

The biggest thing I've noticed since being without a virtual personality is that I hold myself responsible for following through on more things. Before, I felt I could manipulate what people thought of me based on things like status updates and photos. Now I have to prove myself with my actions, without a mediating force. Maybe this sounds strange to anyone who doesn't stake so much of their existence in maintaining and carefully controlling a virtual facade. It's addicting, and it's awful. Anyone who updates their Facebook status more than three times a day might know what I mean.

Some university nearby has a Latin motto that translates to "To be, rather than to seem." It's so hard to be rather than to seem nowadays because we have things like Facebook to project an ideal image of ourselves to others, and as long as others think the best of us, why act to prove the same to ourselves?

I hope one day I don't write a self-help book.