I keep an app running on my machine called RescueTime to keep track of what I use my Mac the most for. It turns out, Facebook has been the biggest timesink in my life for the past month. That’s not good.

The first things I do in the morning are check my email, check Twitter, and check App.Net. This is also not good.

So I’m taking a break. From now, until the end of January, I’m cutting myself off from Facebook, Twitter, App.Net, and a lot of the other endless streams that I wade in daily. There’s nothing special about my decision. I don’t expect this to give me some incredible insight about social media, or the human condition, or anything. I just expect it to free up hours of time during the week I can spend doing other things: reading more, writing more, and focusing on my new job. That’s it.

If there’s a greater purpose to all of this, it relates to a theme in 2014 of being more judicious in what I consume online. I vowed a while ago to follow fewer people, and filter my streams judiciously. With luck, I can contain the information firehose and reduce it down to a manageable trickle of valuable stuff. For starters, I just want to turn it off and find my bearings. Instead of wallowing in other people’s moments, I want to focus on my own moments, just for a while, before opening the floodgates again.

For all the folks who follow me on those various service, I’ll see you on the other side. Until then, I’ll be here, and if you really want to get in touch, there’s always the contact form.