The Lent Experiment: Day One

I am what they call a "Cradle Catholic" Born and raised in a Roman Catholic Italian home we practice may traditions. One of them is Lent. If you are unfamiliar with Lent it is the celebration of the up coming Easter holiday when Jesus died on the cross for us. During Lent you are required to do a few things, one give up something you enjoy, help others, and fast on Ash Wednesday and you cannot eat meat on Fridays.

I rarely practice these Lentan traditions as an adult. My kids normally give up something like pop (that would be Soda to the rest of the world) or candy. This year I wanted to give the suffering a try. I then realize that the one thing that would cause me much suffering would to be giving up my social networking addiction. It was set in stone, I Tina Pabon, would give up my Facebook and Cafemom for the time of Lent. I will be a social outcast until Easter.

It then dawned on me, how sad is it that I am addicted to social networking? When I made the announcement of sacrifice some people were happy to see me go, which was hurtful. I guess my rants about things I am passionate about rub people the wrong way. Which made me realize what an effect these social sites have on us as people. For the first time we have that soap box to stand on and truly share what is on our mind. Once we share then other people can share it with more people and so on and so forth. What an interesting time we live in.

For the next 40 days I am going to pop on here from time to time and give the world my update on my detox from the social network phenomenon. I would love prayers, good vibes, chants, or whatever you want to throw at me to keep me strong.