After I graduated and took a few days off from school and work, I ended up accidentally taking a break from social networking — having been a distance student for almost two years, more time in front of a computer was something I didn’t look forward to. So I didn’t tweet for days, I hadn’t done anything with Facebook (except upload a handful of pictures from graduation, most of which I still need to tag), and I hadn’t blogged for a couple weeks.

It’s easy to write this off as negligence, but I think it worked out for the better. I wouldn’t equate social networking with smoking or drinking, but it’s still something of a vice — maybe more like fast food or caffeine. I feel refreshed (at least digitally) now. My most recent tweets have felt more substantive (and I’ve discovered that the “@” feature is way more useful than just talking about myself).  I have fresh ideas to blog about, including some that I’ve just put off so that I could write papers for school.  And in addition to some personal business, I feel like I have more time to do the things I want to do, and I’m even more excited about doing those things.

I’ve even resolved to keep up with my Google Reader better — I plan to share more items, comment on my friends’ shared items, prune my subscription list, and organize the whole thing more efficiently.  Of course, I had to start by marking my 1000+ unread items as “read” — but once again, it’s a necessary fresh start.

Of course, (finally) being done with school helps.  This last semester was especially rough — I had class Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights, while working Monday nights and during the day for the rest of the week.

Free time is a wonderful thing; my accidental detox has only helped me realize that.