I left Facebook a while ago, firstly, because they changed the privacy policy just enough that it seemed I no longer had much control at all over the data generated from my visits to their website or others. They started to pass it along to third parties, and that didn’t sit right. But, something else about the whole Facebook experience bugged me that I wasn’t able to put my finger on, except with some distance.

At the height of my usage, I found myself checking the site many times a day from my phone, looking for something to entertain me, someone else’s posts to ease even the most mild ennui – a micro-fix to a self-induced social addiction. But, rarely was it really substantive, meaningful, or satisfying.

Further than that, though, was the distraction from personal growth. As it was put by Thornton Wilder, one of the most challenging things to do in this American life is “to convert a loneliness into an enriched and fruitful solitude.” Sure, Facebook helps keep us in contact with people, builds those social connections. But, it is also brilliant at distracting us from truly meaningful interaction. How many people would we really keep in contact with without the website? Perhaps those are the relationships we should be emphasizing, including our relationship with ourselves.

It seems likely that the next decade will be the most distracting ever as, more and more, our attention will be sought in new and inventive ways for the purpose of commerce. Advertising is seeping in to every facet of life. When will we have time to know ourselves? When will we have time to become the empathic individuals the world needs?