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| 40 days without Facebook? OMG
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Traditional Easter celebrations are marked by exclamations of joy, like "He has risen!" and "Hallelujah!"
Blythe Westendorf's Sunday morning began with another exclamation - "OMG WELCOME BACK!" - typed in an instant message window on her computer.
Some students returned to their high-tech vices Sunday, welcomed back into the digital world after giving up instant-messaging programs or social-networking sites for Lent, which ran from Feb. 6 (Ash Wednesday) to Easter. Westen-dorf, 19, of Virginia Beach, signed on to AOL instant messenger Sunday for the first time in 40 days.
She spent just 10 minutes catching up with friends on the program.
"I don't think I could go back to being online all the time like I was before," said Westendorf, a freshman at Elon University in Elon, N.C. She has even decided to download software that will limit the time she spends on the Internet in the future.
Christa Byker, 21, had let her Facebook.com messages and wall posts go unread since Ash Wednesday.
After church Sunday afternoon, Byker found her Facebook wall scattered with greetings.
A fellow student at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, where Byker is a senior, simply wrote, "I see that Lent is over. Thank God."
A post from Byker's twin sister, Carmen, reads, "The lenten season has ceased. Now you can revel in the pleasures of facebook once again. enjoy and i'm excited to see you."
Facebook did not see a decline in active accounts at the start of Lent, according to a spokeswoman for the site. During this 40-day period, the number of active Facebook users grew by 3 million, to 67 million, its statistics page shows.
Byker said she did not miss the social networking site during her Facebook fast.
"I don't like being too dependent on technology, and proving my independence to myself and the Facebook world was rewarding."
Written by
By Kate Shellnutt for PilotOnline.com
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Posted by Zivaa on 2008-03-26 04:28:44 | Rating: | Views: 47
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