Facebook has claimed a significant amount of time in our lives. I can’t even write an article without compulsively typing in “f-a-c” into the —

Sigur Rós has a new music video!

But I know I’m not the only one who experiences such a half-conscious draw to the website.

During class on their laptops, waiting at the bus stop on their i-whatevers, at their office computers while pretending to look busy, people can’t seem to keep their eyes off their newsfeeds. It’s disruptive and usually irrelevant, but it’s a widespread go-to distraction.

But there are those rare individuals who shun the use of the social media website.

Nick Nuechterlein, a currently Facebook-less LSA junior, became disillusioned with Facebook during his first tour of the University.

“Our guide opened the doors above 1800 Chem during a lecture,” he said. “And there, to my amazement, was an auditorium room full of people checking Facebook. It was terrifically disappointing … And, rightly or not, I get a little satisfaction out of thinking I’m not a part of that anymore.”

With the loss of their online “friends,” those without Facebook have managed to discover more of their flesh-and-bones, quotation mark-free friends, Nuechterlein said, offering an apt analogy:

“(Deleting Facebook) is sort of like growing a neck beard ... You get to find out who your real friends are.”

LSA senior Emily Buttigieg, who deleted her Facebook as she studied for the MCAT, agrees.

“For my more local friends, I found myself having more phone conversations, lunch, dinner and coffee meetings, which were more personal,” she said.

Jealous of the newfound personal relationships that those without Facebook sustained, I decided to try it myself. I tried to completely cut myself off from the social media website.

I never actually succeeded.

I guess I failed to acknowledge the social context surrounding what I was doing. The fact of the matter was that I was pretty bored this summer. I lived at home, so deleting Facebook felt like cutting the social tether of an astronaut idling in suburban empti —.

Whose dog is that? Mine's cuter.

I cheated at my first few Facebook-free attempts, but only accidentally. Checking Facebook, I realized, was rarely done consciously, a rest stop between websites versus an actual destination.

But I decided upon a compromise. If I couldn’t bear to not check Facebook, I would only log on for utilitarian (in the loosest sense of the word) purposes. I would use the site for what it was supposedly intended for in the first place — staying connected with the people I cared about. I would resist the Newsfeed at all cos —

Why did my German friend just post a 44-minute too-hip-for-anyone experimental track??

Plugged out, plugged in

There's a fear of disconnectedness — not being able to skim through pictures of your cousin’s newborn or your friends drinking out of a boot in Hamburg.

Larry D. Rosen, author of the book “iDisorder,” said our society has a wealth of anxiety about missing out on our peers’ activities in real life and on Facebook.

The generally accepted term for this anxiety is FOMO: Fear of Missing Out. This can refer to the fear that if you do not attend an event, you risk missing out on having a good time. And a deleted Facebook automatically eliminates a vital method of receiving invitations to experiences other people will inevitably enjoy.

LSA senior Lily Gerasymchuk, who also deleted her Facebook to prepare for the MCAT, noted that being Facebook-free sometimes produced the anxiety associated with FOMO.

“Not having a Facebook also decreased the number of friends that I interacted with,” she said. “Only my close friends took the time to contact me through other means.”

But there’s another form of FOMO, one that results from receiving too much information on what’s going on.

All it takes is someone else’s photo album titled “SUMMER 2012 <3” to feel like you’ve spent more than enough time scrolling through the life experiences of acquaintances, your own timeline becoming static and pale under the glow of the laptop screen.

“Facebook does make me feel a bit lonely,” Gerasymchuk said. “While I’m bored over the summer, I get jealous of people exploring Europe and doing cool things while I’m just stuck at home.”

Great. So when you have a Facebook, you see what you’re missing out on. When you don’t have a Facebook, you imagine what you’re missing out on.

Miss Lonelyhearts

Rosen posits that there’s a chance that Facebook could act as a sort of protective sealant against the ravages of loneliness.

“If you are lonely or sad, then having more Facebook friends will make you less lonely most likely because you have more options of people to talk to for support and empathy,” he said.