MANILA, Philippines ? I swore to myself I wouldn?t sign up. It was a promise I kept for months and months, even after one friend after another started joining Plurk.com. Plurk, a microblogging and social networking website that allows you to post short updates and links, had so many of my friends hooked.

Dancing bananas

But I still refused to sign up?even though they couldn?t stop talking about Plurk when I was around. There was so much talk about karma points and dancing bananas and I couldn?t relate at all.

I couldn?t lurk because all my friends had all set their timelines to private. And while I had friends who were nice enough to paste the most interesting posts on Plurk during YM conversations, it just wasn?t enough.

Still, I held my ground. I already had my hands full with my blogs, e-mails, Multiply, Flickr and Friendster (I wasn?t even on Facebook yet at that point.)

I wrote this in my Multiply blog in January: ?Everyone is on Plurk. And I?m still not there. It looks fun and I?m still not there. I quit 365, I quit my newest blog without anyone even knowing it was up and I?m still not there. People continue to send Plurk invites to my inboxes and I?m still not there. I can?t relate to things my friends are talking about and I?m still not there. I want to shower people with dancing bananas and I?m still not there. I don?t know if what I?m doing is sticking to my principle or just being stubborn.?

Plurk plunge

Soon after I posted that blog entry, I finally caved. I signed up as Turbochicken and took the big Plurk plunge.

I started to get into it, really into it. Plurk was the first thing I checked when I woke up in the morning, Plurk was the last thing I checked before going to bed at night. When I wasn?t in front of the computer, I was on Mobile Plurk, draining my phone credits by posting Plurks (from the boring ?Makati traffic sucks!? to the weird ?Turbochicken is carrying an electric fan home?) and reading other people?s posts. Every time something happened?if someone said something funny or if I saw a road accident?my instinct was to immediately Plurk about it. It got so bad that people started calling me by my Plurk name. Turbochicken is tasty, sure, but I still like my real name more.

Because I was posting regularly and people kept responding to my posts, my karma points continued to rise. Plurk deducts points when you are inactive, when people don?t reply to you and when people remove you from their friends? list. The higher your karma is, the more emoticons you are given access to. Higher karma allows you to modify your Plurk page more too.

Plurk had become the first page I open every time I go online?and that page stayed open all day.

Addiction

During the height of my Plurk addiction, some of my friends deleted their Plurk accounts only to come back. The thought of deleting my account didn?t even enter my mind then. I was having too much fun.

I refused to admit it but it soon started happening. My thoughts came in 140-character nuggets. Writing became a struggle. Plurk had become too big a distraction. I was constantly getting alerts to new posts and responses to my Plurks that it took me ages to finish a single article. I was also spending so much money on Mobile Plurk because I couldn?t stop checking it. I will never mention this again but yes, I was even taking Mobile Plurk to the bathroom.

I reached Plurk Nirvana about four months after I first signed up. It was also around that time that I realized I needed Plurk rehabilitation. Still, I continued Plurking nonstop. I even joined Twitter just to see what was going on there but soon realized I wouldn?t get addicted to it anytime soon?not when I have so many church people following me from around the world just because my last name was Pastor.

But after one weekend that made me realize that I was once again living so much of my life online, the very same reason that made me quit blogging for a time, I made the decision to quit Plurk.

That Sunday evening, in front of three people who were all Plurk addicts, I got ready to rid myself of my addiction. I signed in for the very last time, checked the ?I confirm that my account will be deleted and this action cannot be undone? box and clicked on the delete button.

Just like that, Turbochicken was gone.

Bye bye Plurk

The strangest thing is I don?t miss it at all.

Sure, there were some great things about Plurk. It made doing surveys for articles a breeze, being aware of everything that was going on?from my friends? lives to current affairs?was a snap and it was so easy to organize nights out.

I love all those things but I love my time and my privacy more.

I write articles so much quicker now. And I?ve been having all these beautiful, crazy and interesting moments without feeling the need to immediately start writing about them in 140-character sentences.

My partner in crime said to me the other day, ?Since you quit Plurk, you no longer spend so much time online.?

?Yeah, because there?s nothing to do. I check my e-mails, check Facebook, post my Flickr 365 and that?s it.?

I like that. I like that I?ve had more time to work, hang out with people (without Mobile Plurking the whole time) and that I?ve been doing more things offline.

And for now, when I feel the need to give people short updates about myself, I always have my Facebook status. But most of the time, I just tell the person sitting next to me.