Monday, January 23, 2012

Uneventful

Midway through my week off of facebook I had to 86 it and log-on to be in better touch with family.  Even though I only made it almost 5 days with no facebook I still learned a lot.  And by a lot, I mean a LOT.  I'm still undecided as to my usage of it at this point.  It will still be part of my life, but will it be daily, weekly?  I'm not sure.

I took a peek at it today, after another 2 or 3 days of easily surviving without it, and I thought to myself "why do I have so many friends on here?"  Today I read about 3 status updates that where whiny and complainy about random things and at times I find them funny, or agree with them, but today it just annoyed me.  Like, why do I care if you're the healthiest food eater on the planet?  You just completely trash talked foods that I love and now I feel like a horrible fatty for no reason. Why did I just willingly subject myself to this by reading the praised and aclaims your other "friends" wrote? I mean, you haven't talked to me in real life in probably over a year!  And, and why am I looking at pictures of this couples wedding?  I'm not even friends with them but they know a person I know and then all of the sudden I've just looked through about 50 pictures of complete strangers before asking myself "how did I get here?"

Facebook is a strange entity.  I now realize that I have a love/hate relationship with it.  I love it for communication but I hate it for the same exact thing.  Ironic.

At the end of the day, however, I have learned that it is like so many other things and I can live without it.  If the time came that I had to shut it down forever, my life would go on.  I think testing things in our lives; whether facebook, Internet, Television - you name it, I think it's important.  If I become too reliant on things of that nature it's good to have a wake-up call that there IS life outside of these things.  There are books, friends, birds, squirrels, sun and snow to hear, feel, touch and see.  Although don't touch a squirrel, unless you know it; it could be dangerous.  Just sayin'.

At the end of the day, no one missed the crap out of me while I wasn't posting witty status updates.  And after a day of re-conditioning myself NOT to involuntarily grab for my phone to post something, I found myself seeking out physical human life forms.  Meaning: I become un-self-focused and contacted people personally - even if it was just by text.  Sometimes we substitute "likes" for actual conversations.  How sad is that?

This social experiment was interesting.  It showed me a lot of things and I think I'm better for having done it!

2 comments:

Lily Cate said...

TVs been gone for a year and a half. I don't miss it. Look how much writing I've gotten done!

As for FB, about once a year it's useful - like last week - otherwise I go on there so little, it sends me obnoxious emails reminding me that it's still there.
But I'm kind of a hermit. We like our solitude.

Avo said...

Facebook? What is this thing you call face book? : p
Sounds like a head hunter's portfolio!
Just stumbled onto this: http://weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/types-of-facebookers.jpg
Thought you might be amused. : j