Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Goodbye, Facebook

Simultaneously, I am both addicted to Facebook, and I can't stand Facebook. Truly. It is my only contact with pop culture since I don't watch television. It is the easy, lazy way to get the news when you don't have time or inclination to comb internet news sources or read a real, live newspaper. So many great, thought-provoking articles and blog posts come through from people I admire and respect. I can watch the children of dear friends and family members grow up from across the miles. Truly, in many ways, it's wonderful. 

In many other ways, however, it is maddening and infuriating. 

Having already whittled my "friends" list down in a mad, moody moment from 800-something to 100-something, I am still considering deactivating my account. 

I really hate it even as I love it. The fact is, sometimes it stilts true relationship. It can make people mean. It can cause people to speak and behave in ways they never would in person. It can make me draw assumptions and form (sometimes unfair but always ungracious) judgements about people based on the stuff they post. It keeps me "involved with" and "worried about" far too many people I never see and no longer have actual contact with. It can cause or exacerbate relationship problems. It can cause hurt feelings. It can cause unhelpful comparisons with the self-presentations of others that are just that: carefully crafted self-presentations. 

So, anyway, I'm in a mood and tired of it all and have too much I should be doing in real life to be wasting so much time in virtual land. Goodbye, Facebook... at least for a while. It isn't you. Truly. It's me. Perhaps one day I'll grow up enough to use you responsibly. In the meantime, a week off couldn't hurt!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is so true...but in the end, I'm glad you are back and hope you stay! I stay on fb to see friends pics as life has each of us going in too many crazy directions that it is so hard to see everyone that I would love to see more often...fb keeps me in the loop. I too get annoyed and frustrated by the political posts...rants...and just try to scroll right by them-in the end, I focus on the lovely pics of family, friends and enjoy hearing about what is going in their lives-thanks for keeping me!! :)