I feel liberated. And free. I deleted my Facebook account. For those of you who use the social media network, you know how hard this can be. Panic sets in. How will I keep track of my friends & family, how will I share all the great stuff my family does, how will I know the latest gossip, who will I rant to when something is on my mind, who will give me my sense of approval in this world?
Overreacting? Of course. But your mind starts to go a bit crazy once you remove that lifeline from your world. I have been a user of Facebook since 2008. Every single moment of my life has been documented on that network. No lie. But truth be told, I'm sick of it. It makes me sad that my only communication to my dearest friends, some that I have known my entire life, only happen through status likes, photo comments & wall posts. I miss them. I miss meeting up for lunch just to catch up. I miss talking on the phone until it goes dead just to hear in detail how their date went. Why bother when you can see what everyone has been up to with just a few clicks of a mouse? I miss being a dedicated employee, who doesn't have to sneak onto the internet every 10 minutes to make sure nothing major has been missed. I miss being an attentive mother that doesn't feel the pressure to take constant pictures and upload them immediately. I miss enjoying those moments with my children instead of becoming their personal paparazzi.
What I won't miss is the constant comparisons to the lives of everyone on my list. No matter how happy and content you are with your own life, you cannot help but become a little jealous of the new mommy who doesn't have to worry about ten pages of homework due the next morning, the newly married couple who is so overcome with new love butterflies that they have no idea that in a few years their date nights will consist of a twenty minute grocery run to Giant Eagle, or the friend that just got a promotion and a hefty pay increase while you are doing the work of ten coworkers & count yourself lucky to get a "Thank you". Don't get me wrong, I am extremely happy for all of the blessings in my life as well as the blessings of people that I know. I genuinely mean it when I congratulate them and am actually smiling when I put that colon, right parentheses. And 99% of the time, when I write "LOL", I actually giggle to myself. The problem is, I catch myself starting to devalue all that God has given me when I see someone else bragging about their blessing. Why? I'm assuming it's human nature but it doesn't do me any good even if it is. I have no reason to complain or compare in my life. I have everything I need or could want. I feel as though I am doing my family a grave injustice to continue putting these high expectations on them to be cute enough, funny enough, romantic enough to warrant a Facebook status update. I just want to live my life. I want to enjoy and relish in every single second. To make that happen, I must get rid of the distractions. So, see you later Facebook, or not. This is my Facebook free month. I will not, under any circumstances, reactivate that account. The question is, will that be the first thing I do on May 1st? I sincerely hope not. I've been free of Facebook since Saturday and have already got my butt out of the house to visit with one of my best friends, her family & her new little bundle of joy. And I didn't feel one ounce of resentment, just pure joy. You can't smell that new baby smell over the world wide web. That alone is priceless and has only reinforced my decision to steer clear of the site. At this rate, maybe by May, this family of mine will be completely "unplugged". (;
-A
I probably SHOULD unplug on facebook, since it irritates me so much. But I have lots of family that live far away, so it's an easy way to keep them up to date on photos and stuff. Instead, I have hidden about 60% of my "friends" so I can't see their stuff & get annoyed.
ReplyDeleteAlso - captcha is like a test that I fail at least half the time.
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