Quitting Facebook

If you're like every person on earth and half of the people on Mars, it is very likely that you have your own personal facebook account.  I had facebook when it was only open to college people as a way to keep in touch with my excessively much younger sister.  I really don't know how I got into it, but anyway, I snuck in.  I had like 13 friends and they were all my ex-students.  It was interesting.

Then after many years, people my own age started joining and I was so delighted.  Then a couple years later, my parents were sending me friend invitations.  This was strange, especially since my mother can't upload photos to a computer and calls the internet "the blue E thingy".

I was very glad to catch up with friends I haven't seen since high school and college.  I was thankful to be able to peek in on the lives of people who I've known over the course of my life, see their children, and watch how they turned out and what they're into now.

It was a great tool for my current students to ask questions and a fabulous way for me to get the fantastic single females of my life to meet the fantastic single men (of which I know like 4 and 3 are my brothers-in-law).

But then I found myself choosing to use facebook and preferring its convienence over untimely actual human interaction.  I thought that was kind of lame of me, if I actually thought about it.  Not to mention all the things I wasn't getting done because I was busy reading status updates and spying on people.  When I put it that way, it sounded even lamer.  And highly unproductive.  Oh I hate unproductive.

So I took a sabbatical.  I made bread and cleaned my house instead.  I read books.  I studied Finnish and Latin.  And dude, it was a lot better.

But I missed the people I only get to see on facebook.  So I went back.  Some people I only really talk to on facebook, not because I don't love them, but just because time and distance and situations make it so we just don't talk anymore because we don't share a life together in the everyday mix.

I thought about this a lot.  People are important.  Relationships make up the good colorful fabric of life.  So would I be missing out on their important news?  That isn't cool.  After a long time of thinking about it and wanting to be real, productive and responsible, I decided I really ought to jump ship and quit.

But I couldn't do it since I was totally addicted.

So I thought about that too.  I'm seriously addicted to something?  That is sick.  And wrong.  And mental.  And unhealthy.  Something is controlling me instead of me being in control of it.  It's like a hoarder in their filth, they just gotta have it around, even though they know it's healthier without it.  I'm a sicko, just like a hoarder!  AAAAAHHHH!!!

Well, I hung on anyway, trying to find some good reasons to have it but to just keep it to a minimum.

And then it happened.  

My motivation came, full force and shoved me over the edge.  It arrived in the form of "timeline".

Timeline took hours of my life to load.  I do not have cable speed internet.  My internet is half of a step up from dial-up.  Timeline was the nail in the coffin.

I no longer needed to wonder whether or not I should dump it.  It was clear and fabulous and I was free, FREE, FREEEEE!

The hour I was forced into timeline was the hour I quit facebook for good.  That was the summer and I haven't looked back since.  I only have very short twinges of regret when I miss people.  But overall it's much better.  Can you remember life before facebook?  It's kind of nice.  You might like it.

And if you're one of those people, I miss you!  But you should totally quit, too.  We can communicate the old-fashioned way - texting.  Just like back in the day, eh?

Peace, love and footloose and facebook-free!
Ms. Daisy

p.s. Pardon my lack of capitalization of facebook.  I debate whether or not I should capitalize it.  I know it's a proper noun, so tradition tells me I ought to.  But then the logo is lowercase, so are you staying more true to it by keeping it without a cap?  It's a quandry that I don't know yet where I ought to stand.  Please don't think me an ignorant moose, thinking I know nothing about proper nouns and capitalization, it was a purposeful elimination because I erred on the side of keeping it true to its logo.  Ah, eck.