Yet another list of reasons to quit Facebook, another person pointing out just how shallow human interaction is on that sight popped up in my newsfeed just now.
In the past I've always thought, yeah that's great for them, but it really is such a simple way to keep up with family and friends and when you live 1,000 miles from your nearest family member - easy upkeep is important.
So I thought.
But tonight the sinking suspicion that Facebook is actually harming the way I function as a human being morphed into something just a touch beyond suspicion.
The people I'm most concerned with on Facebook are my mother, my grandmother and a couple of my friends. For the most part my facebook experience consists of a shit ton of videos and links to "cool shit" and "inspirational ideas." And while those things are fun and can be great - they're not actually helping me get anything accomplished.
Like at all.
Ever.
And while it's so nice to know that people appreciate the photos of my children and status updates of their witticisms on occasion - I find myself regularly posting a slew of political links and getting enraged about issues and then doing nothing at all about said issues - except posting and getting pissed off.
And it's ridiculous and quite frankly, embarrassing.
Like -ooooohhhh look at me, look at what I believe. Look at how well-written this argument is for
x don't you wish you could state your counter argument as eloquently as this person??? And I'll admit - I even knowingly
troll some people. How immature can you get? I know this person is a fundamentally different human being and I pretend like there is no feasible way that I could even begin to understand where this person is coming from on any number of issues (even tho I
know that
ze is coming from an upbringing shrouded in religious dogma and social intolerance and there is no way we are ever, ever, ever going to see eye-to-eye).
So, tonight with that humiliating confession, I'm changing the way I use The Social Network.
I've already got instagram and pinterest. Those two things are amazing and time consuming enough. I really don't need the added drama of Facebook, constantly scrolling through to see who's doing what with whom and how (or more likely who's posted what link about the government's plot to take over our lives, the disintegration of women's rights, and/or failings of the public school system).
It's not like I enjoy being up on people's drama. In fact probably half of my friends are blocked from my newsfeed because I was sick of their bullshit but didn't want to go through the hassle of "why'd you defriend me bro?" What's that say about the state of my affairs when I'm blocking half the content of a site yet still hitting said site up every day... multiple times a day.
I have A.D.D. and things like Facebook and Pinterest can really turn into a time suck for me as I hyper focus on my screen, ignoring things like whining children and household chores for hours on end (maybe that's an exaggeration.... eventually I will snap out of it and likely scream at my children for being so damn whiny when in all actuality, I've been a pretty shitty mom for the past
x amount of time that I was just blocking them out).
My point being - Facebook, as it is simply isn't a healthy tool for me.
But it is a very cool scrapbook of sorts of my past 8 or so years.
And my
family does enjoy getting to see instant pictures of my children.
And it's not likely that any of them will join instagram with any regularity anyway.
So, for my sanity I'm going on one of those new faddish Social Network Diets.
I'm not going to log in to Facebook for the next two weeks. I've got a cool homeschool group I interact with on there so I've marked their upcoming social gatherings on my paper calendar and will see those real, actual human beings on those days.
But for the rest of it, I'll likely just Instagram it up. Maybe post a bit more on Ye Olde Blog here. The awesome thing is, I can take this Social Network Diet and still share photos with my family simply by hitting "share on Facebook" when I Instagram.
Easy Peasy. No hours spent watching videos, following the rabbit hole of HuffPost links or whatever it is I find myself doing, reading about people I don't really care about that much.
Sure it's not a total media blackout - I enjoy Instagram and my followings are minimal so there's not a ton of scrolling to do there. And I've been getting better about hanging out on Pinterest the past few weeks but I'll probably hit it up with my morning coffee for garden and homeschool inspiration.
The facts are these: A.D.D. chronic depression, and the
rat lever, blackhole that is Facebook (and Pinterest and to an extent even Instagram) just DO NOT mix.
I feel shitty when I sit at my computer all day, clicking the bookmarks at the top of my browser, switching between Pinterest, facebook and yahoo. It's a shitty feeling and I'm tired of it. Just like I got tired of sitting around binge watching netflix a couple of years ago.
So, I'm going to get outside more. Engage in my
100 Happy Days on Instagram (more on that later in the week, I promise) and get shit done.