Last year, I wrote a deeply profound and popular blog post about the differences between Facebook and Twitter. It was riddled with raunchy language, smothered with sarcasm and voluptuous with venting about the annoying people that we all encounter on Facebook on a daily basis.
Doesn’t it sound wonderful? Aren’t you eager to get your retinas on it? Of course you are. You can click here to do just that.
I’ve recently decided to write more “family-friendly” posts that aren’t riddled with raunchy language, and only scattered with sarcasm and devoid (not completely) of venting, but I still have something to say about social media. You can put your retinas on my “new” writing voice by continuing with this blog post.
I deactivate my personal Facebook account every 3-4 months. My friends always know it’s coming. They always say something along the lines of “Are you leaving again?” “Talk to you in a few months.” “Why do you deactivate your Facebook account every 3-4 months, Susannah? It’s really ridiculous.”
But it’s not ridiculous. And I’ll tell you why I must, for the sake of my own sanity, unplug from the Book O’ Face- and why you should, too.
I have an extremely addictive personality. Thank the Lord that I’ve never come in contact with hard-core drugs or Pinterest. If I had, I’m sure I would be honing my crafting skills in the rec room at the Shady Ladies State Penitentiary. The point is- once I find something that I really enjoy, I become absolutely consumed by it. Consumed.
Facebook is no different. I find myself reaching for my phone when a red light is running a little too long. When I’m sitting in the carpool line waiting for my children to get out of school. While I’m lying wide-awake in the bed trying to drown out the sound of my husband’s whistling nose hairs as he sleeps peacefully. I reach for that phone for a “Facebook fix.” I just have to know what so and so thinks about the weather. What cat meme so and so shared. What so and so’s toddler just said while sitting on the potty. I don’t really care, but somehow, I have to know.
If you read last year’s raunchy post about the people that annoy me on Facebook, well, they still annoy me. The recipe posts. The photos of dinner- Salisbury steak that looks inedible. The photos of celebrity’s haircuts that they wish they could wear as well. All of that annoys me, but I’m addicted to Facebook. I don’t want to read those things, but it doesn’t keep me from checking my phone every 12.3 minutes to see “what’s new.”
Every time I scroll through my news feed, I make a deposit into my brain. We all do. Sometimes it’s a swell deposit- a praise report from a good friend, an encouraging word, a tagged photo of me on Throwback Thursday that reminds me of my young and carefree days as a thin, tan fun-loving gal.
Sometimes it is a horrible deposit- a ridiculous rant about our local elementary school, a showcase of someone’s dysfunctional drama, that Salisbury steak photo, a tagged photo of me on Throwback Thursday that reminds me of my young and carefree days as a thin, tan idiot.
After a few months, I can no longer take the bad deposits. They pile up and fester into my brain, and before I know it, I’m lying in bed at night, listening to my husband’s nose hairs as he sleeps peacefully, and I find myself thinking about those negative deposits. It’s 3 am. I should not be thinking about how my high school nemesis had her sister-in-law arrested for spray painting graffiti on her Ford Taurus. I shouldn’t be thinking about that. Ever.
So I delete those “friends” or I hide them from my newsfeed. And yet, ridiculousness still manages to creep into my feed- into my life, into my mind.
So, I unplug. I deactivate my profile and receive immediate peace of mind. What I don’t know won’t hurt me- and so many things float around on Facebook that I shouldn’t know.
I understand that Facebook helps many people stay in touch with friends and family. I understand that we use Facebook to stay updated with school, work and extracurricular activities. I use it for the same reasons, but the negative, braggy, showy, fickle updates completely ruin my experience, my day, my mind. What we read and what we’re exposed to on a day-to-day basis will consume our thoughts- and I need my thoughts to be consumed by things that really matter.
I also unplug to spend more time with my children. Those extra minutes at that red light could be spent talking to them about where we think the freight truck beside us is going. While waiting for the water to boil, I could use that time to color with my kids instead of discovering that someone I barely know is at Auto Zone getting new windshield wiper blades.
I see these people on Facebook- tagging their every move, sharing every blurry photo of their Christmas tree, commenting on every irrelevant Willy Wonka meme, revealing their every burp, poot, emotion, teardrop, smiley face and emptying of their bladder- and I realize that their updates exhaust me. I can only imagine that they exhaust themselves.
I unplugged from the Book for the entire summer. And I learned a very valuable lesson.
I learned that I don’t HAVE to share photos of my daughter doing a cannonball off the diving board. I don’t have to share that photo of my naked toddler covered in chocolate icing. Those moments don’t have to be shared with anyone online. We can savor those moments as our own. Our own private memories.
And I think that’s the entire point. Sharing is good. Sharing is caring- especially when sharing my blog posts. But we don’t have to share EVERY aspect of our lives with Facebook. We can keep those memories, those photos, those funny moments all to ourselves.
Because no one else really cares, anyway.
I urge you to join me and unplug from Facebook for a few months. The clarity of mind, the free time and the lack of negative deposits will definitely be worth it.
