I am a total Facebook addict - I totally admit it. I check the site many times throughout the day and use it to keep in touch with friends near and far. I love getting the latest pictures and videos of my baby niece who lives far away, and love hearing about the day to day lives of my friends. Okay, okay, and I also play A LOT of Bejeweled and Zuma Blitz. It's been great to get back in touch with some old high school friends, and a neat way to reconnect with some of my old students from my teaching days. All in all, I think Facebook has some wonderful uses.
Lately, however, I have been contemplating the negatives of Facebook. Besides the obvious time suck, I don't like how it messes with my head and turns me into a 15 year old idiot at times. You see, I'm one of those lame people who gets their feelings hurt on Facebook. Go ahead and make fun of me. I'm a little sad when I see my friends merrily facebooking with each other and not with me. I'm hurt when I post something personal and some of my good friends don't respond. And it's hard to see pics of events you weren't invited to.
After feeling this way for the past few months, I have finally decided that it's time to give myself a cyber slap in the face and "Snap out of it!!!!". For goodness sake, a 39 year old woman needs to grow up sometime. Letting my feeling get hurt because of Facebook is the ultimate in stupidity and lets technology have way too much of a hold on me. I love Facebook, but it's a bad thing when we try to infer too much emotion from what we type on our walls. I admit, too, that Facebook feeds our narcissism and makes us believe everything we have to say is of the utmost importance (ironic from a girl writing a blog, eh? Trust me, I see the irony.)
So I think it's high time to put Facebook in it's place. It's a great way to keep in contact with those far way, and a fun place to banter with friends nearby. But it's NOT a replacement for real friendship, and putting that kind of pressure on a web site is just plain dumb. Deeper friendships take place off the computer screen. So I'm going to keep Facebook in it's place, keep posting my daily minutia, and of course keep working on my Blitz scores. I'm just not going to take my cyber friends so personally anymore. My deeper connections occur at knitting nights, on my weekly runs with friends, on my phone conversations, and in other get togethers I have every single day. And I'll definitely keep blogging. I have found it a great way to work through issues that cloud my head on a day to day basis. Plus, who isn't a little bit narcissistic??? See you all on Facebook (or better yet, in person!).
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