In some ways, Facebook has been good to me. My first date with Kevin was facilitated with Facebook chat and our friendship blossomed during his study abroad via Facebook messages (which felt less intrusive than email, somehow). It's been nice to have it as another outlet for people to get to know me -- I've heard a few times that people didn't realize I had a sense of humor until they became Facebook friends with me. And it's nice for crowdsourcing, especially punny crowdsourcing.
But a few weeks ago, I realized that Facebook was no longer doing its job for me. It was hiding my posts from close friends. It was hiding their posts from me. It had become primarily a mess of virtue signaling (guilty), giveaways (not too guilty), and systems of equations where the answer is always 15, unless they change the time on the clock or the number of French fries. Even if there were things of value on the feed, I was usually checking Facebook at times that made it hard to read the meatier material, so I didn't benefit from those articles either.
When President Nelson recommended a 7 day social media fast, I tried it, and what made it easiest was being able to assume that all of my friends were doing it too. I would check notifications to see if anything posted on the ward page, but besides that I didn't care to check more. It was great.
I still see enough current value in Facebook to keep my account open, but except for huge life changes, I don't plan to post anymore on my page. I have a blog that I've kept for 8 years that I will use instead any time I want to make a Facebook status. If you want to check it, great! If not, that's great too -- we all have our own lives to live!
No comments:
Post a Comment