Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

Well, it's official. I'm going through a break-up. With Facebook, that is. You didn't get worried about me and Travis, did you?

I'm learning that whether the break-up is with a boyfriend, a friend, or a stupid social networking website that takes forever to upload my photos and frequently shares my email address with evil spam minions, breaking up is STILL hard to do! How is that possible?? How is it that I had a tiny moment of panic when I decided that I was actually going to sign-off...for good? It just goes to show that I had an unnatural, ridiculous dependency on Facebook!

It's been a thought in my head for a while now, that people are relying on the Internet and these social networking sites to relay their prized information to family and friends rather than writing them letters or calling them with news. I got my feelings hurt earlier in the year when someone I thought was a good friend announced huge life-changing news on Facebook and never sent me so much as a text message. It was then that I decided if I was going to go around preaching that Facebook is a friendship-eating machine, I needed to walk the walk.

But I didn't have the courage to take the first step until last night.

I was afraid to fall off the grid! I feel silly just typing such a thing, but it's true. All just another sign that I needed to get off the site.

I had a break through yesterday evening when I realized that creepily peering into my "friends" lives through Facebook was NOT the same as calling them up and asking them about their lives, or even writing them a personal email to check in. Instead of connecting us, Facebook allows us to become anonymous voyeurs into the lives of others. When I thought of it that way, I felt like a creeper. And I knew I needed to stop. Also, for the sake of myself, I needed to get offline and quit wallowing every time my feelings were hurt from finding out someone was engaged or expecting a baby online.

So, here we are. I plan on keeping this blog updated much more regularly now, just to keep friends and family living far away up and current on the basic goings-on of our lives. But for the personal stuff, the big stuff, the exciting and sad stuff, I'd like to practice actually REACHING OUT to my friends and family and connecting to them one on one again. I don't want to dump huge personal news out into the superhighway anymore for anyone to read. It hurt my feelings when I became just a reader on Facebook and was no longer a real friend who got an actual call. So I don't want to do that to anyone else out there.

I'm don't judge anyone who still uses Facebook or Myspace or Twitter or whatever else is out there. This is a personal decision I've made in my own life, so please don't take offense at it. I look forward to reconnecting with you all, one at a time.

God bless,
Kat

5 comments:

SYeates said...

I wish more of the world would follow your example. There is a special magic about being face to face that you can't get with the internet. That "need" to edit everything said to one person, lest you accidentally offend someone else who might be reading takes the honesty out of things, and lets face it, after a night of sitting in Jerry's driveway, sharing memories of Dixie and jokes with Andrew, Jerry and Jerry's daughter, I realize who truly blessed everyone on 13th street is.
That said, check out nolanfrederick.com for pictures of Thomas at camp.

SYeates said...

OOOPS.
http://nolanfrederick.blogspot.com/

CimA said...

Yea! I'm so glad you shut yours down also. I haven't officially shut it down yet...still trying to get all my pictures off.

Can we see more pictures of your sweet baby boy?!

Kathleen said...

Cim, I tried getting onto yours to respond to your comment, but I'm not allowed yet :( Lol

I figured you just hadn't gotten to it with your hands full of toddlers and babies now!

I'm going to post pictures of him as soon as I get my camera charged. It's so goofy, it has to be fully charged to do ANYTHING with it! Even uploading pictures...I guess I expect it to be like an iPod, working whenever it's plugged in.

I spent HOURS the other night getting my pictures off FB before I called it quits. Glad we're in the club now! It's a better way to live.

Jessica Crawford said...

I still haven't taken this leap yet so I'm proud of you for doing so! I've had the darn thing for almost 6 years now so breaking up is definitely hard to do!! :) Looking forward to keeping up with you here though!