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
