Taking a Break from Facebook

Part of my goals for 2014 is to take a break from Facebook.  I wasn’t about to go completely crazy and delete my account but I did delete the app from my phone and I’m just not logging onto it on my  computer.  I’m telling myself I’m just going to start with the month of January as an experiment and go from there.  So far I’ve made it through Day One.

Here are a few reasons why I want to go through with this:

• I truly don’t care where people are standing at 2:13pm on Wednesday.  I don’t care what they had for lunch or what the weather is doing on their morning commute.  It feels like I’m reading static encrusted with ads.  I want to know what it is like without that static that really does nothing to make my day better.
• I’m that person who posts where I’m standing, what I’m eating and the weather on my commute.  Again with removing the static.  If I don’t want it in my world right now then why put it out there?  Also, I’m sure I could find something better to do with those minutes in the day that add up quickly.
• There is so much negativity and drama on Facebook.  From the political bashing, to work bashing and the indirect bashing of other Facebook users, I would just like to remove that negativity.  Once again, I question, what am I getting out of any of this by reading it in my day-to-day life?
• Facebook is a great place for announcing happy life news to the world.  Engagements, weddings, new homes and pregnancies.  Unfortunately when I read 125 of them a day a simple baby announcement just feels like any other.  There is no more punch and excitement.  I hit “like” and move on.  That isn’t fair nor does it feel like that is how it should be celebrated.  Perhaps I will go back to celebrating the happy news the way it is meant to be, with a Hallmark card and a really expensive stamp.
• Facebook has become a place to out-do one another to be the best Mom, the best wife, the best cook, the most organic, the most fit and so on.  That has a way of making you feel like you are doing something wrong in your own life and I felt like I was comparing when I didn’t need to.  Sure, someone can constantly post about teaching their kids 3 languages while only making meals with whatever came from their garden as they wipe their ass with organic leaves and all this means they are saving a near extinct purple panda BUT it doesn’t mean I have to do the same.  Some days I’m just happy I didn’t tuck my skirt into my underwear.
• I’m tired of my friendships being based on Facebook.  I have friends that question why I didn’t “like” something or comment on a specific status.  God forbid I don’t throw up an LOL on the 20th picture of their baby trying mashed up green beans.  I don’t want to be penalized for not doing Facebook right or fairly enough amongst friends, tagging, commenting, etc.
• I mentioned static before earlier and I believe that is what makes me the most crazy these days.  The ads for the product that I just looked at on Wayfair.  Requests for games to play by people who I didn’t know I ever accepted a friend request from. 439 pictures of that fucking elf sitting on a shelf.  Facebook friend suggestions that include my ex-husbands new wife or my ex-boyfriend from 8th grade.  Event reminders, birthday reminders, reminders, reminders, reminders.  Cousin’s day, brother’s day, 2nd cousin twice removed day.  The pins people have posted to Pinterest that I can see just fine when actually signed on to Pinterest.   I have to dig through all of that just to find out my Great Aunt is having a colonoscopy today and the girl I sat next to in High School algebra is 5cm dilated.

There are also a ton of reasons I love Facebook.  I love social media.  I just feel like I need to make a change with how I have it integrated in my life.  Instead of looking down at my phone as I move through the day I want to look up and breathe in more deeply the moments happening around me because that is truly where life is happening.