For the past couple of years I've considered giving up facebook for Lent. But I always made excuses- one was that Lent was right before my wedding and I needed this social network to keep in touch with family, friends, the wedding party and I needed a way to vent at times. Another excuse was that I was pregnant. I wanted to update my loved ones on the excitement of pregnancy.This year I really have no excuses. I will admit that I am very much addicted to facebook so this will be a big sacrifice. Since I live in a town that is 25 miles from civilization, I use facebook to connect to the outside world. We have a very close-knit family with busy lives, so we use facebook as a way to connect. I love keeping in touch with my old high school and college buddies. I love how I can get to know my blogging friends a bit better. I use facebook to get advice. I enjoy reading people's statuses (most of the time) and sometimes people post very interesting articles or notes that I would not otherwise see. Facebook was a healing tool for me during my miscarriage. I hesitated posting the news that I had lost our baby, but I felt his life was worth celebrating and acknowledging and so I did. I got an outpouring of support and personal messages from other women (some who I barely knew) telling me of their own heartbreak. It was a huge help in knowing I wasn't alone.
Yes, giving up facebook will be hard, but in a tiny way I'm actually kind of excited. Imagine all the things I can get done without the temptation of looking at my friends' photos or playing just one more game of Wheel of Fortune! It's almost second nature for me- I need to clean up the kitchen, but I'm going to sit down for a second and check facebook "just for a second".... Well that second turns into 15 minutes of mindless facebook browsing and lost motivation to go clean.
Sometimes I look at my large list of "friends" and realize that there is only a small percentage that I actually communicate with. I know some people do massive facebook friend clear-outs and I have often thought about doing that as well. I have deleted some people, but they are usually people that never ever get online. But me being the very sensitive person I am doesn't want to delete a lot of people because sometimes my pride gets stung when I see that a "friend" has deleted me. I don't want to hurt any one's feelings. Besides, they might post an interesting article or video once in awhile, so I don't delete them, even though their statuses about getting crazy drunk all the time, and the self-portraits looking all hoochie-mama-ish annoy the crap out of me.
I have seen facebook used as a way to make fun of others and start drama. I have on more than one occasion been infuriated at a facebook status that was snarky and ambiguously aimed at me or one of my loved ones. I get so annoyed at immaturity and rudeness that people throw around on facebook. Just because you can't see the person you are hurting doesn't make it right to insult and abuse.
Facebook can annoy me because everyone thinks that they are a political or social justice genius. When election time rolls around I sometimes dread logging in to my facebook.
Do I need this time waster? This drama fueler? Yes. I love being able to be in contact with my loved ones. I enjoy the friendships I have made with people I have never even met. I love the sense of community when someone gets married, has a baby, or suffers a loss. Even Pope Benedict says that social networking can be a good tool if used wisely.
Hopefully this Lent will be a little more spiritually uplifting since I won't have the distraction of facebook. I will still be blogging, so I will still have updates on what's going on in our lives and cute Baby Joe pictures. I can't unplug completely!!!
What are you giving up for Lent?
8 comments:
Glad to know that you will still be blogging! :)
I used to spend waaay too much time on Fb, so I gave it up last year for Lent. It was hard, but once you get used to it, it gets easier and easier. Now, I go on maybe a few times a month, and I don't really miss it (this from someone who used to log on daily!).
This year, I am giving up chocolate. I am a serious chocoholic, so this is going to be a challenge. I have joked for years that someday when I am more spiritually mature, I would give it up for Lent, but I have felt a prompting to do it NOW, so...here I go! I think it will help make Easter that much sweeter. ;-)
I am going to give up Facebook for Lent too, as well as internet time which isn't work-related. This will be a BIG test for me!!
I giving up fiction; my time for reading is limited and so will focus it on growing spiritually.
Gave up FB games last year and pretty much never went back.
Oh, I hate the political status updates, too.
What I did when I couldn't bear to delete any friends was to create a separate "limited profile" "list" of friends. Most of my friends are on it, with the basic exception of people I still keep in touch with. (Somehow bloggers are usually on the full access list, because I feel like I know them so well!) It took a bit to go through and create the list, but I'm so glad I did - I feel like I have more privacy on there now. People on the limited list can only basically see my info - not my wall or photos or updates. Also, this way I can still see whatever they post... although I often choose to have them not show up on my wall - so I'm not really sure why I even am still technically FB friends, except as you said I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings by unfriending them!
Anyway, that's what I did and it works well for me! I too am glad you'll still be blogging!
That's one of the things I am doing, too! But I'm not going to be giving up blogging this time~!
No Facebook for me either- and at least 10 FB friends are taking a break as well!
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