I had deactivated my Facebook two years ago, as a "social" experiment I decided to try it out again. In the last two years, being completely invisible from all social media or any internet searches, I wanted to give it another try. I wanted to assess myself.. was I more distracted now since reentering the FB world, did I prioritize messages over human experience, did I become obsessive once again? Many more questions, But I think you understand my point. What I learned is that yes, I spent a lot of time on Facebook. Mostly catching up with people I haven't talked to in 2-5 years. I thought these interactions were great, everyone was nice, curious as to where I disappeared to, what I've been up to, asking a lot of questions back and forth. After the excitement wore off, I heard nothing from these "once again reunited" friends, I was now quietly liking posts and giving quick responses on links and posts, such as "Nice, I bet you had fun!" and getting a heartfelt "like" in return. It is a very lonely experience, although I'm keeping a positive view. I feel strange knowing so much about someone. If you share it I could know your religion, political views, all your interests, where you are when you "check in", a video you "liked" but didn't share, I know what your kid looks like and what you had for dinner, and how much "fun" you said you had on vacation.... (the kid comment sounds stalkerish, but it's absolutely true!!)
I think what I'm learning, because it wasn't clear to me before, is that you are advertising yourself. You are calling the shots what you want people to know about you, about who you are. Now what I've known and learned I value during those two years (of no social media) is exactly what I portray on Facebook. I'm a bug, mushroom, rock collecting, abandoned squirrel rehabbing hippie who likes and follows pages displaying high resolution photos of spiders and hiking trails. My 50 "friends" probably think I've gone off the deep end now. However, since rejoining the social universe I've been more engaged in my hobbies, I've been actively researching my interests deeper because I have another search outlet. My goal for all this is I am attempting to use Facebook as a tool at my disposal rather than falling a victim of it. I can identify my weaknesses easier now and stop them before I'm unable to recognize them again.
I joined Facebook again in December 2016, I'll see how it plays out. Thank you for taking the time to read this post.
Submitted March 16, 2017 at 05:20PM by coffeemason http://ift.tt/2nKgixk
