I’m taking a break from Facebook for a while. Which means I only log in 5 to 7 times a day, read 6 to 8 posts, check to see if anyone has had a baby recently, and then monitor the various fan pages I maintain. See…a break.
I was already thinking about giving it up for Lent. The constant curation of one’s profile can become draining. Plus, I am more and more concerned about privacy issues with Facebook. I actually deleted my original account in December and started fresh with a new one, re-friending everyone. (How I did that will be covered in another post…DUM DUM Law & Order sound.)
But the actual reason: I forgot how much I really hate Facebook during election years. Now, while the actual World’s Largest Cocktail Party is a far, far more important topic, I tend to use that concept when thinking about Facebook. You know, we all drop in, we’re mingling, making polite conversation or perhaps retiring to a table in the corner to talk about Deep and Meaningful Topics with a few friends. Instead, Election Year Facebook is more of an incredibly awkward Thanksgiving table, except with more shouting. My News Feed reads more and more like this:
EXTREMELY STRONG OPINION
EXTREMELY STRONG OPPOSITE OPINION
EXTREMELY STRONG CALL FOR PEOPLE TO STOP HAVING OPINIONS ON FACEBOOK
EXTREMELY CUTE PHOTO OF PUPPIES
EXTREMELY STRONG OPINION FOLLOWED BY 57 COMMENTS IN AGREEMENT AND ONE POOR SOUL LABORING AWAY TO RESPOND
EXTREMELY SUCCESSFUL MOVE IN WORDS WITH FRIENDS
I, too, have extremely strong opinions. In fact, my opinions are like the Chuck Norris of opinions. My opinions can beat the sun in a staring contest. My opinions can kill two stones with one bird. My opinions can slam a revolving door.
My opinions are so strong that I myself struggle to restrain them within the confines of Facebook.
So, there are options. I could get into extended discussions in the comments of various people’s status updates. That is an option. When I take that option, I feel my entire reserves of emotional energy drained like that Doctor Who episode where the TV ate people. (That was creepy, right?)
Or I could click “hide.” I’d like to see the metrics on the use of the “hide” button during an election year. I would buy stock in the “hide” button among Facebook users in the USA this year, I tell you what.
But somehow that seems more depressing.
I’m therefore going to attempt to live as I did until 2008, without checking in several times a day to find news from hundreds of people I’ve met throughout the course of my lifetime. It seemed so easy back in the day.
I’ve also decided, after watching three situation comedies last night in which a threesome figured as a plot device, to really cut back on my TV viewing.
I don’t want to retreat from the culture. But I think I need to reevaluate how I interact with it.
There has never been a more important time for personal holiness. They say that all politics is local – I wonder if all sanctity is local. I also wonder if my attempts to win the argument in 100 words or less are doing much for my personal holiness. Well, scratch that – I don’t wonder. Maybe there are people who can engage in conversations online and then turn them off once they unplug, but for me, I’m walking around in a permanent state of Someone Is Wrong on the Internet, and it is of no spiritual benefit to anyone, even when I shout over to Jesus, “I OFFER THIS UP TO YOU, THIS CRUMMY LOW-GRADE FRUSTRATION! THAT’S ALL I GOT!”
Simcha’s piece – Fight Globally, Be At Peace Locally – says all of this better. Also, I can provide you with an extended list of Ways I Do Not Display Personal Holiness, if you were wondering about that. Number 71: Still use curse words, even though I finished watching “The Wire” three years ago and can no longer plausibly argue I’m a product of my home environment. Also: sanctimonious.
I have this problem a lot, and not just with election years! I feel the temptation to make my opinion known on almost everything that goes across Facebook…its like a constant temptation to my strong vice of always stating my opinion no matter what. I’m feeling the need for some Facebook down time this Lent too…maybe checking it once a day? Ok, lets be realistic, twice a day. Haha, good post!
Christy recently posted..Death Comes to Pemberley by PD James
Thanks, Christy! And thanks for commenting, as this post sat unacknowledged for several hours and I was starting to question the wisdom of my “Goodbye, Cruel World!” approach to Facebook.
I didn’t have a chance to acknowledge it last night, but I read it, and loved it, and agreed.
BettyDuffy recently posted..Conscience clauses, birth control, and the "multiplication of the unfit"– (Sanger).
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Brandon Kraft recently posted..Heart or Wallet?
Thank you for posting this, Dorian. I do not do Facebook, mostly because of privacy concerns, but partly also because I don’t need one more internet thing to get addicted to. But you gave me a laugh, and an opportunity to remind my son of a point I tried to make (much less effectively) yesterday.
Early in our marriage, my husband pointed out that I was opinionated. I indignantly sputtered, “But being opinionated is bad!” The only thing that saves me on facebook is sheer laziness- I rarely feel like typing out responses
Geomama recently posted..Vintage Finds
This post is timely, to say the least. I spent most of yesterday alternating between the lowgrade frustration that you so eloquently describe and out-and-out despair for humanity – all as a result of reading one of those debates in somebody else’s status comments.
In most years lately I’ve given up some aspect of my relation to the internet (years ago it was ebay, another year it was leaving blog comments, twitter has been in there too) but I’m beginning to wonder if it’s a greater penance to stay on facebook and twitter for this election-year Lent!
anon recently posted..Candlemas
I don’t see any “edit” function, so I’m commenting on my comment to say: that “anon” is me – no idea what happened there!
nancyo recently posted..Candlemas
Uh oh. I’m afraid if I tell you this you will become…well..afraid. In the real sense of the word. But here goes: You have just earned yourself a new internet stalker.
My only regret is that I haven’t been stalking you for longer….
dweej {House Unseen} recently posted.."You can’t do this" and other lies
Hey, that’s cool. Stalkers are people, too. Plus, the feeling is mutual. WAIT WAS THAT CREEPY
Dorian Speed recently posted..Kairos, Chronos, and Smhzmshzhsmhhzzsh…