Leave Facebook?

Facebook logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Social media.  It has become a way to see your friends in between commercials. I can not say it is any better than TV, but cannot determine it is any worse.  As with all tools there is a right way to use it and a wrong way to use it. That is unless you are doing the wrong thing, then any tool is going to be wrong.

I never believed in ditching tools.  They have come in handy for many reasons. Facebook is one social media tool I am quite familiar with.  While friends had problems with drama on Facebook I sailed by wondering what the problem was that so many people were having.  I felt I mastered Facebook.  What I mastered, however, was not being noticed.

My Facebook post were incredibly PC.  I was only sharing the top 1% of the very top politically correct post.  Rarely having any discussions or arguments because I never shared who I was underneath. I never shared my pains, frustrations, and insecurities.  These are the first places ill minded people and family like to kick you when your down. I did exactly what everybody else on my Facebook list was doing.  They were all becoming better people over the years, or was it just their profiles?

I used Facebook without much thought for years.  10 years to be more accurate. I would check it on the toilet, or waiting at DMV.  If I was in a rather boring meeting I would peruse the shuffled advertisements, friends post, and things my friends thought to share.

Now there are your real friends and everyone else. Your real friends are formed out of tribulation and refined by fire. As it is with most of my college and military buddies, your lives go in very different directions, however when your together it is like you never left.  There is nothing hard to talk about. In fact it is a rather joyful occasion every time we meet.

Then there are the other friends.  The ones that grew on you from years at a job you never belonged at. There are your drinking buddies from pity parties past. There are the ones that only befriended you because of another friend, gossip mongers, and too many combinations and variables to list.

Then of course there is your family. Now your family gives a little sunshine to Facebook.  You never chose to like these people, but must because they are the only family you have and have likely as I have learned to love them through this life regardless.

One thing I always told myself that was good advice is that Facebook is a platform like a stage.  The audience is everyone you know and they know.  If your not careful with your privacy settings it is out there for the whole world.  So I would not tell a joke on Facebook that I would not tell my Grandmother.

So I became as predictable and comfortable in my post as Mr Rogers.  So this is why I don't use Facebook.  It is like a conversation where you have to wait your turn to speak. It is the wrong place to discuss political issues or religion.  The things that actually really matter.

I am going to post here.  It is not forced on you. You won't wake up in the morning to my new post being pushed to your phone.  Instead you have to look for me.