Down with Facebook!

Here I am again. Fighting the social media addiction that plagues so many of us these days. Post this and # that. Its’ all just an effort for us to build a life that we don’t live. It’s a collection of unattainable goals and bullshit expectations. I’m over it, and frankly it’s not been a difficult thing to quit.

I was never a Twitter junkie or Instagram fan, but I could Facebook like a boss! I thought I was so hip with my commentaries about local news articles, my funny memes, and the constantly updated list of my accomplishments. I had something like 250 friends even though I claimed to be someone who only friended my “real” friends. Right. Because I have 250 “real friends.” Who was I kidding?!?!

I think what made me decide to quit was the realization that it didn’t make me feel good anymore. When I was in school it was a lovely distraction to a stressful existence, but when it was time for me to snap out of my education fog I could see that Facebook was adding absolutely nothing positive to my life. Sure, my comments would say nice things like, “good for you” and “oh, your baby is so cute” but if I can be totally honest what I was really thinking was “really, you’re proud of THAT” and “your kid looks like a failed science experiment!” I don’t care about the pseudo-life of my pseudo-friends and trying to match them 1-for-1 on the accomplishments and positive notions all day is exhausting. The people who are my true friends call me, text me, or come over. I know when something good happens in their life, and when something not so good happens in their life. I don’t need Facebook to inform me. THEY inform me. We have a real life, honest to goodness relationship, no hashtag required and I prefer it that way.

I wondered at first if I was missing out on anything. Maybe I had unknowingly disconnected from someone who was important to me, or maybe I would miss the “social interaction.” What I’ve found is that I don’t miss anything about Facebook and I am really enjoying the time that I spend with my friends. Now, if I could just get them to talk about something other than what they saw on Facebook…