Facebreak

Perhaps you've noticed and perhaps not that I'm no longer on Facebook. I thought I owed an explanation to those who might come by this blog seeking one out.

Without getting too personal, I realized that, for whatever reason, the things that I post on Facebook paint inaccurate pictures of who I am to people. The strange thing is that there seem to be different specific pictures to different people. For example, some people have said, "Sarah, you seem to only post negative things on Facebook. I'm worried about you." Then there's, "Why do you only post pictures of things you want or talk about what you 'need' on Facebook? It makes you sound pretty ungrateful." On a brighter note, I've gotten many, "I love reading your updates! You are so funny!" comments as well.

Funnily enough, the fact that there ARE these three "categories" and more disproves all of the "how come ALL you post is (fill in the blank)?" concerns, but because of people's various sensitivities to certain kinds of posts and my desire to not be viewed as a Debbie Downer or discontent, I've decided to step out for the time being.

But that's not the only reason.

Right now, I don't have a job, and since I'm fairly new to this city, I don't have many geographically-near, in-the-flesh friends. As a result, I was spending WAY too much time on Facebook, sharing things I wouldn't necessarily feel a need to share if I had "real-life" people to talk to about them, letting silly little things bother me when I shouldn't have given them a second thought, etc. Yes, Facebook is wonderful for keeping in touch with family and friends, but I am hoping that this will challenge me (and those people as well) to pick up the phone a bit more often.

My sister and I were talking today about how the longer the world goes on, the more people seem to think that certain things can be substituted - in this case, Facebook communication for real conversation, affection, etc. I want to do what I can to stop this in its tracks, at least in my life. I do not think Facebook is bad, but I also do not think money or Cap'n Crunch is bad. It's just the abuse of it that leads down a road that would be best not to travel. (I need to remind myself of that daily, especially when it comes to Cap'n Crunch.)

Finally, my hope is that people will still stop by my blog to see what's going on with me. I am still on Twitter but like to keep a much tighter circle there than I did on Facebook, and I will still read my "must-read" blogs on a daily basis ;) I hope that we can keep in touch there.

Love,

Sarah