“Did you see what so and so posted on Facebook?” is the beginning of many conversations I have with my family and I have to remind them, “No, I’m not on Facebook right now,” and then they tell me about so and so’s baby/wedding/cat video and try to encourage me to get back on FB. Besides the obvious reasons for deactivating my FB: I waste too much time, it’s full of drama, and to have privacy, the main reason is that it wasn’t doing anything for me to improve my life. I was trying to impress people that I hardly knew and getting jealous about what other people were doing, it was a cycle that didn’t make me feel good about myself. I stopped using FB in January, it was an easy decision and I honestly don’t miss it at all. As for the highlights on FB, the exciting things like weddings and new babies, I’m not really missing them. I do feel a bit out of the loop, but if I’m not someone they think to tell personally, then I probably don’t know them well enough to need to know.
(Photo credit: My cousin Damon Fairchild)
I have been able to do a lot this year with out feeling the need to impress anyone. I travelled to England for a month, visited family in Hawaii and didn’t tell the world I was there. Only the people who I saw in person before leaving knew I was traveling. They were amazing trips, and even more special because I wasn’t worried about taking amazing pictures or thinking of clever things to say to show off the great time I was having. Instead I was able to live in the moment and not worry about anything else.
This new world of social media gives us information about almost anyone with just a few key strokes. I dream about a lot of things. Starting a business. Falling in love. Having a baby. And I am afraid that they are a bit tainted by social media sites. When I interview for a job, or meet the person I am going to marry I want to do it old school. I want to tell them my story. Create a first impression that they didn’t scroll through.
How is blogging any different? I am not sure yet. I guess that is why I haven’t posted anything in almost a year. I just couldn’t think of anything to say. My hopes for my blog aren’t to show off my life to anyone else. My hope is that it will become a place to interact with other people and to be able to share stories and experiences. To just tell it like it is.
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