(Un)Sustainable?
One of my best friends quit facebook less than two weeks ago, and recently commented (to me) that she felt as if she had not seen various friends and family members in ages, as she is no longer privy to the minute detail of their daily lives (via wall posts and newsfeeds). I found this prospect both enticing and nostalgic - to use actual face-to-face interactions (with the ability to see, hear, smell, and rarely but occasionally touch) as the primary means to exchange non- and/or semi-valuable information between people, but information nonetheless. Now I (kinda) wanna quit facebook, too, but then no one would read my blog (and I've already lost my most committed "commenter"), and I'd be without emergency baking instructions (fyi, the 1% milk worked out great), and I'd also be the last person to find out about breakups and makeups, new relationships and unrequited loves, marathon completions and graduate school rejections, recipe tips and newborn baby announcements, workout regimes, impromptu trips around the world, mechanical problems, online dating problems, breast-feeding problems, solutions, anecdotes, shout-outs, cry-outs, cries for help, for joy, for frustration. We are a culture driven by instant gratification and the need to know immediately/yesterday/tomorrow, and yet so much mystery is lost in always knowing and never wondering, guessing or longing for. Enjoy!
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comment on behalf of Stormy521, whose computer won't work: "People quit Facebook-or never even join-for various reasons. You mentioned quite a few reasons for staying on. Perhaps there is a way to remain active without writing. I am not on Facebook myself, although I have an account, and often wonder what I've lost by that."
ReplyDeleteLike the article mentions, one of the best things about having quit the monotony that had once become the Facebook feed... was the refreshing surge of my independence all over again. I now go places for myself and for myself alone, and not for others to "comment on and like." Quitting Facebook helped me realize who exactly those people are that I legitimately miss in my real life. (Like the writer of this blog.) Having lived on Facebook for so many years ("Can you tell me how to get... how to get to Facebook Street?") my brain felt absolutely filled to its capacity with anecdotal information that exhausted me beyond belief. And I'm not just talking about the exhaustion of watching (and watching) a revolving door spin (and spin) with breaking updates. Because with that door came the exhaustion of having to process those updates, feeling forced to think about hundreds upon hundreds of extraneous people. Do we really need to be one of the first to know something? Why? It was the pace of the Facebook life that got to me. The constant state of rushing about and staying abreast and checking in and always feeling like "Did I miss something? Did I miss something?" (Please. I'm still going through it with Twitter.) Breaking up with Facebook resuscitated the relationship I used to have with just myself. And that's enough of a news feed to last a lifetime.
ReplyDeleteInteresting... I still like it even though I use it less these days.. I enjoy scanning the updates whenever I get a chance and sharing my pics or some piece of info every now and then.. but I never feel like I have to keep up.. Who knows where all of this will lead.. one day we may not even remember that we used it as much as we do now...
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