Sunday, September 30, 2012

Facebook

Facebook is such a strange society. I've been quite active there for several years, most of the time having a love-hate relationship with it.

Then, a few weeks ago, the Lord started telling me that it had become my god. While I didn't worship it in the same sense as I worship the Lord, it had become the place where I went when I wanted to share something, get something off my chest, talk about things...instead of to Him! And as always He gave me confirmation...so over 2 weeks ago I took a hiatus from my wall. I get notifications in my email about people who post to me, and have chosen to respond only to messages, deleting most of the wall posts after a quick scan. (Previously I was compelled to go to FB to respond to every one of them.) I have a couple of Facebook groups, and belong to a few other groups on FB. But it was The Wall that had taken God's place in my life. I continued - and continue - check on the groups and even participate once in a while.

It has been interesting. Where I thought I would miss it all terribly, I haven't missed it at all. I'm talking to my Lord a LOT more now about what's on my mind or in my heart, instead of posting them to my wall. As light social outlets I use Pinterest and Twitter (which I've used for longer than FB), and spend about 10% of the time on those combined than I used to spend on Facebook.

It is interesting to note that this has also been a humbling experience. After not posting to my wall for 2 weeks, only one of my hundreds of FB friends has apparently noticed my absence...at least enough to contact me and ask about it! WOW, and here I thought that there was this terrific mutually important party line going on with my "friends" - but learned that it is so UNimportant, absence isn't even noticed! It is definitely humbling to get evidence of one's insignificance in the lives of others.

Another side note: when I post to twitter or pinterest, or my blogs, these are fed onto FB. I don't have to actually go there and post, so maybe people see these and ignore the source, so don't now I'm not there, it's just an automatic feed? Who knows? All I know is that this experience has been enlightening and freeing...and that I'm once again talking to my Lord, my precious Master and Savior, continually as I go through my days. So whatever is - or isn't - happening on Facebook, and whoever does - or doesn't - know that I'm not really there, really doesn't matter as much as I always thought it did!

Whether or not I start using Facebook as a social outlet and communication tool again remains to be seen. I have no desire to do so at the moment, although I have started skimming my wall to make sure all is well with my friends once a day or so, and have even clicked a couple of Like buttons. At the moment I don't really think about it too much, and when I do I'm ambivalent about it all, and I certainly don't feel it drawing me back. So, who knows?

Meanwhile I relax happily with Pinterest, and communicate via my blogs and twitter and occasionally email, and enjoy so much more time with God. Life is back in balance.