On Facebook, you see frequent "goodbye" posts, then the person appears again slowly. What is it about Facebook that is so compelling?
Let's start with me. What do I like about Facebook?
1. You have "friends" without any real effort. Went to high school together? Friends. Joined a mom's group that met half a dozen times then flopped? Friends. I can spend all day with my kids and still have friends. In real life, you need to call and see each other.
2. Someone cares about my daily tasks, feelings, and emotions. And if they don't? They scroll right on by.
3. Likewise with photos. I now have something to do with my really cute digital images I am never going to print.
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| Cute, huh? Maybe I should post it to Facebook. |
4. I actually find scrolling through statuses relaxing and a decent source of news (don't judge me). I click through and read some interesting stories and blog posts. Some people are funny, too.
5. When I first got an account, I found it really neat to find all of the people I had connected with in the past, then lost. It's also fun to find some who you know the same as someone else but not through the same thing.
6. Birthdays! The first few were cool. Now I have stopped wishing everyone Happy Birthday and feel bad when I selectively post.
7. Life events. This is my actual favorite. I love reading about pregnancies, babies, marriages, moves, deaths, new jobs, etc. This was what made Facebook so interesting when I first joined.
That being said, what don't I like about Facebook? Why am I quitting, and why do people post they are quitting all the time?
1. It is organized funny and keeps choosing what to show me by what it thinks I want. So I scroll and click on what is interesting then an hour goes by with me having done nothing but read about someone's sandwich or kid's tooth and some blog posts or news articles.
2. Did I say an hour? Yes. Which keeps me awake at night when I should be sleeping or reading a book. Though it could take longer if I wasn't tired.
3. It is tempting to try to "keep up" on Facebook, and then you check it multiple times per day. It doesn't take as long in the evening, but you are constantly on your phone or tablet. Hate it.
4. Really? Do you love your life/ girlfriend/ baby/ job/ lunch/ dog every day? Even when you get spit-up on? 'Cuz that's what it sounds like to me.
5. I spend my "friend energy" on 300-something people who slightly care instead of using it on the 10 or so who actually care. I could (and should) write actual emails back to people with sentences and information and make actual phone calls to people who want to talk to me. If I have limited resources (in this case it is energy after being with the kids all day, getting a workout in, keeping the house and bills and animals in order, and talking to my husband- oh, and bookkeeping part time), why should I be using it reading snippets of information about people who I may or may not recognize on the street?
Which brings me to the blog.
That was the other half of the "snippets of information" bit. I read other blogs and have learned a lot and tried a lot but it's really just snippets and blogs are nice because you get to know the writer. But not too much. And not too deeply. And for goodness sake, not in real life.
My blog has stayed steady at around 150 hits per day for a while now. I have a few posts that get most of the action, and I think the rest must be people I know checking in on me. Again, we are skipping the actual interaction in favor of one through the computer.
I started the blog as a way to keep track of sewing projects and links to patterns and sewing blogs that were useful to me.
As my older son (who will be 6 this summer) got older, I have been doing less sewing. He started napping less, and staying the same size for longer. We have plenty of stuff. I don't need to sew anything else except a dozen pairs of pants twice per year (mostly).
So I started blogging about other things. It was a nice place to post pictures and get into a detailed description. I added garden posts and food posts. I started writing for the local mom's newsletter (it's on real paper and comes in the mail every month) and I would post those on the blog so I wouldn't lose them.
And, like sewing projects, I am out of stuff to share. My kids are aging out if this and it is time for me to spend my free time elsewhere.
Maybe I should pick up sewing.
+++++ NOTE: I WROTE THIS IN MARCH, AND HAVE DECIDED NOT TO QUIT EITHER-- BUT IT IS A NICE ESSAY I WOULD LIKE TO SHARE ++++++++
+++++ NOTE: I WROTE THIS IN MARCH, AND HAVE DECIDED NOT TO QUIT EITHER-- BUT IT IS A NICE ESSAY I WOULD LIKE TO SHARE ++++++++
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